Editor's Letter

By Richard H. Wiggins III, MD

Hello American Society of Neuroradiology 2004 Conference Attendees,

Welcome to the 7th Annual ASNR Electronic Learning Center (ELC) Syllabus, and the 42nd Annual ASNR meeting.

This year, Dr. Greg Katzman has graciously allowed me to step up to be the Chief Editor of the ELC Syllabus, and we are pleased to welcome Char Branstetter to the ELC syllabus team, as the Assistant Editor. There are several updated articles and several new ones covering important aspects of Radiology Informatics in the syllabus again this year. These 27 articles include a range of informatics issues, from PDAs to MRI Post-processing techniques.

There are 23 ELC sessions this year, accounting for over 22 hours of educational material during the ASNR 2004 conference! These are presented with 9 lectures, 9 hands-on workshops, and a new addition from Dr. Katzman this year of 5 sessions of open forums, special "Ask-the-experts" sessions, for attendees to ask the ELC staff about medical informatics issues.

The lectures this year will again cover a wide array of issues such as PDAs, scanners, digital teaching files, CD and DVD technology, and digital cameras and camcorders. The ELC hands-on workshops will also cover a wide variety of informatics issues, with sessions on Photoshop, and separate special sessions on Beginners and Advanced PowerPoint and Beginners and Advanced Web site creation.

Fortunately for you, you don't really have to take notes! We have put together this ELC syllabus to accompany the ELC lectures and workshops with original Radiology Informatics articles covering these various issues, and several additional articles, where there wasn't enough time for extra lectures and/or workshops at the conference itself.

I want to thank all those at the ASNR home office for their hard work in putting this outstanding syllabus together for yet another year. Some of the ASNR staff, like Angelo Artemakis, Carolyn Shelby, Lora Tannehill, and Arthur An are incredibly busy before and during the ASNR annual conference to be sure everything goes smoothly. They do an outstanding job every year, and certainly don't get enough credit for all their hard work. Dr. Hervey Segall made an excellent choice when passing the ELC baton to Dr. Greg Katzman, who oversaw the Special Session on Radiology Informatics prior to the 41st ASNR conference in Washington D.C. last year that was very successful. There are also the many ELC staff, writers, supervisor, and reviewers whose names you see on the Syllabus and in the ELC who invest an enormous amount of time and energy that make the ELC so successful every year at the ASNR.

We are very happy with the additional team members to the ELC syllabus and the ELC this year, and are always looking for new members to the team. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the ELC, please let us know. We have the workshops, lectures, article reviewers, supervisors, and many other volunteers that make the ELC great every year. And just like every year, we await your advice on the Syllabus in terms of new articles to add or new issues to address, so please let us know your thoughts. Just drop me a digital line at Richard.Wiggins@hsc.utah.edu.

I certainly hope that you find this syllabus useful in understanding the Radiology Informatics issues that surround us. As computers become more pervasive in our practices and in each step of acquiring, manipulating, storing, transmitting, and interpreting images, it becomes clear that we need to learn how to use them to make our lives and practices more efficient so that they can work for us in the best way possible, before we start working for them.

Happy Computing,

Richard H. Wiggins III, M.D.
Chief Editor, ASNR Electronic Learning Center Syllabus

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