Meeting Minutes

Jan. 19, 2006 Executive Committee Meeting

Present: Drs. Abraham Dachman, Carl Kalbhen, Jay Korach, Steven Zangan, Joe Carabetta, Edward Michals, Davide Bova, Leonard Bok, Thomas Anderson, Kate Feinstein, Thomas Grant, Ruth Ramsey, Michael Racenstein, William Small and Aruna Vade.

The meeting was called to order at 4:15 PM at The 500 Club of Rush University Medical Center.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The minutes from the November 16, 2005 meeting were approved.

RESIDENT SECTION REPORT:
Dr. Zangan stated that tonight’s Resident Section speaker will be Dr. Rita Agrawala from Storger Hospital of Cook County who will be giving a presentation on “Emergency Medicine Cases”. Dr. Agrawala’s session has been generously sponsored by Bracco Diagnostics for $500. The number of Resident Delegates from Illinois allowed to attend the annual ACR meeting will increase from three to six beginning with the 2006 meeting in Washington, DC this May. Three of these delegates will come from the CRS. If more CRS residents are interested in attending the ACR meeting, it may be possible to get additional funding for them as well.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
Dr. Dachman was happy to report that some local radiologists did take part in the RSNA’s Career Day Program during the recent Chicago meeting in December. He passed out information regarding a recent United States Pharmacopeia (USP) study that claimed that medication errors in radiology are seven times more harmful than errors in other areas of medicine. The ACR has responded with a strong statement criticizing the study for its poor methodology and failure to provide a context for the scope of the described errors. All were in agreement with the ACR’s reaction and comments. Because of a funding crisis, Stroger Hospital will no longer be able to pay for their residents to attend CRS dinners. The possibility of offering an inexpensive meal option – and subsequently charge the residents less than the standard $50 CRS meeting fee – will be explored in an effort to retain their attendance.

SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT:
Dr. Kalbhen gave the Financial Report for November and December of 2005; revenue and expense items were as expected, with the Society’s finances remaining strong. He also reported that the RSNA has budgeted $1000 for speaker sponsorship for both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 CRS seasons. A request for sponsorship funds for the 2004-05 season has been submitted to the RSNA. The revised By-Laws have been mailed out to the CRS membership (with additional copies available at tonight’s meeting), with voting to take place after tonight’s dinner.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD COMMITTEE REPORT:
The Distinguished Service Award Committee has selected Dr. Gregory Moss to be this year’s recipient. Dr. Moss has had a long and distinguished career in radiology, having been very active in the CRS, ACR and RADPAC, among many other accomplishments. He is also a past-President of the CRS. He has accepted the nomination and wishes to be presented with the award at the April 2006 CRS meeting.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT:
The Nominating Committee is actively working on a recommended slate of officers for the 2006-07 season and will soon report back to the Executive Committee with their selections.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORT:
Dr. Korach gave the list of Breakout Session speakers for tonight’s meeting. Dr. Thomas Grant will moderate for Multimodality, Dr. Matthew Walker for Neuroradiology, Dr. Kate Feinstein for Pediatric Radiology, Dr. Ellen Mendelson for Breast Imaging and Dr. Adam Dickler for Radiation Oncology. Tonight’s Featured Speaker will be Dr. Frank Miller from Northwestern University. Dr. James Provenzale from Duke University has graciously accepted an invitation to be the Featured Speaker for the April 2006 meeting, replacing Dr. Anne Osborn who unfortunately had to cancel. Dr. Provenzale’s lecture topic has not yet been finalized but will likely encompass some aspect of brain MR imaging. Dr. Korach is actively working on the program for the 2006-07 season.

ILLINOIS RADIOLOGICAL SOCIETY REPORT:
Dr. Racenstein reminded everyone about the combined IRS/CRS/CIRS Annual Meeting and Breast Symposium to take place Thursday and Friday, March 16 and 17, 2006 at the Feinberg Pavilion Conference Center at Northwestern University, with the exception of the Thursday evening portion of the program which will take place at the nearby Wyndam Hotel. No CRS functions will take place at Rush University in March.

NEW BUSINESS:
In an effort to further increase resident attendance at CRS meetings, the possibility of altering the meeting schedule to include a Board Review Session following the Featured Speaker presentation was discussed and will be further explored.

Dr. Ramsey reported that she has contacted Mr. Robert Bennett with CMS regarding the possibility of altering Medicare rules to allow the remote monitoring of Medicare patients undergoing imaging. The current regulations require on site patient monitoring. She has not yet heard back from Mr. Bennett.

The CPT code for 2D CT reformations has been cancelled as of January 2006, and radiologists can no longer bill for this service. A code for 3D reformations still exists.

Because of HIPPA rules, patient Social Security numbers can no longer be used as a medical record number.

OLD BUSINESS:
The possibility of offering CME at CRS meetings was again discussed as a way to increase attendance. This will be investigated prior to the next meeting.

Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carl Kalbhen, MD
Secretary/Treasurer

Dinner was served to 69 people. Following dinner, a short business meeting was held. The membership voted on the proposed revisions to the CRS By-Laws, and the revised By-Laws were accepted and will be immediately incorporated. Dr. Jay Korach then introduced Dr. Frank Miller who gave a talk entitled “New Advances in Abdominal MRI”.

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