XIX Symposium Neuroradiologicum

Neuroradiologists all over the world are invited to Italy in Autumn 2010 to take part in the XIX Symposium Neuroradiologicum.
I was entrusted with the task of organising this meeting four years ago during the XVII SNR chaired by Luc Picard in Paris. This will be the most important event in my career and I intend to devote all my energy to organising it as efficiently as possible respecting the principles and the universalistic spirit of the SNR founders. Anton Valavanis has generously agreed to help me as Vice President and I am confident in his support and advice.
Ideally, I would like everyone to attend but plainly our day-to-day practice makes that impossible. To overcome this problem I plan to prepare a whole series of materials: printed matter, proceedings, videos, etc. to be made available free of charge to all neuroradiologists on request via the internet website and on CD-Rom.
I propose two main topics: Interventional Neuroradiology and the neuroradiologist as a clinician fully responsible for his/her patient, and the new research achievements of Diagnostic Neuroradiology in the study of brain physiology. Then we will analyse the trends in neuroradiology at the crossroads of the neurological sciences in terms of ongoing revolutionary acquisitions in technology, research, advances in neurosurgery, neurology and radiology, tackling the fundamental issues of the end of life and decisions stemming from what we call brain death.
We shall also focus on training neuroradiologists of the future. The cultural basis and knowledge essential for both diagnostic and therapeutic neuroradiological practice are increasingly vast and complex. As individual neuroradiologists can no longer master the myriad aspects of our discipline, we need to decide on the essential foundations to be shared by all before choosing to develop specialist branches and how this can be best translated into university neuroradiology courses.