Revolutionary ACR Education Center to Be “Classroom of the Future”
In February 2008, the American College of Radiology (ACR) will launch the ACR Education Center, which will provide the most cutting-edge, comprehensive, interactive radiology education available. Attendees will gain hands-on knowledge and expertise through a mentored self-study format, individual workstations, PACS systems that replicate their clinical practice environment, and frequent feedback.
“The ACR Education Center will permit radiologists to come to one central facility where the full spectrum of learning tools is available, and where courses and mentoring can be provided to match any specialist's skill, to make that specialist a better, more knowledgeable, and more experienced doctor,” said Arl Van Moore, Jr., M.D., chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors.
The ACR Education Center, to be located across the street from the ACR headquarters in Reston, Va., will offer the next generation of educational resources and teaching methods — currently not available through any other venue. The most advanced technology, a world-class faculty, and the largest repository of annotated data sets and case examples complete this incomparable educational experience.
“The ACR Education Center will give the radiology community access to the most advanced educational topics using truly innovative techniques,” explained Education Commission Chair Lawrence P. Davis, M.D. “It will provide a seamless link between didactic material, computer-based self-study using data sets of unknowns, and real-life, practice-oriented simulations.”
This new education center will serve as a “mini-university,” offering hands-on refresher courses and new techniques for doctors already in practice. It will house multimedia facilities for interaction between doctors and the educational material. When new techniques to treat a disease are introduced, the center will provide a national training resource to educate radiology specialists from community hospitals to academic medical centers, so that the early learning curve is accomplished through new educational methods, including simulation, rather than on patients.
The ACR Education Center will debut its new curriculum with courses covering CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy), coronary cardiac CT imaging (including supervised case review), and advanced breast imaging and biopsy techniques. More programs, including interventional radiology techniques and PET/CT, will continue to be added to meet anticipated and emerging needs of the radiology community.
The ACR Education Center will push beyond the limitations of traditional learning models with such dynamic features as:
· Hands-on experience through interactive format
· Unmatched repository of data sets
· Certificate of proficiency — for maintenance of certification, hospital credentialing, and insurance accreditation
· Best-in-class teaching techniques
· Learner-driven software and hardware
· High-end computer terminals at individual workstations
· Mentored self-study
· Customized simulators for applied learning
“The ACR is once again raising the bar, setting the highest standards for quality in education. From lecture-based learning to interactive self-guided study to practical application, the ACR Education Center will advance medical training to the next step, fully integrating knowledge with skill,” said Ruben Mezrich, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the ACR Education Center Committee.
The goal is to not only offer the opportunity to earn SAM certificates and CME credits but also documentation of proficiency in individual procedures. The ACR Education Center will grant certificates of proficiency (COP) for a variety of training programs, such as interventional radiological procedures, uterine artery embolization, carotid stent grafts, radio frequency ablation, abdominal procedures, and more.
COPs will also become increasingly more important as third-party entities seek to qualify the use of new technologies with demonstrated training requirements. Insurance companies, hospital credentialing boards, and government agencies may soon impose special training requirements beyond board certification on a number of diagnostic imaging and interventional methods.
“As we continue to offer ongoing education for radiologists from residency to retirement, the ACR Education Center will enable the College to take the lead in another unique, untapped aspect of radiologic lifelong learning and provide vital training that will benefit radiologists and their patients nationwide,” said ACR Executive Director Harvey L. Neiman, M.D.
For more information regarding the ACR Education Center, please contact ACR Public Relations Manager Shawn Farley at (703) 648-8936 or sfarley@acr.org