Dear SSR family,
I hope that everyone is doing well and staying healthy as we anxiously await spring here in the Midwest.
I am honored to serve as the President of the SSR. After having virtual meetings the past 2 years, it was great to gather in person this year. I would like to thank all of the SSR members, residents, committee chairs/members, vendors, and Veritas Association Management for making our 2022 Annual Meeting in San Diego a success. What a wonderful time we had in San Diego. It was a great program that included cutting edge research, case presentations, e-exhibits, a hands-on US program, an AI break-out session, a Health and Wellness session, and the dedicated break-out session for the residents. For those of you that were unable to attend in person, you were missed but we hope you were enjoying the program virtually!
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to our outgoing President, Larry White, who deftly led the SSR through the pandemic and will continue to serve the SSR on the Executive Committee as Past President. Laura Bancroft concludes her term as Past President and now leaves the Board after a decade of service to the Society as an officer and many more years in other roles. Additionally, a special thank you to all of our outgoing committee members who spent countless hours serving the Society. I am pleased to welcome Jon Jacobson as our President-Elect, David Rubin as Secretary, and Jennifer Demertzis as our new Treasurer.
Our society continues to grow, with our current membership consisting of: 1372 Full Members, 220 Members-in-Training, 20 International Members, and 27 Emeritus Members. Our Society has evolved over the years with the addition of the SSR scholars, resident working group, Health and Wellness ad hoc committee, Artificial Intelligence (AI) ad hoc committee, tweet-chats, and webinars. Our committees are all very active with new goals and ideas for implementation. The society continues to target one yearly White Paper submission on a subject that improves clinical care. The Residency & Fellowship Education Committee is actively engaging our future musculoskeletal radiologists and are continuing to build upon their successes. In the new era of social media, our Social Media ad hoc committee has been instrumental in disseminating information on these platforms. I am looking forward to support, build, advance and continue our Society’s growth. I am supportive of a diverse and equitable Society and will work on implementing mentorship opportunities.
As we work to meet our goals, I encourage you to reach out to me or the Executive Committee with your input, ideas, inspirations or concerns. Let us know how we can further improve our operations to benefit the Society’s vision and mission. Each year we review all of the open committee positions and send out a call for volunteers. If you have interest, please consider volunteering to work on one of the Society’s committees. Here is the link to apply: https://skeletalrad.org/join-ssr-committee. I am working on instituting a quarterly newsletter to keep the membership updated on the happenings of the society. If you have any questions or items that you would like addressed in the newsletter messages, I would love to hear from you.
Warmest regards,
Donna Blankenbaker
Email: DBlankenbaker@uwhealth.org