New editorial board members provide expertise in emerging areas

Most readers probably pay little attention to the listing of the Editorial Advisory Board on this page, but these people play an essential role in our magazine's production. Diagnostic Imaging Europe is not a peer-reviewed journal, so advisors do not carry out formal reviews of manuscripts, but they do suggest worthwhile topics for future coverage and nominate potential authors. Some of them also write articles for us.

DI Europe's board meets once a year. This gathering used to take place at a horrendously early hour over breakfast in Chicago, prior to the start of the morning refresher courses at the RSNA congress. Now it is held over a civilized buffet lunch at ECR in Vienna. The discussion is always entertaining and lively, and occasionally voices are raised and emotions run high. Everybody, it seems, has his or her own opinion about the future direction of medical imaging.

Since the first edition of DI Europe in April 1985, the number of advisors has grown steadily. In our debut issue, there were 12 members, only one of whom was based in Europe (Prof. Peter Wells from Bristol, U.K.). We now have 29 board members from 14 European nations, and they have knowledge of a diverse range of subjects.

Given the complexity of imaging today, as well as the need to ensure a good geographical spread among the board, having such a network of contacts is invaluable. If the editors have any technical queries, then we always have someone to help us.

These board members are very generous with their time, particularly bearing in mind that the position is unpaid and entirely voluntary. From time to time, some of them say that their main motivation is to contribute to a publication that is free to medical doctors and performs a useful service.

As you will see from the feature toward the back of this edition, we have six new members of the board. They have expertise in several important areas, including cardiovascular imaging, functional MR, PET/CT, and training and education, and I am sure that their contributions will help to strengthen DI Europe. We are looking forward to working with them over the coming months and years.

Finally, I would like to extend my personal thanks to the five senior editorial board members who have stepped down this year due to retirement or a change in their personal circumstances. We really appreciate everything they have done for us, and I particularly appreciated their active support and guidance when I became editor of DI Europe in late 1993.