We are pleased to share that the Second Annual Conference of the SER held at AIIMS, New Delhi, was a huge success. Attended by nearly 400 radiologists from all over the globe, it proved a worthy successor to the First Annual Conference at the PGIMER, Chandigarh in 2014.
The venue, AIIMS, New Delhi, with its state-of –the art trauma center, was an obvious and great choice for a conference of this specialty and magnitude. The case discussion by experts in the field from across the world set the tone for the rest of the conference for both the participants and delegates. Professor M.C. Misra, Director AIIMS, expressed his pleasure at the establishment of this Society intended to further the specialty of Emergency Radiology. It was clearly recognized as the need of the hour given the rising demand for trauma services, fuelled by the high incidence of road accidents and the criticality of a timely and accurate diagnosis in an acutely ill patient.
There were some great lectures on musculoskeletal trauma including two by Dr Lee Rogers, Professor Emeritus at both the Northwestern University in Chicago and the Wake Forest University in North Carolina, a pre-eminent Emergency and Trauma Radiologist and the celebrated author of the textbook on Imaging Skeletal Trauma. He delivered his talks in his unique captivating style. I have always enjoyed sessions by the senior accomplished members of Radiology, whose slides and delivery have a lot to teach to both our and the younger generation. While I see the inherent logic and ease of assimilation in standardized reporting and preformatted reports, they often take away from the character and individuality of a seasoned radiologist’s commentary. A special mention here for Dr Shanmuganathan, an authority in trauma radiology, who displayed a great knack for delivering the salient points of imaging in aortic injury and craniocervical junction trauma with great clarity and simplicity.
The session on mass casualty and terror attacks was again very well received by the delegates and faculty. It was really quite interesting to see the stark contrast in the level of emergency and trauma preparedness in India as compared to the west. This insight was very well elucidated with the examples of the cloud burst natural disaster in Leh compared with the Boston marathon bombing. The pictures shared by Col Sreedhar were an eye opener and apprised all of the challenges faced by an often small team with limited resources in such settings.
Another engaging session was a panel discussion on Emergency Radiology which evoked thought and debate from senior academicians in the audience. I highlighted the role of the Society in the development of Emergency Radiology in the country, and Professor Khandelwal undertook to discuss the challenges of setting up specialization in the field. My colleague, Dr Arjun Kalyanpur, shared his tele radiology experience and highlighted its role in the future of emergency radiology.
Some of the other popular sessions were the case discussions by experts. Dr Dinesh Varma, Past President-RANZCR, and an eminent emergency radiologist, gave an in-depth analysis of a case of fracture spine, highlighting how an expert analyzes a fracture starting from the findings, deriving the mechanism and implications of the injury. I was deeply impressed and felt truly encouraged to do better on my next spine fracture in the worklist. My close friend and an eminent paediatric radiologist, Dr Geetika Khanna, did an outstanding job of presenting all her cases, which were discussed to perfection. She graciously agreed to moderate a panel discussion on acute limp in a child, and helped draw valuable insights from the Paediatrics, Paediatric Orthopaedics and Paediatric Radiology experts present.
A group picture of the entire AIIMS team and me was taken at the valedictory function. The meeting was truly a great learning experience from the academic and organization standpoints. I also made many new associations with the younger staff radiologists at AIIMS who had worked tirelessly to make this event a success. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and congratulations to Dr Atin, Dr Shivanand and Dr Manisha for their hard work towards making this a successful event.
Our next event, the third annual conference of the SER is scheduled for Sep 23-25, 2016 in Bangalore, and will be hosted by my colleague, Dr Arjun Kalyanpur, in collaboration with Dr Ramprakash at Vydehi Medical College. Already looking forward to it.
Au-revoir!