To take advantage of research funding, academic radiology departments need to reorganize efforts

Although federal funds for radiology research are more widely available than ever, many medical school-based radiology departments have little or no research funding, say the results of a recent consensus conference that outlined ways to improve research efforts.

In a cooperative endeavor by the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Academy of Radiology Research, the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, a consensus conference was held to tackle the issue of enhancing research in academic radiology departments.

The committee came up with 11 important strategies. Among those strategy recommendations:

• Developing a research-supportive culture in radiology departments through leadership of the chair, based on a vision, incentives and rewards system

• Recruiting more PhDs and MD/PhDs into radiology departments

• Using a "core resource" strategy to leverage institutional resources and expand imaging research

• Creating a national resource for research mentoring in radiology

• Populating National Institutes of Health study sections with research-oriented radiologists

Radiologists who participated in the meeting included leaders of top-funded research departments, directors of funded research programs and others with relevant expertise.

"The article is about the collective opinions of representative leaders developed together in consensus format. The hope for the consensus information is that chairs and faculty will pursue the recommendations relevant to their own departments," said Philip O. Anderson, MD, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, and lead author of the article.

The results of the conference appear in the August 2004 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

---

---