Dear Radiology Colleagues:

I would like to greet you once again and let you know about some major accomplishments that the College has achieved lately:

We have started specific activities within the Certification and Accreditation Program, thus providing the SIRCAI (Sistema Integrado de Radiología para la Certificación y Acreditación en IberoAmérica) with actual operative life. These activities started in the Meeting that took place in Medellín on March 2009. The ENDORSEMENT has been designed to be awarded to congresses and academic activities. Afterwards seminars and congresses will also be awarded the Quality Seal that will guarantee their excellent organization. The ENDORSEMENT should be requested by each organizing society representing each country to the CIR in an official letter. If the organizer is a regional section or independent organization, the letter should be approved by the corresponding society of the country. There are already several congresses that have our ENDORSEMENT for their activities and that therefore benefit from the CIR’s prestige. We are also designating highly acknowledged members of the academic field as coordinators of the SIRCAI program.

The SIRCAI will grow to be the most ambitious of the programs within the CIR for the standardization of credits and acknowledgments obtained in continuous education. It will standardize all the other pre existent systems. It will also generate for the future the possibility of organizing residency exchange programs and maybe even professional exchanges at a global level through the international validation of titles.

A strategic alliance between the PAHO and the department of electronic education of the CIR has been reached through radiologiavirtual.org. The objective is to implement an educational program with no cost by providing radiologists in countries in Central America (REESCAD) the onco-radiology course. This program will award credits that will be valid for the SIRCAI. Through this program we will not only be providing direct, free education to radiologists from the CIR, but also strengthening our cooperation bonds with the PAHO and the WHO, organizations with which we have been working with for some time now.

The CIR is actively working with the WHO and other organizations in the standardization of the radio-protection handbooks worldwide, leading actions that bring experts together towards one of the most important topics of the field these days, always looking after quality and safety for patients.

The work group for the CIR Program, Radiology Magazines, has been formed. Through this program we will integrate the different magazines and editorial committees from America and Spain in order to improve the scientific level of the publications and encourage research.

As you may have noticed, we have integrated the CIR corporative image by unifying the logos and design criteria from de www.cir-radiología.org,  NOT I CIR and  www.radiologiavirtual.org. This way we are able to present ourselves like an actual whole, solid and structured organization. In addition to this, links have been added to these three sites to make it easier for users to navigate from one to the other.

We have started the “Sponsors Program” with Bayer-Schering-Pharma and Hologic, advertising these companies in our web sites and jointly organizing activities. We have also provided our ENDORSEMENT to educational publications promoted by them. Moreover, we maintain our exclusiveness with and continue to extend our gratefulness to General Electric for supporting the activities in radiologiavirtual.org.

The Cardio imaging course has successfully taken place, organized by our electronic education department, with the invaluable cooperation of experienced professors and the massive participation of radiologists. ¡Congratulations to everyone!

As you may appreciate, dear friends, we are still here, working with optimism and commitment towards continuing to make the “CIR spirit” come true: continuously elevating the level of the practice of radiology in American countries and in Spain in order to improve the patients’ and radiologists’ quality of life.

Warm regards.

Rodrigo Restrepo González
CIR President

The 3rd Virtual Congress of Radiology will take place in October 2009 in the Teaching Portal of the Electronic Education Department of the Interamerican College of Radiology, RadiologiaVirtual.org.

This third edition is a continuation of the ones that took place in 2005 and 2007. We hope to repeat and exceed in quantity and quality the excellent results obtained in those previous editions.

For this 3rd Virtual Congress, some organization and presentation changes will be applied. One of them is that every day a different country member of the CIR will present its material as well as professional and social information.

Each day a different country will present the following:

- 2 Multimedia Refresher Courses; 2 interactive Radiological Cases; Historical profile and general characteristics of the country; and 10-20 characteristic photographs of the country

Radiological Community:

As in the case of the past Virtual Congresses, you can now start sending your Clinical Cases and Electronic Posters.

You may send your material NOW!  (use the accesses located above)

Limit Date for the presentation of Interactive Clinical Cases and Electronic Posters: AUGUST 31st, 2009

Address for Electronic Orders:
Journal Editions, Buenos Aires  www.journal.com.ar/avances

The portal of the CIR (Interamerican College of Radiology) is re editing in July 2009 a course on Onco-Radiology, this time with the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Following the success of the Onco-Radiology course, the CIR has decided to re edit it. The aim this time is to direct it specially to radiologists from the RESSCAD (Central American and Dominican Republic Health Area Meeting). To this effect, it relies in the support received from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

The course will virtually take place between July 10th and August 30th. Radiologists from Belice, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama are already participating in this edition. 

The Interamerican College of Radiology (CIR) and the Spanish Ultrasound Society (SEUS) offer 2 scholarships for residents on Imaging Diagnostic from countries members of the CIR. These scholarships will enable them to participate in the IX Residents Course of the Spanish Ultrasound Society that will take place in Gijón between November 5th and 7th, 2009.

They will receive:

• Registration, accommodation, and meal plan for the duration of the course.
• The amount of USS 1,000 for mobility expenses.
• They will also be able to access a rotation in one of the centres selected for this purpose. This rotation will last a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 30 days, during the months of November-December 2009.
• The options will include the Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Madrid, the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, the Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander, the Hospital Donostia in San Sebastián or the Hospital de Basurto in Bilbao.

Personal expenses during the rotation are not included.

Information and subscription of candidates: cir.admin@servimed.com.mx

We invite all the NOT i CIR readers to see directly from this space the monthly informative newsletter: RSNA News which the Radiological Society of North America has kindly offered us.

You will be able to access the most recent issue of the newsletter, as well as the index for previous issues both in the website (html) and PDF file.

Make us arrive your query, comment or suggestion by the following form:

We expect your active participation because all messages are welcome.

For entering de form, please make click here

Thanks for your participations!!