Applied Radiology

Applied Radiology would like to thank our MRI reviewers: Michael V. Knopp, MD, PhD, Novartis Chair & Director of Imaging Research, Ohio State University Medical Center, University Hospitals, Radiology Department, Columbus, OH; and Val M. Runge, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Investigative Radiology , and Robert and Alma Moreton Centennial Chair in Radiology, Scott and White Clinic and Hospital, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Temple, Texas.

The tremendous growth in radiology in the last decade has created excellent opportunities as well as challenges for the community to sustain innovations in applied imaging and continued interest in the research and academic endeavors in our field. Bracco Diagnostics has initiated a program that provides educational opportunities for leading radiology residents in the United States. Department heads of residency programs were invited to recommend residents to participate in the program. Each selected resident wrote a review article; six of these residents wrote articles that focused on MRI applications of their choosing. (Additionally, two residents wrote combination CT/MRI papers, which were reviewed by all the reviewers.) The material for each article was to come from a review of published literature, supplemented by each resident's own experience and research activities within his or her training program as well as their attendance at pertinent presentations during the 2001 RSNA meeting.

Dr. Val Runge and I reviewed the residents' submitted papers, and it is our pleasure to announce that this year's Bracco MRI "Leaders on the Horizon" Educational Grant has been presented to Dr. Daniel J. Parker from Baylor University Medical Center for his paper, "Cardiac gating in MRI applications."

Dr. Parker graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine and is currently a third-year Radiology Resident at Baylor University Medical Center. He will begin a fellowship in body imaging at the University of Utah in 2003. His paper and the other excellent papers in this section review current areas of interest within MRI. They offer a critical review of developments reported in the scientific literature as well as the ongoing efforts within their own departments.

We hope that the following articles are of educational benefit to the readers and stimulate other residents and our community to keep an active interest in applied research and clinical innovation--an interest that is essential for the continuous evolution of our field.

Michael V. Knopp, MD, PhD