DEAR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES, 

It is a great pleasure to invite you to our Annual Scientific Meeting taking place online this year!

This year’s congress experience will focus on the theme of Convergence in MRI.  Convergence science reflects the gathering together of different disciplines to work together, across boundaries and silos in order to accelerate scientific knowledge.  This concept has been reflected in the name and the mission of ESMRMB since its inception, incorporating MR, medicine and biology.  We celebrate this cross-cutting mission and present a programme that reflects convergence science in MRI.

Our meeting will again combine the advantages of focused workshops with the broad, scientific scope of an annual meeting and be structured around a few  topics of the moment.

MRI in Therapy:  This stream covers MRI applications that are widely used to support treatment planning. The scope includes fast MRI, MRI applications in hybrid systems and MRI for predicting and monitoring treatment response.  

AI in Action: Here we aim to move away from the hype to examine the daily work of developing AI systems in the field of MRI – including workflow, acquisition and efficiency. We consider the top tips for robust database development to ensure translatable algorithms, radiomics and diagnostic techniques.

Trends in Clinical MR: Updates on issues of high clinical relevance are presented, including the hot topic of gadolinium retention and deposition and developments in managing artefacts, implants and movement.  We also take a look at what is around the corner, with a session on current translational work.

Many of the educational and plenary sessions will focus on these topics, but there will also be space to discuss broader themes  and we are very excited to include a plenary session on sustainability in MRI.  Scientific sessions, as always, will cover all topics, and we thank you for your submissions!

This programme structure will allow you to gain in-depth knowledge in one of these topics or combine sessions to suit your own interests, enhancing the educational benefits of visiting our congress.

Our annual meeting has been successful in cultivating integration and collaboration between clinicians, physicists and radiographers, between junior and senior researchers, and between the fundamental and applied sciences. Moreover, the ESMRMB is the platform for preclinical and biological research. To encourage interactions within this community, we are again organising a dedicated pre-conference day (30 September 2020) on preclinical imaging and spectroscopy.

We look forward to welcoming you online!

Andrea Rockall
Chair of the Programme Planning Committee 2020