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ECR President calls for better working conditions, more training, higher pay - and less administrative work

The 12th annual European Radiology Congress, held in Vienna, received 16,000 visitors from 90 countries.

ECR Congress President Andy Adam

The large percentage of radiologists among them underlines the importance of this congress in Europe, said Professor Christian Herold, Head of Radiology at Vienna General Hospital and President of ECR 2007. But, he added, ‘Rapid development in radiology has led to a lack of radiologists in Europe. Many colleagues move abroad. The US in particular are tempting radiologists with more money and better working conditions.’ We need to go against this trend, as soon as possible, he pointed out. We need to improve working conditions for doctors across Europe, and we not only need to train more doctors, but also relieve them of unnecessary administrative duties to enable more involvement in clinical management, because only those who appreciate the problems of the whole operation are able to work more efficiently within their own, specialist area.

Indeed, the developmental spiral in this field rotates ever faster. The range of radiology is now very broad and increasingly complex, which leads to fragmentation into many different areas of expertise. This year, for example, key medical topics, with daily refresher courses, focused on Staging of Cancer, Radiology of the musculoskeletal system and Radiofrequency-ablation.
Presentations at the five-day congress were again impressive - only four in ten abstracts submitted fulfilled the standards set by the scientific committee.

Among products exhibited by 200 companies, a lot of new technology was launched and, inevitably, information technology (IT) was also a key focus. The EPOS (Electronic Poster System), introduced in 2003, saw further enhancement, in that radiologists can now receive scientific abstracts by e-mail. In addition, a completely digital, advanced training course was also offered to trainee radiologists. This world’s first ‘electronic training’ course makes the ECR more than a congress,’ said Andy Adam, Professor at the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Medical School, University of London. ‘It sets new standards for science and teaching.’

This article was published on 05/01/2006

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