New Year's greetings from ESNR

Abstract

The year 2013 has been a very successful and fruitful year for the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR). For the past year, our society witnessed great accomplishments and developments regarding Neuroradiology education and continued to grow with many neuroradiologists and societies from all over the world joining our family. With 4,084 members, ESNR is one of the major societies. Currently, 23 countries are represented in the Institutional Members Council. In 2013, new partnerships were established with many national Neuroradiological Societies such as Australia–New Zealand, Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Alongside these Neuroradiological societies, ESNR has also been cooperating with many other medical institutions and organizations. Just as the previous years, our primary objective as a society has been maintaining the leadership in Neuroradiology training and certification in Europe. The European School Of Neuroradiology (ESONR) has gained a more structured and institutionalized status under the chairmanship of Prof. Pia Maly Sundgren. Examination and Accreditation Subcommittees were established within its body and aim to support the organization in standardizing Neuroradiology education throughout Europe. Under the leadership of Prof. Paul Parizel, the Accreditation Subcommittee has been working on the rules and guidelines for the accreditation of the training centers, while the Examination Subcommittee has been primarily focusing on the standardization of the examinations under the chairmanship of Prof. Majda Thurnher. Within the three levels of ESONR Neuroradiology training, European courses in Neuroradiology have gained worldwide acceptance. With a great number of people signed up in advance, every course has filled to capacity and established waiting lists for prospective participants. Many participants have attended from outside Europe, including the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Furthermore, higher qualification European Diplomas have been introduced as a representation of the standardized third level Neuroradiology training. Only neuroradiologists who attend the third level courses of ESONR and pass individual examinations of each course as well as the final examination fulfill the criteria and are therefore entitled to obtain these higher qualification European Diplomas. Among first level courses, the Galen Foundation Course was organized by Prof. Cem Calli in Izmir, Turkey. This course introduced the basics of neuroradiology to radiology residents. The Galen Foundation Course also represented one of the activities of “European Month of the Brain” (EMoB) of the European Brain Council (EBC). This course had the logo of EMoB and was included in the EMoB activity report. Under the 12th cycle of ECNR, the second course of “CNS Tumors” was organized in Athens, Greece, by Prof. Athanasios Gouliamos, and the third course, “Vascular Diseases”, was organized in Antalya, Turkey, by Prof. E. Turgut Tali respectively. Following these courses, participants who completed the cycle of four courses and fulfilled the eligibility criteria applied for the board examinations. Forty-one applicants passed the board examination and thus, they have received the European Diploma in Neuroradiology (EDiNR). At the third level, Pediatric Neuroradiology, Interventional Neuroradiology, and Spine Interventional Neuroradiology courses have been initiated while the Head and Neck Neuroradiology course is yet to be introduced. Under the leadership of Prof. Andrea E. T. Tali (*) Department of Radiology, Division of Neuroradiology, Gazi University School of Medicine, Besevler, Ankara 06510, Turkey e-mail: turgut.tali@gmail.com