Meeting Minutes

Jan. 20, 2005 Executive Committee Meeting

Present: Dr. Edward Melian, Dr. Abraham Dachman, Dr. Carl Kalbhen, Dr. Nandita Guha-Thakurta, Dr. Jay Korach, Dr. Margaret Stull, Dr. John Hibbeln, Dr. Ellen Mendelson, Dr. Edward Michals, Dr. Davide Bova, Dr. Kate Feinstein, Dr. Ruth Ramsey, Dr. Aruna Vade, Dr. Kathleen Ward and Mr. Merle Hedland.

The meeting was called to order at 4:40 PM at The 500 Club of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The minutes from the November 17, 2004 meeting were approved.

RESIDENT SECTION REPORT:
Dr. Guha-Thakurta stated that tonight’s Resident Section will be given by Dr. David Casalino of Northwestern University who will speak on “Body Imaging”. This session will be sponsored by Bracco Diagnostics for $500, and Bracco will be acknowledged during the dinner for their generous contribution.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
The possibility of increasing the Featured Speaker honorarium above the current $500 level was suggested. Members of the Executive Committee will take informal surveys on honoraria being received by their colleagues for speaking at similar functions, and this topic will be readdressed at the next Executive Committee meeting.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORT:
Dr. Dachman gave the list of speakers for tonight’s Breakout Sessions. Dr. David Turner of Rush University will be the Featured Speaker for tonight’s Scientific Session. As occurred in October, the February CRS Meeting will feature five Breakout Sessions, and the Radiation Oncology Session will be held in the Board Room. Dr. Dachman has begun work on the speaker schedule for the 2005-2006 CRS season. Drs. Emanual Kanal and N. Reed Dunnick have agreed to be Featured Speakers. Dr. Kanal will speak on “MRI Safety”. The exact topic of Dr. Dunnick’s lecture has yet to be confirmed but will be on some aspect of genitourinary imaging.

ILLINOIS RADIOLOGY SOCIETY REPORT:
Dr. Mintzer communicated through Mr. Hedland and Dr. Melian a desire to hold an Illinois Radiological Society Meeting and Educational Symposium in March 2006. It was thought that this could coincide with the regularly scheduled March 2006 CRS meeting. This timing would allow a joint IRS/CRS/CIRS meeting to take place prior to the May 2006 ACR meeting. A suggested format would allow the March CRS meeting and dinner to go on as usual, with other lectures and the paper presentations for the Steven M. Pinsky Resident Research Award taking place earlier in the day. The IRS Executive Committee meeting could then be held the following morning. CME will be offered for this meeting, including for the CRS portion. Details and logistics will need to be worked out, and this will be discussed further with Dr. Mintzer prior to the next CRS Executive Committee meeting.

GOLF OUTING REPORT:
The Golf Outing has officially been cancelled for 2005. A notice will be mailed to the CRS membership and also posted on the CRS website. Dr. Karna will be contacted to see if any of the vendors who have generously supported the Golf Outing in the past would be willing to sponsor the CRS in other ways.

SECRETARY/TREASURER REPORT:
The Financial Report for November 1 – December 31, 2004 was reviewed. Income and expense items were as expected.

WEBSITE REPORT:
Potential changes to the CRS website were discussed, including giving sponsors banner ads on the home page. It was suggested that a yearly fee of $5000 may be appropriate for such a presence on the website. Potential sponsors will be contacted to assess level of interest.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT:
The Nominating Committee will be chaired by Dr. Racenstein and will give the Executive Committee a recommended slate of officers for 2005-2006 as soon as possible.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD COMMITTEE:
Dr. Ward will chair this committee, and a candidate for this year’s award will be recommended prior to the February Executive Committee meeting.

OLD BUSINESS:
Offering CME at CRS meetings is feasible and could be granted by the Chicago Medical Society. As CME is planned for the March 2006 combined IRS/CRS meeting, interest will be assessed by level of attendance at that meeting. If CRS attendance is significantly higher for this March 2006 meeting, then CME could become routinely offered at CRS meetings beginning with the 2006-2007 season. This will have effects on meeting sponsorship which will need to be addressed.

NEW BUSINESS:
Dr. Mendelson reported that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is denying reimbursement for breast MRI when ordered for staging purposes (eg, to look for multifocal and/or multicentric disease in patients with recently-diagnosed carcinoma). She would like to convene an ad hoc committee to go to BC/BS with these concerns. It was suggested that this committee should probably include a breast surgeon, radiation oncologist and medical oncologist as well as radiologists with expertise in breast MRI. Drs. Mendelson and Racenstein will investigate this further.

Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:50 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carl Kalbhen, MD
Secretary/Treasurer

Dinner was served to 70 people. Following dinner, a moment of silence was held for Dr. Glen Dobben, a prominent Chicago area neuroradiologist and CRS member who recently passed away. After a short business meeting, Dr. John Hibbeln introduced Dr. David Turner who gave a talk entitled, “Bone Marrow Edema Pattern in MRI: Spectrum of Causes”.

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