November 8, 2003

In attendance at the semi-annual meeting of the RSNJ RFS were Dr. Judith Amorosa, Dr Ajay Sood, Dr. Ravi Prasad and Dr Jane Lyon. Additionally, residents from multiple programs in attendance for the mini-PET symposium attended this meeting. President Dr. Ajay Sood called the meeting to order.

The first order of business was to pass minutes of the July 20th executive committee meeting. A synopsis of the May 2003 ACR annual meeting was presented, in which the section was represented by Drs. Sood and Prasad.

The October 7th New Jersey Tort reform rally was discussed. More than six residents from the radiology department of RWJUH participated in the rally and three of them participated in the "door-to-door" campaign. Both the RSNJ and the Medical Society of New Jersey acknowledged the resident participation. Special thanks were extended to Dr. Ravi Prasad for organizing the resident participation.

Next, the New York radiology resident career workshop, which is going to be held on November 15th, 2003, was discussed. All radiology residents from New Jersey are welcome to attend the conference, the program representatives were asked to communicate detailed information to their respective programs.

Dr. Prasad then discussed preliminary results of the RSNJ RFS resident and program surveys. Approximately 20 residents have so far responded. Detailed results will be available by the next meeting.

The members then discussed the issue of resident participation. This has been an ongoing issue with the RFS. A number of programs in the state have not actively participated in the RFS and different ways to encourage recruitment were discussed. Suggestions included emailing each of the residents in New Jersey to writing a formal letter again to the program directors and the chief residents of each program.

An amendment to the RFS bylaws was tabled by Dr. Sood to allow only current members of the governing council in good standing to be elected as President of the RFS. The amendment to the bylaws was passed unanimously.

Elections for the new officers for the 2004-2005 year were then held. Dr. Jane Lyon of RWJ-Cooper Hospital will be the next Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. JD Marko of RWJ-Cooper Hospital the next Vice-President and Dr. Ravi Prasad the next President of the RFS. Congratulations to the new officers!

Finally, a number of different issues were discussed for the RFS to address in the upcoming year.

1. Dr. Amorosa introduced the issue of changing the timing of the oral boards. The current update is that there is limited support for changing the timing of the boards and the issue is still under discussion. The national ACR RFS will be addressing the issue over the coming year.

2. The RFS was notified that residents whose names were on the wait list for the Newark oral board review course lost their $100 deposit even if they could not attend due to lack of openings at the course. The RFS will verify the information and look into the matter.

3. The ABR fee schedule for oral and written boards are increasing every year. The RSNJ RFS will address a letter to the ACR voicing our concerns. Suggestions included instituting an installment structure. We will ask the national ACR RFS to discuss this issue and address a letter to the ABR on behalf of many RFS chapters. Additionally, those of us who will attend RSNA will try to discuss this issue with the ABR representatives.

4. Monthly Grand Rounds - The RSNJ sponsors monthly grand rounds (~8-9 per year). In order to make these more accessible to residents from across the state, a number of suggestions were introduced including moving the lecture time to 7 pm as opposed to 6 pm, enable teleconferencing/web cast of the Grand Rounds at the various radiology residency programs in the state, consider combining lectures on the weekends, and introducing a Case of the Month addition contributed by the guest speaker.

5. RFS Fees for RSNJ activities - The RFS will approach the RSNJ to dismiss/lower fees for the RFS members for the annual/semi-annual activities. This will encourage a greater resident participation and allows the RSNJ to incorporate the younger generation in its activities.

6. NY Roentgen Ray Society - The RFS will look into NJ resident participation in their monthly meetings, which typically are resident-oriented.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Dr. Sood.

Sincerely,

Ravi Shankar Prasad
Secretary-Treasurer of RSNJ-RFS

Back to Meeting Minutes