Continuing Your Radiology Education

Lori Deitte, MD, FACR, American College of Radiology® (ACR®) Board of Chancellors Member and Chair of the ACR Commission on Publications and Lifelong Learning (CoPLL), contributed this piece.

In 2018, I became a member of the ACR Board of Chancellors as the Chair of the Commission on Publications and Lifelong Learning, which oversees the ACR Education Center. In my role with CoPLL, I’m surrounded by dedicated ACR staff and volunteers who are committed to our mission to design meaningful professional development resources and experiences for the membership, inclusive of all career stages and types of practice. Lifelong learning helps empower radiologists in their practices to provide high-quality patient care and contributes to professional development and fulfillment, helping close gaps in radiologic practice performance and outcomes by providing unique and engaging types of learning resources to our membership, such as Case-in-Point, the ACR Education Center, AIRP, Radiology-TEACHES, CME sessions at the ACR Annual Meeting and more.

Radiologist learning needs to evolve throughout the course of one’s career due to new technology, service lines, reporting guidelines and career transitions. My “ah ha” moment with radiology education happened about a year after I transitioned from a small private practice group to a larger academic center. Initially, the transition was challenging. I went from plain radiographs to PACS, from slides to PowerPoint and from a general practice to a more subspecialized practice. But I soon discovered that I loved being in a multigenerational learning environment, surrounded by medical students, residents, fellows and all career stages of faculty.

It would be terribly boring to be stuck in a field that was stagnant. However, radiology is constantly transforming itself as a field. This provides an exciting opportunity for radiologists to reinvent themselves, learning and creating new ways to practice. This is true from the very early stages of one’s career through the later stages, including retirement and beyond. Continuing education is essential to this process.

The ACR Education Center fills the gaps in our rapidly evolving field and empowers radiologists to provide high-quality patient care. Practicing radiologists experience unique hands-on “at the workstation” programs onsite and can access virtual courses for a variety of topics including Breast Imaging with Tomosynthesis, Prostate and Breast MR. Registration for 2024 is open, and for a limited time, registrants can take advantage of the early bird discount and save up to $600 on courses.

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