CAR - Canadian Association of Radiologists

The Canadian Association of Radiologists is the national specialty association for radiologists, dedicated to medical imaging excellence in patient care

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Spring Update from the Canadian Society of Thoracic Imaging

What a busy year it has been! The CSTR would like to let you know what we’ve been up to this past year and what is coming up next.

Membership:

The CSTR currently has 39 members for 2019. With the help of the CAR, we have a new join mechanism that allows for active CAR members to join the CSTR. CAR members simply need to sign into the member portal and click the CSTR button. We’re also able to send individualized emails that contain join links.

Intersociety Relations:

We have formally reached collaborative agreements with the Society of Thoracic Radiology (STR) and the European Society of Thoracic Imaging (ESTI). This opens the opportunity to foster good relations with them through reciprocal speaker opportunities and an interchange of information between the societies, such as finding common ground on educational topics and standardization of practice.

CAR 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting:

The CSTR had two branded and well-attended sessions at CAR 2019. The thoracic session focused on diffuse lung disease and the cardiac session discussed recent and future developments in CT and MRI.

And some very exciting news! The CSTR is featuring a full day CME event on April 16, 2020, just before CAR 2020 (April 17-19, 2019). Mark your calendars for CSTR & CAR 2020! Potential themes include lung screening and cardiac CT in clinical practice: everyone can do it. We plan to invite guest faculty from the ESTI and STR, but we also want to showcase our own Canadian educational talents!

CSTR Webpage:

The CSTR webpage is live on the CAR website! Go to the “About” drop-down menu on the main navigation bar and click “Canadian Society of Thoracic Radiology.”

Upcoming webpage content includes:

  1. Canadian cardiothoracic fellowship information
  2. Educational materials: core residency and fellowship training guidelines, key references or links to references, and links to PowerPoint presentations with audio on key topics for residents and fellows.
  3. Guidelines and appropriateness criteria: key guidelines published by societies and supported by the CSTR. This year, we formally reviewed and endorsed the updated clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension that will be published in the Canadian Respiratory Journal and we are currently reviewing Canadian clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis of acute aortic syndromes.
  4. Reporting templates and suggested language when describing abnormalities and making recommendations
  5. Collaborative research: we plan to survey Canadian academic centres to identify key areas of mutual interest and then realize several collaborative projects with one centre leading a specific project and other centres acting as co-investigators. This exciting project is a long-term goal that aligns with the reason why the CSTR was created. Dr. Narinder Paul has kindly agreed to take this project on with us.
  6. Advocacy: Lung screening and the lack of it is a high priority for the CSTR. We aim to identify a maximum of nine other priorities in cardiothoracic imaging we will be working on. We can discuss these issues on the CAR’s page on “The Rounds.”

Area of Focused Competence:

We plan to apply to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for recognition of cardiothoracic radiology as an Area of Focused Competence (AFC). This is a long-term goal where fellows can apply for this certificate at the end of their training based on the satisfaction of the training guidelines. The goal of the AFC is to attract fellows to our programs and potentially increase their marketability after completing their training (if they have the college’s certificate and stamp of approval).

Lastly, we are very grateful for the CAR’s support throughout our inaugural year as an affiliated society. We look forward to establishing a strong connection between those interested in promoting and practicing high-quality cardiothoracic imaging across Canada.

If you’re interested in thoracic imaging, we invite you to join the CSTR, a new affiliate society of the CAR. Membership to this society comes at no additional cost for CAR members.

Click here to join the CSTR

Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or suggestions at [email protected].

Carole Dennie, MD, FRCPC, FCAR
CSTR President