VIENNA - The curtain falls on ECR 2013 today, and it's been a memorable show in so many ways. A generally upbeat mood and bustling atmosphere have been evident since the congress began on Thursday, and the organizers report that delegate numbers have held up well and are comparable with last year's event. Attendees from the three host nations -- Spain, South Africa, and Chile -- have brought vibrancy and insight to the meeting, as you've no doubt witnessed in our RADCast @ ECR.
On the flip side of the coin, however, it's clear that Europe's radiologists face ongoing challenges that have no quick and easy solutions.
To read about the fascinating visibility debate over the profession's future, for instance, you can click here.
Also, patients' anxiety over radiation dose in CT continues to cause deep concern. The calm and measured founder of spiral CT, Willi Kalender, PhD, spoke about "the crazy debate" linking the use of CT directly to cancer deaths, which is "absolute nonsense," and said "some things are really out of control." Get the story here.
How to realize the clinical potential of PET/MRI is another major problem facing the global imaging community. To read about the latest thinking on this technique, click here. For two further ECR articles about PET/MRI, click here and finally here.
As MRI continues to advance to greater magnet strengths, researchers are warning that constant exposure to high-field systems could lead to psychological problems, such as clinical depression, among MRI radiographers. They presented their findings on Monday, and you can read about them here.
In other news from ECR, U.K. researchers have developed an accurate matching algorithm to deal with the problem of integrating prone and supine CT colonography (CTC) datasets, and multislice CT can solve the mystery behind unknown or suspected infection and alter treatment plans to provide more effective therapy.
Finally, be sure to check out our ECR 2013 Image Gallery, which includes some videos of entertainment performances that represent this year's host nations.
We hope you've enjoyed reading our RADCast @ ECR coverage as much as we've enjoying writing it for you. Further coverage of the congress will follow in the weeks ahead.
