The National Society of Radiology Practitioner Assistants (NSRPA) Holds 9th Annual Educational Conference for Medi

The Ninth Annual Educational Conference of the National Society of Radiology Practitioner Assistants (NSRPA) was held at the Gold Coast Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas from February 10-12, 2008. More than 200 radiology physician extenders and midlevel healthcare providers attended. The attendees included radiology practitioner assistants (RPA/CBRPA), radiologist assistants (RA/ARRT), and students from Weber State University’s RPA/RA program. Corporate sponsors, keynote speakers and invited representatives from the American College of Radiology (ACR), American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT), American Society of Radiologic Technologist (ASRT), and Certification Board of Radiology Practitioner Assistants (CBRPA) attended. Ranking and returning sponsors included: Angiodynamics, Bard, B. Braun, Burlington Medical, Cook Inc, Cardinal Health, and Elsevier Publishing. Radiology practitioner assistants are ARRT-registered radiographers who have completed the intensive 2-year program at Weber State University, in Ogden, Utah. RPAs are medical imaging physician extenders who perform procedures and assist radiologists by jointly serving the public with state-of-the-art healthcare, access, education and increased patient services. Today, there are more than 350 registered RPAs representing 44 states. Eric Burd RPA, RT(R), past president of the NSRPA, opened the first morning of conference. Vice President James Abraham RPA, RT(R), then spoke of the RPA endorsement by the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) by citing the Radiology Practitioner Assistant as a SIR Clinical Associate Member. This is evident on the membership application located on the website: (www.sirweb.org/beMem ber/beMemPDF/Clnical_associate.pdf). Abraham stressed the growth of the RPA by affiliating and supporting other professional societies. In his last address as president, Eric Burd emphasized the growth of the organization during his terms from 68 members to its present number, 236, and graciously introduced the new President of the NSRPA, Thomas Wade Carrington, RPA, RA, RT(R)(CT). Terry Licciardi, President of the Certification Board for the Radiology Practitioner Assistants (CBRPA) spoke next, and introduced Steven Zegar RPA, RT(R), the newest member to sit on the Board of Directors of the CBRPA. The CBRPA is the certifying and licensing body which administers the national certifying examination. M. Diane Newham, MS RT(R)(CT) (QM)(M), Associate Professor at Weber State University (dnewham@ weber.edu) spoke on the status of the master degree program. The proposal is completed and that it will be a distance-learning course geared towards a thesis. Fellowships will also be available. Please refer to the NSPRA website (https://www.radiologypa.org) for updated information. Mr. Carrington then invited the open business meeting attendees for a discussion panel consisting of representatives from the ACR, ARRT, ASRT, CBRPA and the NSRPA to discuss the summit meetings between all parties to determine if a merger could occur between the ARRT and the CBRPA. The essence of the questions was based on the recognition of all entities for the RPA profession and if there will be a merger. Even though the summit meetings have been placed on hold due to an impasse, the overall consensus was as Charles D. Williams, MD, FACR stated,…there are needs for the radiology physician extender. Dr. Williams also stated that there are a few unresolved issues, i.e., reimbursement, that need to be addressed. While there remain unresolved issues for a possible merger, it was still unanimously agreed upon that communication is key and all are willing to continue with the forward movement of the radiology-based physician extender profession. The first lecturer of the conference was Dr. Steven Gunberg, Chief Department of Radiology; Saint Joseph Medical Center, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado. His presentation was titled: CTA of the Heart. It was a well-rounded presentation, noting the difference between CTA and calcium scores, patient radiation levels, post processing and billing. He noted that the RPA can have a tremendous impact in the pre and post procedure arena. The significance alone for post processing the images can reduce the physician post processing time from 1 hour to 10 minutes for interpretations. The next speaker was Dr. Michael Shiloh, Infectious Disease Specialist working at the University of California at San Francisco. His presentation was titled: Central Line Infections. The room was packed for this subject and Dr. Shiloh held a captive audience. His presentation introduced the terms biofilm bacteria and exopolysaccharide production. The last speaker of the day was Dr. Lori Barr, Medical Director at the Dell Imaging Center, Children’s Hospital of Austin, Austin, Texas. She was also an Oral Board Examiner for Radiologists in Pediatric Radiology for the American Board of Radiology and is a return lecturer to the NSRPA conference. Her compelling, yet haunting presentation was titled: Pediatric Non-accidental Trauma… Pearls and Pitfalls. She touched on the hallmarks of abuse and the medical imaging specialists’ role in reporting such cases. Remember, bones don’t frown think of metaphyseal corner fracture. The second day of the conference began with returning keynote speaker, Dr. James LePage. Dr. LePage has been an early supporter of the Radiology Practitioner Assistant. He is a Fellow in the SIR as well as the American Heart Association and is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee. His presentation was titled: Spectrum of Bowel Disease. It was a great review and he could not emphasize enough that a good history is vital in discovering a diagnosis. The following speaker was Dr. Robert Torrance Andrews, an Associate Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Washington as well as the Director at the Center for Endovascular Therapy in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Andrews presented a very interesting lecture titled EVLT Endovascular Thermal Ablation (EVTA) for saphenous vein reflux. His presentation was very detailed and his caveat is this is a process, not just a procedure. Dr. Aaron Shiloh, from Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, spoke with conviction on the topic of Radiofrequency Ablation of Lung Cancer (Lung RFA). His message is that Interventionalists need to be in the forefront of this exciting new treatment for medically inoperable lung cancer. Dr. Peter McGowan, from the Wilson N. Jones Hospital in Sherman, Texas spoke about Medical Liability and Ethical Aspects of Radiology Practice. He reminded everyone that Radiology survives from defensive medicine. Elements of Success [Gastric surgery] presented by Dr. Matthew Davidson, specializing in bariatric surgery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, gave a surgeon’s per-spective to gastric imaging. Along the same topic of obesity, Dr. Raul Uppot, from Massachusetts General Hospital, expanded on the worldwide epidemic of obesity and gave great alternatives to imaging modality limitations. His presentation titled Obesity: Impact on Imaging & Image-Guided Intervention, gave helpful hints with techniques and measuring devices, i.e., the hoola-hoop. Rounding up the day, returning speaker and RPA advocate since the profession’s beginnings, Dr. Seyhan Senler gave a presentation aptly named Extreme IR II. Dr. Senler is currently a Partner and Director of Interventional Radiology Services for Radiology Associates, Inc. in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The case studies were extreme and fascinating. Dr. Senler emphasizes that you must ALWAYS look at the risk/benefit ratio and ask is there anything we can do for this patient, then look at the ratio again. On the last day of conference, Bruce R. Parker, MD, FACR, presented Pediatrics Imaging: Children are not just Small Adults. Dr. Parker is Chief (Emeritus) at Texas Children’s Hospital, Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine and Professor (Emeritus) of Radiology and Pediatrics, Stanford University. His message was that as a RPA, understanding which imaging modality would best benefit the symptomatic child. Think with your foot off the pedal was one of his pearls. An interesting mention was of Dr. Alice M. Stewart: a British physicist who noted, in 1956, that there was an increase rate of leukemia for radiation-exposed fetuses. Dr. Parker notes that her (Stewart’s) fetuses are our today’s premature infants. He referred his listeners to the Society for Pediatric Radiology (www.pedrad.org) for further information on pediatric imaging. Dr. David Smirnow is the Director of Cytopathology at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Montana. His insightful presentation, titled Radiology/Pathology Let’s work together was educational and entertaining. It gave a fresh perspective of the laboratory equipment and functions along with helpful hints on how Radiology and Pathology must cooperate for optimal patient care and clinical pathways. Remember next time looking at a slide, blue is bad, except for the exceptions. Dr. Debra Accord, Director of Women’s Imaging with Northwest Imaging in Kalispell, Montana, gave an interesting lecture title Breast MRI. Once again, Dr. James LePage presented another exciting lecture named PET/CT Fusion Imaging. It was an opportunity to see what the future will hold with these new vistas, the new imaging modality and the potential of tumor identification. Dr. LePage has graciously allowed the NSRPA to have access to his presentation. Please visit www.radiologypa.org to review. The last presenter of the conference was Leanne Langston, RPA, Weber State University, class of 2002. She gave a presentation on bone densitometry. In conjunction with the presentations, workshops were being conducted. This year the workshops consisted of ACLS renewal: presented by Neil Holtz, EMT-P Vertebral Augmentation: Coordinator Sean Tutton, MD, FSIR Kyphoplasty: Dr. Rajneesh Agrawal Management of Malignant Effusion and Ascites: Dr. Sean Tutton Venous Access - PORTS: Dr. Stanley Kim Tunneled Hemodialysis Catheters: Dr. Seyhan O. Senler The Tenth Annual NSRPA Conference is scheduled for February 2009. Updated information may be obtained by visiting the NSRPA website (www.radiologypa. org). If interested in the RPA program at Weber State University, please contact Diane Newham (dnewham@weber.edu). More information about radiology physician extenders may be found on the CBRPA (www.cbrpa.org), ARRT (www.arrt.org), and the ASRT (www.asrt.org) websites. Special thanks is extended to all the conference committees, volunteers, attendees and speakers; all the sponsors and vendors; the Gold Coast Casino and Hotel, and to Phil Sessions, RPA, RT, for his audio-visual acumen and his permission to use these photographs. Final note: The NSRPA meeting also honored Dr. Harvey Koolpe, who passed away in late 2007. For more information about the scholarship established in his name, see the Cath Lab Digest January 2008 issue, page 50.

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