President's Update
– January 2010

Greetings SUR Members!

Much news to convey, especially about the merger, but I will save that for last.

First, the meeting in Orlando is all set and looks spectacular. By now those of you who have submitted scientific abstracts and posters, and proposals for the Research Awards/Grants should have received your results, and I thank you for all of your submissions. The submissions for abstracts and posters are some of the best we have seen. The Omni Resort at ChampionsGate is excited to have us, and it should be a beautiful venue to visit.

The SUR Business Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 21 at 1:00 PM, following the morning Scientific Sessions. It will be interesting and important this year as we discuss the merger with the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists and other significant topics; I encourage all of you to attend.

As our Society grows and joins with the SGR, we are being recognized more and more as the “front line” society for Abdominal Radiology. A new on-line journal, Imaging in Medicine, has approached Peter Mueller (SGR President) and me and asked for a summary of the 2010 meeting to be published as an article in their journal. If there is any member who has interest in composing this piece for publication, please contact me, and I can send you the details.

The ESUR Lecture this year will be given by the SUR’s good friend Professor Sameh Morcos, from Sheffield, United Kingdom. Professor Morcos is the Past President of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) and has served as secretary of its contrast media safety committee since 1996. He is the associate editor of the British Journal of Radiology and Deputy Editor of European Radiology. His talk “The Use of Contrast Agents in Patients with Renal Impairment: The Risk of Two Evils!” is sure to be informative.

The SGR-SUR Merger Committee has done an outstanding job wading through the bylaws of both Societies and coming up with a new set of bylaws. The current plan is to disseminate the bylaws in 2010, and vote in 2011. The Merger Committee had equal representation from both Societies, and was superbly co-chaired by Stuart Silverman from the SUR and Alec Megibow from the SGR.

A few points that we need feedback on:

1. Attached is the new set of bylaws which we believe will carry forward the new Society for the upcoming years. The bylaws outline what the SUR and SGR Boards and Merger Committee feel are the necessary components of a new Society, yet allow us flexibility as we move forward to a new era. We are hoping that you will give us feedback prior to the next Board Meeting to discuss and consider prior to the official vote on the bylaws in 2011. Comments and suggestions can be posted to the joint SUR/SGR forum, which can be accessed via the 'members only' section of the SUR Web site, www.uroradiology.org. If you would like for your comments to be private, please email them to info@uroradiology.org. All comments should be posted or emailed no later than Friday, February 5, 2010, for collation and discussion at this year’s meeting, though of course we will be entertaining comments after that toward preparation of the final version of the bylaws for the 2011 vote.

2. We still don’t have an official name for the new Society. Peter Mueller (President of the SGR) and I will form a committee to propose a new name; we welcome ideas from the members.

3. The Board also felt that the members of both Societies might be concerned about the individual differences in the finances of each Society. The SGR and SUR have specific commitments to individual awards, trips, and other areas that the Board feels should be maintained after the merger. In this regard, Peter and I will also appoint a committee to further study this in detail.

Hoping to see all of you at the meeting and to tell you again what an honor it has been to be your president this year.

Best regards,

Jim Ellis, MD
2009-2010 SUR President