This  first  official congress devoted to Paediatric Radiology was held in Sandton, Johannesburg, on 9 – 11 November 2012, which incorporated the third ISMRM Global Outreach Program to South Africa.

The stellar International Faculty  of ISMRM members consisted of Professors James Barkovich(UCSF, USA)Pia Sundgren (Lund, Sweden),Diego Jaramillo and Edward Lee (Boston,USA).They worked tirelessly to inspire the audience of predominantly general radiologists. They were supported by several local paediatric radiologists; Tracy Kilborn, Savvas Andronikou, Nicky Wieselthaler, Richard Pitcher and Jaishree Naidoo to add some local experience.

The lectures covered Neuroradiology, Thoracic and Musculoskeletal Imaging giving insight and guidelines into the management of both common and challenging conditions in these areas in the paediatric patient with a strong emphasis on the use of MRI in this radiosensitive group. Basic MRI applications, appearances and sequences were stressed as well as the use and indications for more advanced techniques such as Epilepsy Imaging  at 7T.

In addition to the didactic lectures the international faculty treated the audience to a case-based interactive learning session. The conference concluded with lectures on new horizons in paediatric imaging with specific reference to the future applications that MRI will provide in brain and lung imaging.

A highlight of the academic was the oral paper presentations for the RSSA Travel Award of $5,000.00 which is annually awarded for the best scientific paper by a resident or radiologist less than 5 years qualified. The ISMRM  faculty were the adjudicators. The winner was Dr Tanyia Pillay,from Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Cape Town; for the paper "Assessment of the accuracyof MRI in predicting operability and tumour staging in Wilms' tumour (Nephroblastoma) when correlated with surgical findings and histopathology".  The international judges also gave very useful feedback and constructive criticism with respect to research methodology and the "do and don't" of scientific oral  presentations.

The audience of 350 delegates (the largest in South African Radiology history), pronounced the congress a resounding success. The resounding success of the congress can be directly attributed to the high quality and international reputation of the ISMRM faculty. The financial support received from the ISMRM  and the international sponsors, Siemens, Philips and GE , who support the GOP , were widely acknowledged.

Pia Sundgren	James Barkovich
Break time!	Edward Lee
Diego Jaramillo	James Barkovich & Attendees
Break time!