HCB News: What are the ESR’s immediate and long-term goals?
PP: The goals of the ESR are, and always have been, to strengthen, harmonize and unify European radiology, to the benefit of European patients. I am proud to inform you that many objectives have been successfully reached. Our society has developed the European Diploma in Radiology (EDiR), a certified standard of radiological knowledge, deemed appropriate for independent practice in general radiology. The knowledge base for the examination is laid out in the ESR European Training Curriculum for Radiology (ETCR), which serves as a template for training radiologists and to enhance the quality of care for patients. The ETCR has been officially endorsed by 66 member societies worldwide. An updated version (edition 2016) is published on the ESR website. The European School of Radiology (ESOR) assists in harmonizing radiological education in Europe. The ESOR raises the standards in the field of scientific radiology, extends and coordinates teaching resources worldwide and helps young radiologists to achieve the knowledge and skills to fulfill tomorrow’s requirements. All of these initiatives are taking place under the umbrella of the ESR.

HCB News: What is your vision for the future?
PP: Given the galloping pace of change in radiology, I expect quite a large degree of evolution. In a very general sense, I think radiology will move further along the continuum from ‘art’ to ‘science,’ in other words, from producing ‘pretty images’ to quantitative data sets. At the same time, communication with referring clinicians is moving away from descriptive reports to a more standardized structured approach. Both of these developments are examples of radiologists needing to adapt their ‘analog’ minds to the requirements of a digital and quantitative working environment.

On a scientific level, the increasing prevalence of precision medicine is likely to become a key issue for radiologists. Thanks to advancements in medicine, some previously fatal diseases have been reduced to chronic disorders. Radiology will play a more important role in the diagnosis and follow-up of such diseases by developing biomarkers based on volumetric measurements, perfusion (blood flow), spectroscopy (metabolic information), hybrid imaging (molecular imaging) and functional information.

Radiology will also play a more important role in gathering information for evidence-based medicine which will have an impact on which studies will continue to be reimbursed. In this respect, clinical decision support (CDS) systems are expected to grow and play a more important role in reimbursement decisions by governments and health insurance companies. I expect minimally invasive procedures and interventions under imaging guidance to continue to grow, and I think it is essential to invest in interventional radiology. Technological evolutions will continue to help us to provide more accurate diagnoses with lower radiation doses (or no radiation at all, like MRI and ultrasound). Radiology will continue to grow as a tool in screening and risk stratification, provided that it can make the leap to providing unambiguous results.

More Exclusive Q&A

More Voices