THE PRESIDENT’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE:

The beginning of a new year naturally brings to mind the events of the past year, and those that are yet to unfold in 2011 for the College of Radiology, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (CoR, AMM). It is a time for both reflection and planning for future events.

April 2010 saw the Annual General Meeting of the CoR and the election of the new Council members. The new Council met four times in 2010 - on 7th May, 30th July, 23rd October and 11th December. Many issues, old and new were discussed. These include the following:

• the formation and consolidation of the Subspecialty Interest Groups (SIG) within the CoR

• proposals for seminars and meetings

• proposals for weekend tutorials for College members, in order to widen the scope of academic activities organized by the CoR, and especially targeting junior members

• registration of CoR members with the National Specialist Register (NSR) and other matters relating to the Academy of Medicine (AMM)

• increased overhead costs of running the College

• the Specialist Fee Schedule, and

• CoR representation on the various Ministry of Health and AMM committees

Before the close of 2010 the CoR organized three events. The first was a Lecture by Dr Rethy K Chhem, entitled “The Future of Medical Imaging: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities”. Dr Chhem is the Director of Human Health Division (Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Medical Radiation Physics and Radio-Oncology) of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Division conducts programmes in developing countries in the fields of radiology, nuclear medicine, medical physics, radio-oncology and nuclear sciences/nutrition. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of IAEA/WHO Joint Programme for Cancer Control and represents IAEA on UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). A dinner was held after the lecture attended by Dr Chhem and the CoR members in the audience.

The second event was the IAEA-sponsored Mammography Fellowship and Workshop held from November 29th to December 10th. It was jointly organized by the Malaysian Nuclear Agency and the College in collaboration with the KL Hospital and Pusrawi Hospital. There were 11 participating Fellows who were from Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia, and they comprised radiologists, radiographers and medical physicists. The programme included a week of lectures held at the CoR Meeting Room, the first time that the venue was used for such an event.

A Breast Seminar was the last event organized in 2010. It was held at the Legend Hotel on Sunday 19th December, with the theme “Multi-Disciplinary Management of Breast Diseases: the Essentials”. It attracted 197 participants; this was extremely encouraging as the Organizing Committee had set a target of 100 participants!

Many activities are planned for 2011. Foremost will be the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM 2011) on 9-10 April, with its theme “Radiology: Beyond Image Interpretation”. Two Pre-Congress Workshops will be held on the Friday 8th April. These will be on ‘Basic PET-CT interpretation’ and ‘Vascular Ultrasound’ which will run in parallel. The ASM 2011 Faculty will feature three distinguished RSNA International Visiting Professors - Professors David Yousem, Andrea Doria, and John McGahan, who are scheduled to deliver several lectures. The ASM 2011 will have 10 sub-specialty tracks. A special session ‘Radiology means Business’ will bring the meeting to a close on the Sunday afternoon.

The CoR Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be the second event, and it is scheduled for Saturday 28th May in Kuching. The intention to hold the CoR AGM in Kuching was first expressed many years ago; but this did not happen because of several logistical problems. However, with budget airlines currently plying the Kuala Lumpur-Kuching route with bargain fares to boot, we are confident that this will become a reality this year. Kuching has so much to offer where business may be combined with pleasure. The CoR hopes to arrange some outdoor tours to allow for socialization amongst the members and their accompanying persons. ‘Radiation protection’ will be revisited in a seminar to be held to coincide with the AGM 2011.

The Asean Association of Radiology (AAR) meeting will be held in Singapore in the third week of May. It is hoped that many CoR members will make time to join our radiology colleagues from the ASEAN region to share experiences and views, and discuss common issues pertaining to radiology as practised in the region.

Another recurring CoR event being planned will be a series of monthly radiology tutorials which should kick off in July 2011. The College hopes that sub-specialists from amongst the CoR members from the public and private institutions and especially from academia, will help spearhead this proposed activity. These tutorials will create another facet to the academic role played by the College as it becomes increasingly involved in the training of future radiologists. This is expected of it as a member College of the Academy of Medicine Malaysia (AMM). It is hoped that this series of tutorials will strengthen its contribution towards the development of Radiology sub-specialty areas for its members present and future.

I wish to thank all Council members and other College members who have offered many suggestions both officially and unofficially, as to how the CoR may play a bigger role to safeguard the interests of radiologists, and elevate the status of radiology in the Malaysian community. More than this I am encouraged by their enthusiasm to participate in these endeavours to ensure their success.

Lastly, on behalf of the CoR Council, I would like to extend our sincere good wishes to every member and hope that the year 2011 and the Year of the Rabbit will bring every success.

Thank you.


Dato’ Dr Humairah Samad-Cheung
President 2010-2012
College of Radiology
Academy of Medicine of Malaysia

Email: president@radiologymalaysia.org

31 January 2011

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