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News
New IRS Officers Elected for 2007-2008
Kate A. Feinstein, MD, FACR from the Department
of Radiology at The University of Chicago Hospitals in Chicago became
the President of the IRS having served as the Secretary/Assistant Treasurer
and then President-Elect/Treasurer for the past two years. She
replaces Leonard Berlin, MD, FACR, from Rush North Shore
Medical Center who was President for 2006-2007. Matthew
J. Kuhn, MD, FACR, from the Department of Radiology
at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield is the President-Elect/Treasurer
and Kathleen A. Ward, MD, FACR from the Department of
Radiology at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood was elected
Secretary/Assistant Treasurer. John F. Hibbeln, MD from Rush
University Medical Center in Chicago was elected Alternate Councilor
for the American College of Radiology. Councilors and Alternates
also serve as members of the IRS Executive Committee. For a full
listing of Executive Committee members, click here.
Chicago Radiological
Society
Installs New Officers for 2007-2008
Jay L. Korach, MD, of Stat Imaging
in Chicago will serve as CRS President for 2007-2008 having served as
Vice President and Program Director for the past two years. John
F. Hibbeln, MD, from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology
at Rush University Medical Center, is President-Elect and Secretary-Treasurer. Edward
A. Michals, MD from the Department of Radiology at the University
of Illinois Hospital is the new Vice President and Program Director.
For a full listing of officers, Executive Committee and Trustees, please
visit the CRS web site at www.chi-rad-soc.org.
Resident and Fellow Section Elects Officers
Joseph Carabetta, MD, from the University of Chicago
Hospitals, was elected President of the Resident and Fellow Section,
replacing Gretchen
Conroy, MD, from Rush University who was president in 2006-2007. Mustafa
Bashir, MD, from Rush University
Medical Center was elected Vice President and President-Elect. Douglas
Brylka, MD from Loyola University Medical Center was elected
Secretary-Treasurer and Alice Yao-Lee, MD from Rush
University will serve as the RFS Program Director. The RFS meets
in conjunction with the monthly meetings of the CRS.
IRS and CRS Schedule 2007-2008 Meetings
The IRS and CRS have scheduled their slate of meetings for the 2007-2008
season. The CRS will hold five monthly meetings October 2007 to
April 2008 with a joint meeting with the IRS scheduled for Saturday,
March 15th. The CRS Meetings will again be held at the Searle Conference
Center in the Professional Building at Rush University Medical Center.
Watch your mail, email and the CRS and IRS web sites for updated information.
The
dates for the meetings are as follows:
- Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
- Wednesday, Nov.
14, 2007
- Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008
- Thursday, Feb.
21, 2008
- Saturday, March 15, 2008 (Joint
Meeting with IRS)
- Thursday, April 17, 2008.
The
Joint Meeting of the Chicago Radiological Society, Illinois Radiological
Society and Central Illinois Radiological Society scheduled for Saturday,
March 15th will focus on “Hot Topics” with Leonard
Berlin, MD, FACR, from Rush North Shore Medical Center serving
as program chair.
Radiologists hold Capitol Hill Day in Washington
During the ACR Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference held
in May in Washington, over 300 radiologists from around the United States
visited with their respective Congressional Offices. Illinois Congressional
Offices visited included Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama and
Representatives Bobby Rush, Rahm Emanuel, Danny Davis, Mark Kirk, Judy
Biggert, Ray LaHood and John Shimkus. The key issues for
2007 addressed the repeal or delay of the Deficit Reduction Act and additional
funding for the Biotechnology Division of the National Institute of Health.
Residents Gain Exposure to Socio-Economic Issues
The American College of Radiology and the respective state chapters
again sponsored residents and fellows to attend the ACR meeting in Washington.
In addition to attending special programming aimed toward residents and
fellows, our younger colleagues attended the general sessions and witnessed
firsthand the policy making sessions of the ACR Executive Council. Six
residents from Illinois attended the meeting under sponsorship of the
ACR and the IRS.
They included Syam Vasireddy, MD, from
the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield; David A. Dusek, MD, from
the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria; Faisal
Vali, MD, a radiation oncology resident from
Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago; Alice Yao-Lee,
MD, from
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago; Mustafa Bashir, MD,
from
Rush University Medical Center; and Anupam Basu, MD, from
Loyola University Medical Center. The resident and fellow scholarship
to the ACR was initiated by Illinois many years ago at the urging of
the late Steven Pinsky, MD. It was so successful that the
ACR made it part of their official program and helped offset the costs
of the residents attending the meeting.
Illinois Radiologists
Receive Fellowship Status in ACR
Three Illinois Radiologists received their
Fellowship designation at ceremonies at the ACR meeting and may now
include FACR as part of their credentials. Matthew J. Kuhn,
MD, FACR, and W.
Ross Stevens, MD, FACR, both from Springfield, and Albert
A. Nemcek, MD, FACR, from Chicago were awarded the designation
at the Convocation at the ACR meeting. The application period for
Fellowship for 2008 is now closed. Radiologists, radiation oncologists
or physicists interested in applying should apply by March 1, 2008 in
order for the IRS Fellowship Committee to review and approve applications
for submission to ACR by May 1 for 2009. Fellowship information
is available on ACR web site at www.acr.org,
under the membership tab.
W. Ross Stevens, MD, FACR,
Elected
to ACR Nominating Committee
W.
Ross Stevens, MD, FACR, from Springfield has been elected to
the ACR Nominating Committee. In that capacity he will be part of the
process to solicit and select candidates for future Nominating Committees
and for the ACR Steering Committee. Candidates for the Nominating
Committee and the Steering Committee are voted on at the ACR Annual Meeting
by members of the ACR Council. A past president of the IRS and
the CIRS Doctor Stevens chairs the IRS Legislative Affairs Committee
and has been active in the ACR State Legislative Committee.
Illinois Legislative Report
Michelle Gentry-Wiseman of MGW Associates, who is
the IRS Legislative Affairs Consultant, has been busy in Springfield
monitoring legislation and regulatory actions, working in conjunction
with W. Ross Stevens, MD, FACR, from Springfield,
chair of the IRS Legislative Affairs Committee. Below is her
report on a number of issues she has been following.
The 2007 Legislative
session has been an interesting one, with the political drama high
at the end having no agreement on a budget prior to the start of the
new fiscal year. Even at the time of writing—July
23—there is still no agreement in sight and only 1 week remaining
on the one month budget extension passed a few weeks ago. Substantively,
the House and Senate have, to date, passed more than 700 pieces of legislation
through both chambers—with a number focusing on health care related
issues. But the Governor's priority of universal health care
has yet to be addressed. Below are some highlighted legislative
proposals that have been sent to the Governor.
HB 147 (Harris-D/Koehler-D): Amends the law
concerning insurance coverage in Illinois to require that insurers provide
coverage annually for a complete and thorough physical examination of
the breast, including but not limited to a comprehensive clinical breast
examination performed by a health care provider to check for lumps and
other changes for the purpose of early detection and prevention of breast
cancer. Provides that every insurer must establish a separate and distinct
reimbursement code for comprehensive clinical breast examinations of
6-10 minutes in length.
HB 1798 (Brosnahan-D/Raoul-D): Amends the
Wrongful Death Act. Provides that a jury may award damages for grief,
sorrow, and mental suffering to the surviving spouse and next of kin
of the deceased. Provides that any amount reduced from
a contributory negligent beneficiary's share of damages shall be distributed
to the other beneficiaries in proportion to their respective degrees
of dependency. Deletes language regarding limitations on the amount of
damages. Applies to causes of action accruing on or after the effective
date of the amendatory Act.
SB 360 (Ronen-D/Saviano-R): The legislation re-establishes
the Nurse Practice Act through January of 2018. The language makes
a variety of changes to various licensure Acts that will allow Advanced
Practice Nurses to be granted distinct privileges without the necessity
for a collaborative agreement with a physician in ambulatory surgical
treatment centers and hospitals. While
an attending physician would have to determine the role of an APN in
providing care to his/her patients—the changes will provide that
a credentialed APN may order, select and administer medications—including
controlled substances—in these settings.
SB 1365 (Kotowski-D/Cole-R): Provides that every
insurer shall provide coverage for a comprehensive ultrasound screening
of an entire breast or breasts if a mammogram demonstrates heterogeneous
or dense breast tissue, when medically necessary as determined by a physician
licensed to practice medicine in all its branches (instead of based on
the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System established by the American
College of Radiology or if the woman is believed to be at increased risk
for breast cancer due to family history or prior personal history of
breast cancer, positive genetic testing, or other indications as determined
by a woman's health care provider).
On a very positive note, the IRS was
successful in working with the Department of Nuclear Safety in getting
a category included in state regulation for the recognition of Radiation
Assistants. The rules implementing
this change were proposed in February of this year and should be
finally adopted sometime within the next several weeks. The
RA category has been promoted by the ACR the American Society of
Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) and its state affiliate the Illinois
State Society of Radiologic Technologists (ISSRT) for a number of years,
both to address issues of workloads for radiologists and an enhanced
career path for radiation technologists.
IRS Creates Legislative Committee
To support our legislative consultant’s efforts in Springfield,
the IRS Executive Committee has agreed to establish and fund a small
legislative committee. W. Ross Stevens, chair of the IRS Legislative
Committee, is the Treasurer. The committee will operate only at
the state level in support of legislation and regulations to enhance
the practice of radiology and patient care in Illinois.
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