I am extremely honored to become President of the Michigan Radiological Society for 2011-2012. I feel both privileged and humbled to be nominated to such a position by my colleagues in the society…and for this…I am extremely grateful.
The legacy of success of the MRS is based on the contribution of numerous individuals who have served and continue to serve in a voluntary capacity. I do not consider myself a “leader”, but rather an individual who will serve to assist the Board of Directors and its over 1400 members.
All of us who have been long-standing members of the society are very familiar with the numerous team accomplishments of MRS Over the past year, the society has worked cooperatively with the MSMS and the State Legislature to ensure that diagnostic imaging studies continue to be performed by medically trained specialists specifically trained in Radiology. Our proactive approach helps ensure the citizens of the state that their imaging studies will be performed by physicians who have the highest professional qualifications for image interpretation and radiation safety.
The success of MRS at excelling in our multifaceted mission has also been recognized at the national level. The MRS was recognized at the recent AMCLC for excellence in both education and meetings.
I think we all feel that Radiology is under attack.However, despite these challenging times, I do not think there is a more intellectually stimulating and rewarding profession than our subspeciality and I would make the same choice now as I did over 20 years ago regarding my professional career. However, what has changed is our interdependency on each other. 10 years ago, we may have viewed each other as competitors. However, now we must be collaborators. We will not be able sustain the long term success of our subspecialty unless we work together to find solutions. I feel that MRS should and will play a pivotal role in establishing this foundation.
So how do we get there and what are our goals for the next year? I would like MRS to be recognized as the society that represents the interests of all Radiologists in the State of Michigan. I would also like to further extend the reach of our society to include more of the upper peninsula, western Michigan, and the thumb. In order to do this, we have to give a reason for radiologists to turn to MRS for information and solutions that affect their practice. MRS is continuing to perform excellent work on the legislative, educational and clinical fronts, but the challenge is communicating what we are doing and how we can help. Over the next year, I will work actively to enhance the content of our website with legislative and educational updates on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and changes in the RUC deliberations regarding RVU weightings. We will also work diligently to help identify content which will identify opportunities for dose reduction and enhance radiation safety. The MRS is also currently testing options for improving our teleconferencing our board meetings which includes improvements in webcast technology for our annual meetings. We will all be working very hard to achieve these goals over the next year, however, we also need your help. I would like all of you in the audience and on the Board to just talk to five Radiologists about MRS regarding who we are, what we do and how we have and continue to serve the Radiology community. Encourage them to join if they are not already members as I am confident that we can increase our membership once we show how we can add value to their practice
One area of collaboration and growth is with our colleagues in Radiation Oncology. We are both primarily hospital-based physicians and share a similar pedigree and similar Board Certification. In fact, the current President of the ABR and Chair of the Board of Directors of RSNA are both Radiation Oncologists. We should share a similar collaboration at the state level as we do at the national level.During the next year, I will make a concerted effort to reach out to Radiation Oncologists in the state to identify how we can better serve their needs.
In conclusion, I consider it a tremendous honor to become the 90th President of the Michigan Radiological Society. Our team is already hard at work and have begun planning for next year. We have already identified tentative dates for next year’s Board meetings and are considering topics and speakers for the fall, Hickey and June meetings. Both Biren Shah and myself would welcome your feedback for topics and speakers as we wish to ensure that the content is relevant to you practice. Thank you again for the honor of being your President and I look forward to the privilege of serving each of you over the next year.
Suresh Mukherji, MD, FACR
President
Michigan Radiological Society