Like a bridge over troubled waters: presented at the 29th annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology.

KNOWLEDGEABLE patients prefer interventional radiology, even though few outside of medicine recognize those two words. Patients seek information on minimally invasive treatments over the Internet, from friends, or through a second opinion—and specialists are adapting our techniques into their own field to attract these patients. How can we blame them for wanting to provide the best treatments to their patients? Competition is not foreign to our history, and as the leaders, we should expect it. With this, the 40th anniversary of angioplasty, it is hard for others to ignore the impact we have had on 21st century medicine and the advances we offer in patient care. A recent forbes.com article stated, “[t]he fastgrowing discipline, known as endovascular therapy, could replace up to 70% of conventional surgeries by the end of the decade.” Interventional radiology is a clear target for others to imitate because one thing is agreed upon: that it is the future of medicine. The only question is how strong a role we will play in that future. Interventional radiologists will remain leaders if we focus on moving interventional radiology into the mainstream of patient care, toward the first choice slot of referrals, and if we ensure the highest quality of research to replenish our innovations. We cannot do this alone: all of us in the radiology community need to work together. We need to create strong alliances based on common goals and expertise. This past year, I have worked with the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) to reconnect with long-time allies and reach out to international colleagues. I believe that all those connected to interventional radiology need to join together for our mutual benefit . . . and that SIR is the conduit for this process. During the past year, our collaborative projects included: •Working with the American College of Radiology to release a White Paper supporting interventional radiologic and neurointerventional radiologic clinical practice, to create the Interventional Radiology Learning File CD-ROM, and petition the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand magnetic resonance (MR) angiography coverage; •Working with the Radiological Society of North America for a media briefing in New York, in addition to Certificate of Added Qualifications preparation, promotion of interventional radiology to residents, and creation of the self-assessment for the American Board of Radiology; •Working with the American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology on the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation (CIRREF; now called SIR Foundation) IR Stroke meeting, the Stroke Consensus Conference, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology Stroke Supplement, a Joint Carotid Stent and Stroke Prevention Task Force; and collaboration on carotid training for our members; •Collaborating with the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) to develop the first joint CIRSE/SIR clinical practice guideline, which provides for the same standard of patient care on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean; we also collaborated on emerging therapies and research. In addition to CIRSE, SIR is working with a variety of international interventional radiology groups to broaden our experience and educational efforts and prevent each other from “reinventing the wheel.” The world now requires that we think and act globally. I am pleased to personally announce the collaborative partnership SIR has just established regarding oncology. There is a new SIR interventional oncology task force, and we have invited into our society the Tumor Ablation Workgroup, which represents interventional radiologists who largely comprise cross-sectional imagers. The wealth of research and expertise these individuals bring compleFrom the Department of Radiology, Swedish Covenant Hospital, 5145 North California Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60625. Received April 23, 2004; revision requested April 26; revision received April 29; accepted April 30. Address correspondence to M.C.B.; E-mail: mbrunner@schosp.org