More details have emerged on the newly formed European Society of Radiology, created when the European Association of Radiology (EAR) and the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) elected in December 2005 to merge their organisations and combine their strengths.  The new ESR called it “a revolutionary change in the institutional landscape of European radiology”.

The organisation’s key objectives will be to establish the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) as a major event in the radiology field as well as to create a new European Research Institute for Biomedical Imaging (EIBIR).  It also wants to ensure its competitiveness against other events and institutions in the field.
  
By combining their activities, EAR and ECR hope to create important synergies and maximise their efficiency and resources.  The new ESR will work on harmonising radiology teaching programmes in Europe to aide free movement of radiologists.  Its work on education will also extend outside Europe where ‘e-learning initiatives’ will help raise standards.  ESR hopes to raise public awareness of radiology through campaigns and to seek to influence European Union policy so that “radiology is no longer a Cinderella discipline in European medicine”, it said.

The two partners, EAR and ECR, have agreed a joint strategy for the European Society of Radiology.  The new ESR will be officially launched at ECR in Vienna on March 3-7.