2021 Distinguished Service Award
This award is given to recognize outstanding contributions and extreme level of effort and service to the operation, effectiveness, and good reputation of the Society.
The recipient of this year’s award is:
Titti Owman, R.N.(R)(CT)(MR)FSMRT
Titti Owman registered as a radiological technologist/nurse in December 1979, and in January 1980, she started to work at the Department of Radiology in Lund. In 1981, she became involved in a clinical trial of the first non-iodine contrast agent and has since been involved in many different research projects. Titti is now serving on the Lund University’s clinical MRI research committee. In 1983, she went on to become involved in the very first NMR imaging attempts in Scandinavia at the Department of Radiation Physics at Lund University.
Currently Titti is a research coordinator/lecturer at the Center for Imaging and Physiology at Lund University Hospital in Sweden. Since 1986, when the first clinical MRI scanner was installed in Lund, she has been working in clinical practice, research-related work, as well as MRI safety. Titti is responsible for MRI safety education and routines to all staff in the medical imaging center as well as other clinics and hospitals. She is very much involved in organizing and planning various MRI research projects, mainly in the field of neuroradiology, and she is actively taking part in several of them.
From 1988-1989, she worked for the Fonar Corporation in New York as an application specialist travelling in Europe and USA. From 1991-1993, she worked as assistant manager and helped to start up one of Sweden’s first private MRI clinics where she did administrative work as well as clinical practice. Titti is also a founding member and is still active in the Lund School of MRI. She is responsible for organizing courses and lecturing for many different professional groups in the hospital and at the university. She has held the position of course director for MRI education for technologists at the university since 1995. Additionally, she has been engaged by the Swedish Society of Neuroradiology to plan and organize 10 courses in neuroradiology and spinal imaging in Cyprus, Tenerife, and Mallorca since 2002. In 2002, she was involved in planning, organizing and starting up the first 3T MRI scanner in Scandinavia. In the spring of 2008, she was speaker and co-organizer of the SMRT’s first meeting in Scandinavia, held in Aarhus, Denmark. She has been co-author on scientific papers and invited speaker on many occasions. In 2003, 2004, 2009, and 2016, she was an invited lecturer at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Austria. During the fall of 2013, she was involved in starting an advanced course for MR radiographers, the first of its kind in Sweden. She is also an active member of the Swedish National board for Contrast Agents, MR Section.
Between 2009 and 2012, she served as a member of the SMRT Policy Board and chairman for the Global Relations Committee. At present, she is a member of several other SMRT committees. She served as expert reviewer for the SMRT Home Studies in 2010 and 2014 and was an active member of the local organising committee for the yearly ISMRM meeting in Stockholm in 2010. She was also active in the process of creating the ISMRM/SMRT Nordic Chapter that was founded in 2012. In 2015, she received the SMRT Fellow of Section Award. Titti served also as the SMRT President 2017-2018.
In an effort to be able to keep up with what’s going on in the fast world of MRI, she is a frequent visitor to MRI meetings and other national and international MR sites.