The ACR Resident and Fellow Section

RPS Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: May 11, 2004
Hilton Washington
Washington, DC

Member Participants
Kay Lozano, M.D.
Jesse Davila, M.D.
Sanjay K. Shetty, M.D.
Gregory Galdino, M.D.
Joshua L. Rosebrook, M.D.
Tara Lawrimore, M.D.
Aradhana Venkatesan , M.D.

ACR Staff
Kelly Foster
Trina Madison

Introduction
The meeting was convened at 5:45 pm.
2004 Elected RFS Officers
Chair: Jessie Davila, M.D. (Mayo)
Vice Chair: Sanjay Shetty, M.D. (MGH)
Secretary: Greg Galdino, M.D. (UCSF)
AMA: Tara Lawrimore (MGH)
A3CR2: Aradhana Venkatesan (MGH)

JACR
The committee discussed several issues pertaining to the JACR Publication.
Articles:

The article on MR Education Survey (Wald C, et al) has been published in the latest JACR May 2004, 1(5)
Dr. Lozano proposed writing an article for the JACR entitled "Voice of Residents in the ACR", which will discuss the purpose of the RFS of the ACR and include discussion on the leadership conference led by Richard B. Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Lozano will base her discussion on a list composed during that session outlining the importance of the RFS perspective. Dr. Lozano will begin the first draft of this article.
Dr. Galdino is scheduled to submit an article for the Resident's column in August 2004. The topic will be summary of the 2004 RFS ACR conference focusing on RFS highlights.
A resident at MGH will submit an article for the column this month to fill a vacant slot in the schedule for July.
Dr. Galdino will compose a summary of the 2004 RFS ACR meeting that will be distributed to all attendees, as was last year. Dr. Galdino asked that any Executive

Council (EC) members that have notes which might be helpful for the summary to email or mail them to him.

The RFS e-Newsletter will summarize the 2004 ACR meeting and contain links to the summary online.
Address change forms in the JACR were discussed. The EC discussed options and concluded that a tear out form in addition to an e-form are the best options. These suggestions will be forwarded to Nancy Cook (Public Relations).
Dr. Shetty and Dr. Galdino will submit an article for the Resident's Column on State Chapter's Role in the ACR and RFS.
Dr. Galdino will submit an article (already written) to the JACR entitled "The Digital CV".
Dr. Bruce Hillman, editor of JACR, is looking for other residents to submit articles to the column. The EC discussed providing a list of topics for interested residents that have expressed an interest.
Dr. Hillman's email is bjh8a@virginia.edu .

2004 ACR RPS Meeting Review
The committee discussed several issues pertaining to the 2004 ACR RFS Annual Meeting. Several suggestions regarding the 2005 Annual Meeting were made:
Prior to Meeting:

The ACR Primer e-mail, which highlighted issues of concern to residents and was sent to participants before the meeting this year, was useful and should be continued.

At the meeting:

Welcome Reception: The EC felt that the presentation by Dr. Gunderman was awkward in a reception setting. It was concluded that we will not have Dr. Gunderman speak next year at Saturday's reception. Dr. Davila will provide a short introduction and welcome statement. Kelly Foster suggested that the EC avoid AV equipment if possible due to the expense. Certificates of Recognition to RFS leadership will be distributed at next year's welcome reception.
Saturday Introduction Lunch: Dr's Davila and Galdino felt that the room was too small, especially since next year's attendance may be larger. The individual presentations by Dr's Shetty, Rosebrook, and Galdino were thought to be very helpful, however there was concern that it may be too much information initially. William Thorwarth, M.D. gave the ACR member address. The EC expressed concern that the presentation was too broad for the introduction and that the address should focus on an issue that may not be addressed at another time (e.g. visit to Capitol Hill). The possibility of not having an ACR member give an address versus moving it to another time was also discussed. No final decision was reached and it will be discussed when planning next year's meeting.
The Leadership Seminar with Richard B. Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D. was again considered a success. It was felt that the second part of Dr. Gunderman's seminar seemed to disrupt the momentum of the discussion groups and that perhaps next year we will avoid dividing the leadership seminar or shorten the program. The EC was impressed with how Dr. Gunderman incorporated issues that were discussed at dinner Friday May 7 on such short notice into his seminar, and it was suggested that he have more exposure to the EC prior to next 'years meeting to as to again facilitate this interaction, possibly through having a conference call between the EC and Dr. Gunderman, or scheduling a dinner the Friday prior to the 2005 ACR meeting.
Physician Liaison /Faculty Advisor: The EC unanimously voted to invite Richard B. Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D. to act in this role. Dr. Davila will write a letter inviting Dr. Gunderman to act as the RFS advisor.
Dr. Shetty suggested that the open discussion session time was limited and that next year's meeting should aim to allow more time for open discussion. This was felt to be valuable at the 2003 meeting, as the call issue primarily arose from this forum. Dr. Lozano raised concern that if additional time was assigned to open discussion and discussion was limited, we might run the risk of having additional time to fill and that a facilitated discussion might be necessary.
The possibility of expanding RFS discussion time at next year's meeting was considered, possibly to take place on Saturday afternoon concurrently with the Categorical Course. Given this year's topic of Body MRI, this was felt not to be warranted. Dr. Galdino suggested breaking the RFS session into two days, Sat, Sun 11A-5P. This would allow most residents to attend their state caucuses on Sunday morning. This will be discussed further when the topic of the Categorical Course is selected.
Discussion Topics (Sun AM): The EC liked the format of having designated topics and having attendees choose a topic to discuss. In addition, having a speaker from each table present results was felt to be very worthwhile and encouraged attendee participation. Dr. Lawrimore felt that providing scenarios facilitated discussion. The EC agreed this was very beneficial and should be continued. It was suggested that for next year's meeting, Sunday afternoon should be used to identify an issue(s) for the next EC address during their tenure.
ACR member lunch: EC felt this was a success and we will not change anything during this event. The possibility of moving it to a larger room was suggested since the room was at capacity and a larger attendance may be expected next year.
Resolution Discussion: The discussion of Council Resolutions at the RFS Caucus should continue. Having four members of the EC paired up with the reference committee delegates to review, present, and moderate discussion about those resolutions important to residents was felt to work well. It was suggested that since resolutions come out in March before the meeting (earlier at next meeting given the April dates), the reference committee members and the EC should converse again prior to the meeting. Dr. Galdino suggested that prior to the 2005 meeting, the conference call should have the reference committee resident members join the call after discussion of other issues.
Active participation and increased visibility of the RFS at the Annual Meeting was a positive development that should be encouraged.
Monday (AM): Elections and additional discussion on resolutions went very smoothly and much was accomplished in a very short time.
The EC will strive to identify RFS attendees who are interested in getting involved in committees. Ann Rosser (ACR staff) is the contact person for potential resident positions. The interest forms collected at the meeting may be an importance source of identifying interested individuals.
It was suggested that during next year's meeting, photographs be taken of the attendees for the web site at the start of the RFS session. In addition, contact information for attendees (including hotel contact information) should be collected and distributed to all attendees to facilitate communication.

MRI Education
The Council Steering Committee plan is currently not working on this. However, several contacts were mentioned that will be important on seeing the project come to fruition.

Martha Maniero, M.D. is the resource from the Academic Program Directors in Radiology (APDR) and is working with the EC regarding MR education.
Don Mitchell, M.D. MRI resource
Larry Davis, M.D. Education Commission Chair
Barry Pressman, M.D. (Chair), Debra Dyer, M.D., (Faculty), Greg Galdino, M.D.(resident), Communications Commission. The Commission has proposed a plan for eLearning. Dr. Galdino suggested to Dr. Pressman that MR education should be a first priority for the commission regarding resident education. Dr. Pressman agreed and pledged support from the commission regarding web services, etc. However, he raised concern regarding content. Dr. Galdino suggested that the EC develop a plan regarding acquisition and presentation of MRI content

Interest Forms
into a final plan. This plan will then be forwarded to Dr. Dyer for her comments and then presented to the Communications Commission for action.

Dr. Davila will organize a conference call regarding MRI education 1 week following boards in June.
Interest forms were collected at the meeting and will be compiled by Kelly Foster.
The EC will review the results and discuss suggestions from these input forms during the next meeting.
Follow-up contacts will be identified once the data is complied.

Plan for upcoming year The EC identified chapter development and maintenance as a top priority for the upcoming year. In addition, survey topics were also discussed.

MRI education remains a top priority (see above) and to the EC pledged to work toward developing a final product.
Survey topics: The EC will encourage RFS members to participate in the conducting of surveys, but will maintain control over data presentation and publication.
"Impact of Turf Battles on Resident Education". Dr. Venkatesan as the A3CR2 representative will oversee this potential topic and will work on developing an outline for this survey.
Fellowship Match. The EC questioned the success of the match and the acceptance by residents. Dr. Shetty proposed to conduct this survey by contacting all third years following the match. The survey will be electronic a link to E-news may direct participants to the survey. Dr. Shetty hoped to have an outline of the survey by mid summer. It was discussed that this data should be presented to A3CR2, APDR, and SCARD.
Chapter Development: See Below under membership.
Communication: Development of a List Serve to facilitate communication.
ABR: Dr. Lozano proposed writing a letter to the ABR regarding recent board fee increases, in particular to ask the ABR to provide advance notice to residents of fee increases. The next E-News will contain a description of Dr. Galdino's discussion with Dr. Hattery regarding this issue.
Workforce Shortage: The EC questioned whether this is a myth or continue to be a true shortage. It was suggested that this could potentially be a topic of a JACR article, but that the EC should continue to stay on top of any information regarding this issue and monitor the situation.

Membership
In keeping with the goals of chapter development and maintenance, the EC focused on several issues to encourage increased resident participation at the state and national level.

State Funding Increases: During the ACR meeting, it was opening discussed by the Missouri representative that Missouri sponsored 5 resident representatives to the ACR meeting, one from each program. William Bradley, M.D., Chairman UCSD acknowledged the Missouri contingency and pledged to financially support one resident from his program to attend the 2005 ACR meeting. In addition, he challenged all of the other California Program Directors to follow his lead. Dr. Lozano acknowledged these state developments during her address to the membership.
Other funding: The EC suggested other sources of possible funding for resident support such as industry sources and the development of a foundation by alumni within a program or state chapter. The EC concluded that funding should remain on a state level. However, the RFS may desire to petition program chairman/directors through a formal letter to bring attention to this trend and encourage resident participation.
Dr. Rosebrook suggested the forming of a subcommittee on membership to assist states without resident chapters in development. Dr. Galdino will assist Dr. Rosebrook in forming this committee. Ajay Sood, M.D. (NJ) and Greg Russo, M.D. (CT) were also suggested as potential members.
Dr. Shetty commented that having tools available for RFS members to present at their respective institutions to increase state membership participation would be advantageous. Dr. Shetty will work on presentations to eventually place on the ACR RFS web site.
Dr. Galdino suggested that one goal, albeit lofty, is to identify a single representative at every program as our "ACR rep" and contact to facilitate communication and disseminate information.
Dr. Galdino will work on a document providing web site addresses of resident state chapters and individuals that RFS members may contact as sources of information in starting state chapters.

Young Physician Committee
The RFS currently functions under the Young Physicians Committee, of which Jamie Urso, M.D. is the chair.

The EC questioned the goals of the Young Physician Committee besides recruitment and membership.
Dr's Davila and Shetty's role on this committee were also discussed without a definitive conclusion.

Reference Committees
The participation of residents on reference committees was once again felt to be extremely helpful by both RFS and ACR members.

The EC will draft a letter to the Executive Director and President of the ACR commenting on resident inclusion on reference committees and encouraging continued resident participation at next year's meeting.
The EC also commented on resident inclusion in Task Forces. Dr. Lozano noted that the product of Task Forces was typically the drafting of a white paper.

AFIP
The video recently produced by the ACR and featuring Dr. Kay Lozano and Dr. Borgstede was presented once thus far at the most recent AFIP.

The EC questioned the effectiveness of the video.
It was estimated that 5 people from AFIP attended this year's 2004 ACR meeting.
Dr. Shetty will seek to identify residents who will be attending each session of AFIP to speak at the beginning of the opening session prior to the showing of the video. This is intended to place a real face to the RFS, answer any questions, and encourage participation in the RFS. The 2005 ACR meeting is scheduled for April 9-13th, 2005.

Howard Program
Howard Program recently became unaccredited financially and the residents in their program are now unable to site for the boards.

The EC questioned what options are available to residents after loss of accreditation and how other specialties dealt with this issue. Does an organization act as a consultant for these residents? Is this a potential role for the ACR?
Two potential sources of information in the RRC
Carol Rumack (member of RRC)
Judith Armbruster (RRC Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology Programs).

Other issues

RSNA 2004: The Ad Hoc meeting of the EC was felt to be successful. In addition, some EC members also on committees were able to attend these meetings. Kelly Foster and the EC will draft a letter to program directors asking their support/sponsorship for EC members to attend RSNA.
Dr. Shetty will work with Dr. Galdino for the next RFS e-Newsletter.

Next Meeting
The committee would like to meet via conference call end of June, early July 8-9PM. Conference call regarding MRI education to be scheduled June 2004 following oral boards.

Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned 7:30PM.