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I would first like to
thank Margaret Daube-Witherspoon, Lars Eriksson, Steven Meikle,
and Charles Stearns for serving on the NMISC during the last three
years. I would also like to welcome the newly elected members of
the council: Roger Fulton, Christian Morel, Todd E. Peterson, Martin
P. Tornai, and Charles C. Watson, who will serve from 2005 through
2007.
The NMISC held its Annual Meeting on October 21, 2004 from Noon-2
pm at the Ergife Palace Hotel, Rome, Italy. The meeting was called
to order by Magnus Dahlbom, NMISC Chair.
Members present included: Magnus Dahlbom, John Aarsvold, Joel Karp,
Margaret Daube-Witherspoon, Tom Lewellen, Ron Keyser, Chris Thompson,
Bill Moses, Ron Jaszczak, Grant Gullberg, Sibylle Ziegler, Ron Huesman,
Lars Eriksson, Paul Kinahan, Larry Zeng, Jeff Fessler, Craig Levin,
Ben Tsui, Charles Stearns, Simon Cherry, Ed Lampo, Alberto Del Guerra.
The 2004 MIC meeting was dedicated by the organizers to the memory
of Dr. Edward J. Hoffman, who passed away on July 1, 2004. Sibylle
Ziegler (2004 MIC chair) gave a preliminary report on the 2004 MIC.
She reported that 659 MIC abstracts were submitted, which was an
increase of 50% compared to last year. 46 oral presentations were
given at the MIC sessions, 504 posters were invited, and approximately
100 abstracts were rejected (approximately 16%). The total number
of preregistrants was 1635, which was an increase of 20% compared
to last year’s meeting. The final number of registrants was
not available at the time of the meeting, but preliminary numbers
indicate a record in attendance for the NSS/MIC meeting. Travel
support was offered to approximately 65 individuals from funds obtained
from 5 vendors and an NIH award.
Simon Cherry (2005 MIC chair) reported on the progress for the upcoming
2005 MIC. The abstract deadline has been set for May 2, 2005. He
indicated that the meeting will be structured into morning and evening
sessions, which will allow the attendees to enjoy the resort. A
grant application has been submitted to NBIB that will be used for
student travel support.
John Aarsvold (2006 MIC chair) reported that the 2006 organizing
committee had met at the Rome meeting and that a preconference budget
was being finalized for submission to IEEE. The general chair for
the meeting is Graham Smith; the NSS chair is Chuck Britton.
Ron Keyser (chair of the site selection committee) presented the
proposals from the three locations (Hawaii, Las Vegas and St. Louis)
considered by the 2007 site selection committee. The primary criteria
used in the site selection process are: meeting space, operating
costs, number/quality/cost of available rooms, travel time and availability
and cost of food. The site selection committee selected, on a very
close vote, Hawaii. One of the stated reasons for this was its accessibility
for potential attendees from Pacific-rim countries. A vote within
the NMISC concurred with the site selection committee’s recommendation
to pursue the holding of the 2007 NSS/MIC in Hawaii.
Ron Keyser also spoke on behalf of the 2008 site selection process.
Options discussed included: having the selection committee pursue
an eastern USA location; having the selection committee investigate
further Las Vegas and St. Louis; and having the selection committee
solicit proposals relevant to holding the 2008 NSS/MIC in Germany.
A vote within the NMISC recommended the site selection committee
to pursue proposals for holding the 2008 meeting in Germany. This
would continue the trend of holding the meeting in Europe every
4th year.
Margaret Daube-Witherspoon, chair of the NMISC Awards/Fellows subcommittee,
reported on the name change of the Medical Imaging Scientist Award
to the Edward J. Hoffman Medical Imaging Scientist Award. The 2004
award recipient was Dr. Gerd Muehllehner who was presented this
prestigious award at the MIC dinner in Rome.
Craig Levin gave a brief summary of the 2004 Breast Imaging Workshop
that was held in connection with the NSS/MIC. This workshop had
support from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the National
Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering, Philips, GE, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, and the
IEEE NPSS. Due to the great interest and success of this workshop,
there are preliminary plans for future workshops connected with
the NSS/MIC in 2006 and 2008.
The annual meeting concluded with the appointments of Jeff Fessler
as the Chair of the Awards-Fellow subcommittee, who will replace
Margaret Daube-Witherspoon; and Ron Huesman as the Chair of the
communications subcommittee and NMISC web-master, who will replace
Larry Zeng. I would like to thank Margaret and Larry for their work
on these subcommittees.
Excerpted from the Minutes of the Annual Meeting and submitted by
John Aarsvold, Secretary. The minutes from the meeting can be found
at: http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/nps/nmisc.
Magnus Dahlbom, Chair of the NMISC, can be reached at the Division
of Nuclear Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los
Angeles, CA 90095; Phone: +1 310 206-8273; Fax: +1 310 206-4899;
E-mail: mdahlbom@mednet.ucla.edu.
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