SIIM22 Perspective from a New Committee Co-Chair

I have been attending the annual SIIM (and, once upon a time, SCAR) meeting for over 20 years. Although I look forward to the meeting every year, there was a special feeling of anticipation this year as there hadn’t been a live meeting since Aurora, CO in 2019.  In addition to the opportunity to see old colleagues face-to-face instead of in the Hollywood Squares of a Zoom meeting, I had recently been asked to serve as the co-chair of the Society’s Education Committee.

This opportunity allowed me to attend and participate in the Board and committee chair meeting on the day preceding the start of the conference.

As a long-time attendee, I had always sensed the passion of leadership but seeing the board conduct business confirmed that this is an organization filled with individuals who not only care about imaging informatics and its role in improving healthcare quality and efficiency but, more importantly, cares about the members. It was clear that the outcome strived for in each topic discussed was to enrich members’ experience and to ensure that all members are represented and respected.

SIIM has an increasingly diverse membership. Once primarily the purview of Radiologists, medical physicists, and PACS administrators, its membership now spans Physicians from a variety of medical specialties as well as a diverse group of technical individuals and technologists supporting and developing the applications and tools of the future.
Regardless of your role, you truly do belong at SIIM.

As the new co-chair of the Education Committee, I will try and do my part to ensure that all members continue to have the opportunity to have the resources to learn new skills and increase their knowledge in this complex, diverse, and growing community.

Jay Crawford DHA, CIIP
Chief Imaging Informatics Officer
UNC School of Medicine, Department of Radiology