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New frontiers in diagnostic imaging
European Journal of Radiology 56 (2005) 129
Editorial
New frontiers in diagnostic imaging As the guest-editor of this current issue of EJR entitled “New frontiers in diagnostic imaging”, I have the honour and pleasure of writing this editorial thanks to Professor Herwig Imhof, my former boss in Vienna, who gave me the opportunity to invite various Finnish specialists to write review articles, who can partly be seen as pioneers in their fields. At the same time, I would also like to express my thanks to the Finnish Radiological community, who hosted me for the last couple of years. Having started my training in Vienna in the last millennium at a time, when thorough knowledge of plain film temporal bone anatomy was still being taught and relied on as an expression of Vienna’s heritage from A. Sch¨uller, E.G. Mayer and G. Canigiani and when I have attended educational courses in Neuss, Germany, where one of the teachers (D. Bartelt, Hamburg) repeatedly stressed the point that plain film anatomy is the key issue to be able to perceive any pathology (“CT is as easy as Mickey mouse world”), the outlook on imaging nowadays has considerably shifted. Today, not many people dedicate themselves to laborious analysis of plain film anatomy and it is not the residents’ favourite subject, who are encouraged to indulge themselves at an early stage in comparison of ultrasound contrast agents, radiation protection issues in multidetector CT, have their heads buzzing with brand-new names of the latest MRsequences and are struggling to keep up with their latest PACS upgrade. Finland, the country on the northeastern edge of Europe, which has again been in the headlines for its good results in the PISA study concerning education, is the ideal platform for new frontiers in diagnostic imaging. Students are encouraged to show initiative and find an environment that catalysis interdisciplinary research also linked with basic sciences. At the same time, the country and its people have committed themselves to a level of high-tech facilities, which also eases the development of new diagnostic possibilities, which will be much needed in the future, especially, when not all areas of diagnostic radiology are looked well after by radiologists themselves, but taken over by clinicians. Their advantage is their thorough knowledge of the clinical situation and the impact on a study’s results on therapeutic management, but our
0720-048X/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ejrad.2005.03.015
strength is the combined awareness of the value and pitfalls of different imaging modalities. Only through continuous education can we try to keep ahead of our clinical colleagues, in order to offer them some benefit from co-operating with and relying on us. See for yourself, what the new frontiers have to offer, when turning the pages in this issue. Some might be just of interest to know about, but quite a few might also penetrate into daily routine in specialised centres. Sincerely thanking all the authors and co-authors for their contribution, I am confident to speak in their behalf, that each of us would welcome you on a visit in Finland, be it that you would like to witness midnight sun, when inspecting one of their labs or be it, that you would rather prefer to come across Father Christmas (as a good Protestant: married in Finland) and Rudy, his reindeer on a winter visit, while you are aiming at broadening your radiological horizon.
Soraya Robinson ∗ Department of Radiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Haartmaninkatu 4, PO Box 340 FIN-00029 HUS Helsinki, Finland ∗ Tel.: +358 50427 1882; fax: +358 9471 71345 E-mail address: [email protected] 2 March 2005
Editorial
New frontiers in diagnostic imaging As the guest-editor of this current issue of EJR entitled “New frontiers in diagnostic imaging”, I have the honour and pleasure of writing this editorial thanks to Professor Herwig Imhof, my former boss in Vienna, who gave me the opportunity to invite various Finnish specialists to write review articles, who can partly be seen as pioneers in their fields. At the same time, I would also like to express my thanks to the Finnish Radiological community, who hosted me for the last couple of years. Having started my training in Vienna in the last millennium at a time, when thorough knowledge of plain film temporal bone anatomy was still being taught and relied on as an expression of Vienna’s heritage from A. Sch¨uller, E.G. Mayer and G. Canigiani and when I have attended educational courses in Neuss, Germany, where one of the teachers (D. Bartelt, Hamburg) repeatedly stressed the point that plain film anatomy is the key issue to be able to perceive any pathology (“CT is as easy as Mickey mouse world”), the outlook on imaging nowadays has considerably shifted. Today, not many people dedicate themselves to laborious analysis of plain film anatomy and it is not the residents’ favourite subject, who are encouraged to indulge themselves at an early stage in comparison of ultrasound contrast agents, radiation protection issues in multidetector CT, have their heads buzzing with brand-new names of the latest MRsequences and are struggling to keep up with their latest PACS upgrade. Finland, the country on the northeastern edge of Europe, which has again been in the headlines for its good results in the PISA study concerning education, is the ideal platform for new frontiers in diagnostic imaging. Students are encouraged to show initiative and find an environment that catalysis interdisciplinary research also linked with basic sciences. At the same time, the country and its people have committed themselves to a level of high-tech facilities, which also eases the development of new diagnostic possibilities, which will be much needed in the future, especially, when not all areas of diagnostic radiology are looked well after by radiologists themselves, but taken over by clinicians. Their advantage is their thorough knowledge of the clinical situation and the impact on a study’s results on therapeutic management, but our
0720-048X/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ejrad.2005.03.015
strength is the combined awareness of the value and pitfalls of different imaging modalities. Only through continuous education can we try to keep ahead of our clinical colleagues, in order to offer them some benefit from co-operating with and relying on us. See for yourself, what the new frontiers have to offer, when turning the pages in this issue. Some might be just of interest to know about, but quite a few might also penetrate into daily routine in specialised centres. Sincerely thanking all the authors and co-authors for their contribution, I am confident to speak in their behalf, that each of us would welcome you on a visit in Finland, be it that you would like to witness midnight sun, when inspecting one of their labs or be it, that you would rather prefer to come across Father Christmas (as a good Protestant: married in Finland) and Rudy, his reindeer on a winter visit, while you are aiming at broadening your radiological horizon.
Soraya Robinson ∗ Department of Radiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Haartmaninkatu 4, PO Box 340 FIN-00029 HUS Helsinki, Finland ∗ Tel.: +358 50427 1882; fax: +358 9471 71345 E-mail address: [email protected] 2 March 2005