Emergency Radiology : Imaging and Intervention

There is an increasing trend towards the use of tries, hospital emergency departments have become a MDCT to evaluate traumatic injuries and non-traumatic major part of the healthcare safety net. In the last decade emergencies. The use of workstations for reporting and for economically-driven structural changes in health care further image reconstruction becomes standard practice. delivery have caused a dramatic increase in emergency On the occasion of the European Congress of Radiology department visits. In response to capacity and staffing (ECR) 2003 and 2004 a Categorical Course on “Emergency pressures, hospitals are developing and implementing a Radiology”has been organized to assess current devel- variety of strategies designed to improve patient flow and ments and concepts in this rapidly growing field. reduce overcrowding in the emergency department. Numerous radiologists,all outstanding and international- Several factors are considered critical for success, such as ly renowned experts in their field,have made superb c- having the right multidisciplinary teams in place and opti- tributions in an ECR syllabus.