Headline News

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is my pleasure to write this president’s report and letter as we near the end of 2018. It is an exciting time for the society. The breadth and depth of the society activities has grown immensely and there are many exciting upcoming events and new initiatives. Our ASPNR committees are working to further expand our society by not only facilitating inter‐societal collaboration, but also providing innovative pediatric neuroimaging programming for different sub‐specialty meetings. Our digital and online educational and informational efforts continue to grow. We are having our first stand‐alone ASPNR Annual Meeting in January!

ASPNR 2018 Member Survey results

A membership survey was conducted earlier. This survey was done to assess the makeup and practice characteristics of the ASPNR members and the pediatric neuroradiology workforce. It will also assist in better future planning and to serve the members and the profession. Member suggestions such as including certain educational areas they would like to see covered, has been reflected in the chosen session topics in upcoming meetings. 

1st Annual Meeting of the ASPNR

The first ever scientific meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology will be held in New Orleans on January 18‐20 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. We are very excited to have this inaugural meeting. The meeting has been made possible with the tremendous efforts of conference chair Dr. Susan Palasis, assisted by a number of education and program committee members. The meeting is stacked with a large variety of interesting pediatric neuroradiology lecture topics, rapid fire case presentations, oral abstract presentations, scientific posters, educational exhibits, interesting cases of the day, and sponsored breakfast/lunch learning sessions. The target audience include pediatric neuroradiologists, general neuroradiologists, pediatric radiologists, researchers, technologists, radiology trainees, and other professionals interested in the field of pediatric neuroradiology. We have received an unexpected, but pleasantly large number of interesting abstract submissions on a wide variety of topics related to pediatric neuroimaging which will be presented at the meeting. There is still time to register for the meeting. We are anticipating and hoping to have the ASPNR scientific meeting on an ongoing annual basis.

ASPNR Programming at the 57th Annual ASNR Meeting

In conjunction with the ASNR, we have a number of pediatric programming sessions at the upcoming ASNR Annual Meeting in Boston on May 18‐23, 2019. In addition to multiple scientific paper sessions, there will be four dedicated pediatric sessions during the week. We have heard your needs and interests, as the topics were chosen primarily based on the results of the membership survey done earlier this year. The sessions include one on neonatal imaging in collaboration with the European Society of Neuroradiology, one on leukodystrophies and neurometabolic disorders, and one comprising of various requested pediatric topics for the general or adult neuroradiologist. The ASPNR challenging pediatric case session will again feature this year, with audience participation and prizes for the top three participants. Additional pediatric topics have been planned by the ASNR for the weekend symposium.

Other Meeting Activities

The ASPNR has assisted with the programming of other scientific societies such as the subspecialty ASNR societies (ASFNR http://www.asfnr.org, ASSR http://www.theassr.org, etc.), the Society of Pediatric Radiology (http://www.pedrad.org) and the European Society of Neuroradiology (http://www.pedrad.org).

Membership

Our membership has grown and we currently have more than 500 total members! Members are from all regions of North America and many are from other countries. Please encourage your neuroradiology and pediatric radiology colleagues and trainees to become members of the ASPNR. Members receive discounted registration to the annual ASPNR meeting, may serve on various committees, and have opportunities for networking. Your continued support and participation is vital to the ongoing efforts of the society and pediatric neuroradiology in general.

If you have not done already done so, please renew your membership before the end of the year, and at the time of renewal, please consider donating to the ASPNR research fund so we can continue to provide the annual ASPNR grant in pediatric neuroradiology research. Information on how to become a member and how to donate can be found on the ASPNR website: www.aspnr.org

ASPNR Pediatric Neuroradiology Research Grant

The ASPNR awards an annual research grant to promising proposals in order to foster pediatric neuroradiology research. For this year, the award will total $27,500. We have already received over a dozen letters of intent and promising proposals will be invited to submit a full application. All applications will be reviewed by the research committee, chaired by Dr. Orit Glenn, with the awardee will be announced later in 2019. Your donations are critical in being able to maintain this important mission of the ASPNR in promoting neuroimaging advances in children.

Website, Social Media and Education

The ASPNR website was completely revamped approximately two years ago. The website is now quite active with relatively frequent updates. It also contains a variety of resources including lectures, interesting cases, and links to relevant news as well as information on pediatric neuroradiology training programs, classified jobs, relevant meetings, and societal information. During the last 12 months, the web site had had 15,000 visitors (115% increase over last year) and 28,000 sessions (up 160% over last year). The tremendous volunteer efforts of the web committee members, currently led by Dr. Michelle Silvera, have been instrumental in providing and maintaining this service.

The ASPNR has also been quite active in its education and informational activities on various social media platforms, with multiple volunteers and committee members posting valuable content, led by Dr. Laura Hayes. Our social media presence has grown tremendously in a very short amount of time and the high engagement is reflective of growing interest in pediatric neuroradiology. We now have 1,528 followers on Twitter, 1,071 followers on Instagram, and 1,145 likes on Facebook. The Twitter feed includes various educational cases presentations with follow‐up answers. In addition to general cases, certain days of the week are also allocated to pediatric head and neck, metabolic disorders, and functional imaging material. We also have a more modest presence on Linkedin for networking purposes.

2018 Derek Harwood-Nash Award Recipient

The recipient of the 2018 award for best scientific abstract was Dr. Matthew Barkovich from UCSF with a presentation entitled “Segmentation of Pediatric Hindbrain at 7 Tesla: First Steps Toward Developing a Hindbrain Atlas.” Congratulations on the excellent work!

Pediatric Neuroradiology Publications

Outstanding pediatric neuroradiology educational or scientific exhibits will be invited to submit to Neurographics. If you are interested in participating as a guest editor for a pediatric neuroradiology topic in AJNR’s News Digest, please contact managing editor Ms. Karen Halm at khalm@ajnr.org. If you would like to volunteer as a reviewer for the pediatric neuroradiology section of AJNR, please contact Karen Halm at the e‐mail above or pediatrics senior editor Dr. Thierry Huisman at thuisman@ajnr.org.

Looking Ahead

In 2019, we will send out requests for committee volunteer service, nominations for society elected officials, and also nominations for the ASPNR gold medal award. We hope to see you at the ASPNR conference in New Orleans.

Last but not least, I want to earnestly thank all the committee volunteers who help run various functions of the society and the ASNR staff that support us. I also want to thank all the ASPNR members for their patronage and engagement. Without their support, none of the activities and initiatives of the ASPNR would have been possible. On behalf of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology, I would like to wish you all a very happy holiday season and upcoming new year!

Sincerely,

Arastoo Vossough, PhD, MD
ASPNR President and Executive Committee Chair