Paulien Moyaert, Patricia Clement, Rik Achten, Udunna Anazodo

No one would disagree that clinical decisions should be based on the highest quality evidence. But it is simply the case that current medical practice cannot keep up with the available research. However, evidence-based medicine (EBM) does not necessarily have to be time-consuming. Practicing in an evidence-based way no longer means evaluating original research. Instead, it means finding secondary sources that give you a useful, actionable bottom line based on the evidence.In this lecture I’ll take you through the history of EBM, the EBM philosophy and the role of systematic reviews in evidence-based practice and research.

Confidence Raymond

Systematic reviews (SR) and Meta-analysis (MA) provide high-level evidence by means of objective evaluation of all available primary studies. This evidence can influence clinical decision-making,  healthcare policy-making, and research practice. In imaging, studies involving MRI and other imaging modalities are performed using imaging protocols that are not standardized across studies. Hence, methodological rigor and complete reporting are crucial to ensure that SR & MA of imaging studies are based on the highest possible quality. This lecture will outline a step-by-step approach to performing SR and MA from problem formulation and data acquisition to quality appraisal, of studies, statistical analysis and interpretation of evidence.

Matteo Mancini

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Michael Salerno

Matthias van Osch

In this presentation, it will be discussed when it is the right time to publish a White Paper. Timing is dependent on whether experts in the field are willing to join forces and reach consensus, whether real consensus is reached on what the right approach is, when the field is confusing for users and vendors and a white paper would provide the much needed guidance, and when the field has reached some kind of stable level, so that the White paper will not be immediately outdated.

Xavier Golay

White Papers can be a powerful means to establish an MRI method in a particular clinical applications. The writing of such consensus papers is not trivial, and may contain multiple caveats. In this presentation, I will be going through the various steps to establish such a paper, and demonstrate its potential impact.

Maria Fernandez-Seara

The objective of this talk is to introduce and describe the methodology followed to generate the technical recommendations for acquisition, processing, and analysis of renal ASL data in the human kidney. The recommendations were developed employing a seven-stage process: (1) formation of the expert panel; (2) definition of the context of use; (3) literature review; (4) collection and comparison of MRI protocols; (5) consensus generations by an approximate Delphi method; (6) reporting of results in vendor-neutral and vendor-specific terms; (7) on-going review and updating.

Vikas Gulani