What's New?
IR obtains subspecialty status
It is now official, Interventional Radiology is finally recognized by the GMC as a subspecialty! Indeed IR is the only subspecialty of radiology! Thanks to all the members for “rolling the ball” to make this happen by voting for change at our AGM in Manchester.
To misquote Spiderman (or was it his dad?) “with subspecialty recognition comes great responsibility”. Yes, that is us; existing IRs, IRs in training and future aspiring IRs. I feel a cold sweat breaking out as you start to wonder what will come out of the Pandorica (OK, I love watching Dr Who with the kids and would probably watch it without them although I don’t seem to need to get behind the sofa for the Cybermen any more!). Clearly some clarification is needed, to this end Ian Francis is penning a piece to deal with the ramifications for training and for recognition of existing IRs.
Help may be on the way in an unlikely form. Yes, the Government; the recent White Paper “Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS” July 2010 specifically mentions provision of IR. Quoting from item 3.19
“2011/12 will see the introduction of best-practice tariffs for interventional radiology”.
This is clearly good news and the Society and RCR plan to respond to this by writing a short paper for Andrew Lansley, Bruce Keogh and David Nicholson indicating the opportunities for IR.
To earn our keep we must make sure that we are able to deliver services which are good for patients rather than convenient for doctors. Most IRs who practice vascular intervention will currently be embroiled in discussions about provision of vascular services based on the aneurysm screening programme. In some cases proposed changes may seem onerous, such as finding durable solutions to on call provision. There is a tendency for folk to want to “hang up their catheters” at the thought of this. I would like to launch a personal entreaty to those of you considering this to reconsider. Remember why you chose IR and try to see any changes as positive opportunities for career development. Help to find constructive and imaginative solutions to service provision across regions. They will be good for patients and that after all is what it is all about and hopefully still gives us a buzz from performing a case well.
Watch this space for more news.
David Kessel
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BSIR Elections 2010
There was only one nomination for each committee vacancy.
According to the BSIR constitution, in this event the nominees are deemed to have been elected.
The successful candidates were:
Membership & Rules – Stephen D’Souza
Education – Susan Ingram
Registries & Audit – Arun Sebastian
Scientific Programme – Stephen Butterfield
Communications - Dinuke Warakaulle
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BSIR Data and Office Administrator
This is a new post initially for 2 years subject to annual review. The individual should be based in the U.K. and be prepared to work from home with office facilities. Responsibility will be to the BSIR officers and subcommittee chairs. The post will mainly involve day to day management of the BSIR national registries with some additional BSIR general administrative duties. The individual will be expected to work with the BSIR conference organiser. More information.
Closing date 9th August 2010
Applications and further information to office@bsir.org
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The Terumo Interventional Scholarship 2010
The Terumo Scholarship is open to Interventional Radiologists in Training (years 3 – 5) or Consultant Radiologists (in years 1 – 3 following appointment).
for further information click here
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Past news items
some more recent news items may still be available in the News Archive page in the Society section