ACER International Outreach
Since 2013, aligned with ACER’s mission to provide a formal organization and forum for clinician- educators to meet, exchange ideas, and learn new skills that promote and advance the careers of clinician-educators, ACER has been collaborating with national and regional radiology societies in creating innovative symposia dedicated to the training of advanced educational skills for academic radiologists. These one day “Teach the Teacher” programs focus on promoting the concepts of life-long learning, appreciating adult learning theories, improving presentation skills, and effectively using new educational electronic tools, through both didactic sessions and hands-on workshops. Participating course faculty have included many ACER executive committee members. Our past collaborating societies: Egyptian Society of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine with the Pan Arab Association of Radiology Societies For more information, please contact AAR. 2018 ACER International Outreach In 2018, ACER continued its collaborations with national and regional radiology societies in creating innovative symposia dedicated to the training of advanced educational skills for academic radiologists, with programs held in Alexandria, Egypt and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Our program in Alexandria took place as part of the Pan African Association of Radiology Societies meeting, hosted by the Egyptian Society of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Course faculty included ACER officer Puneet Bhargava, ALENTAR President Guillermo Elizondo Rojas from Monterrey Mexico, and course director, Eric Stern. Our team is very grateful for the warm hospitality shown to us by local hosts Dr. Emad Naguib and Dr. Tarek El Diasty. In Saudi Arabia, our second program in as many years was part of the annual meeting of the Radiology Society of Saudi Arabia. Course faculty included Puneet Bhargava, ACER Past-President Mark Mullins, and course co-director Eric Stern. Again, our team is very grateful for the warm hospitality shown to us by local hosts Dr. Lamia Jamjoom and Dr. Khalid Khashoggi. The RSSA leadership has expressed continued interest to build upon this relationship. In January 2019, ACER held its 5th program with our Mexican colleagues, again with the cooperation of the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, in Mexico City. Course faculty included Eric Stern, as course co-chair with Guillermo Elizondo, Puneet Bhargava, Aine Kelly, and ACER President, Paul Cronin. We are once again extremely grateful to our course co-chair, Jose Luis Ramirez Arias for his invaluable help in local organizing and leadership. We all enjoyed the warm local hospitality and more importantly, the uniformly excellent program evaluations from the attendees. Plans are being made for future programs in 2019…stay tuned for updates. 2017 ACER International Outreach In November 2017, AAR/ACER held our 4th joint program in Mexico with the cooperation of the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, in Mexico City. The theme of the program was “Education, Leadership, and Professionalism”. The meeting was attended by 205 physicians, from a variety of medical specialties, in addition to radiologists. Speakers included Eric Stern, as course co-chair, Guillermo Elizondo, Matthew Heller, Kate Klein and ACER President, Priscilla Slanetz. We are very grateful to the course co-chair, Jose Luis Ramirez Arias for his invaluable help in local organizing and leadership. We all enjoyed the warm local hospitality and more importantly, the uniformly excellent program evaluations from the attendees. One of the goals of our AAR/ACER outreach programs, developed by the AAR International Relations committee, is to assist non-US national or regional societies in developing or improving their own similar academic radiology communities. We are delighted to report that at the conclusion of the course, there was an initiative from a group of 25 Mexican radiology educators to form an alliance, similar to ACER, in Mexico. The new group is called "Alianza de Educadores Nacionales para La Transformación Académica de la Radiología," (ALENTAR, a Spanish word meaning “to encourage”). The purpose of this new alliance is to address concerns related to the teaching of radiology in diverse settings of residency programs throughout Mexico. The members of this new alliance plan to work together to harmonize radiology education within the many different teaching and learning settings throughout the country. They also plan to find innovative ways to work in partnership and share resources for the training of the next generation of Mexican radiologists. We are all excited to see the seeds that we have planted the past 4 years take root. We look forward to supporting this new alliance in their future activities. 2016 ACER International Outreach  From left: Drs. Mark Mullins, Alfredo Bruzzi, Priscilla Slanetz, and Eric Stern at the 2015 Congreso Argentino de Radiologia in Buenos Aires.
2015 was a fantastic year for ACER international outreach efforts. In July, ACER sent a team of radiology educators for an expanded one and a half day program as part of a joint meeting of the Mexican Society Radiology and the Mexican Federation of Radiology, in Cancun Mexico. Nearly 100 people attended this ACER program. In contrast to prior courses, this time we also included one of Mexico's outstanding radiology educators on the program faculty, Dr. Guillermo Elizondo. The course was extremely well received, with great enthusiasm from all participants. Click here to see the program schedule. Dr. Elizondo was one of the first two international members to join the AAR. Our ACER faculty were so impressed with him, that we arranged for him to participate in our ACER programming during the AAR spring meeting in San Diego! In September, another group of ACER members traveled to Buenos Aires Argentina for a one day program with a similar format to our past programs. Once again, our efforts were warmly embraced with an enthusiastic group of radiology educators from around the entire country of Argentina. Click here (ACER SAR Program) to see the program. Here are some quotes from the Argentina post-meeting evaluation:
We anticipate continuing to develop relationships with these international societies and likely a few more, as these international outreach efforts develop.
From left to right, Beatriz Gonzalez, Jose Luis Ramirez, Mark Mullins, Rene Anguiano, Eric Stern, Aine Kelly and Mahesh Thapa at the joint meeting of the SMRI and FMRI, Cancun Mexico, July 2015
Dr. Guillermo Elizondo speaking at the ACER International educational outreach program in Cancun Mexico, July 2015
In our efforts to continue to stimulate interest and demonstrate support for radiology education in Mexico, the Alliance for Clinician Education in Radiology (ACER) and the Sociedad Mexicana de Radiologia e Imagen (SMRI) are working together to develop a core group of radiology educators within the Mexican radiological education system. In January 2014, ACER together with SMRI co-organized a second annual, one day radiology educational symposium in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Mexico City dedicated to the training of advanced educational skills to a select and invited group of Mexican academic radiologists. This educational symposium was again organized by ACER founding president, Dr. Eric Stern, and Dr Jose Luis Ramirez -Arias, past President of the Mexican Society of Radiology and Imaging, and coordinator of Radiology Postgraduate Education program in the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The invited symposium speakers were all members of the ACER leadership, and included Dr. Petra Lewis, ACER Past-President; Dr. Aine Kelly, ACER Treasurer; Dr Jannette Collins, ACER Past President; Dr Mahesh Thapa ACER President-Elect; and Dr. Eric Stern. The SMRI President, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Treviño welcomed all the ACER professors and participants to the meeting. The lectures and workshops were all presented in English, with translation services available for all faculty and attendees. The symposium registrants included over 50 invited academic radiologists involved in postgraduate radiology education programs from across Mexico. The main themes of this year's ACER-SMRI Educator symposium focused on promoting the concepts of life-long learning, appreciating adult learning theories, improving presentation skills, and effectively using new active learning techniques such as classroom flipping, through both didactic sessions and hands-on workshops. Feedback from registrants was very positive, with 98% rating the program, organization, presentations and professors as excellent. The faculty was described as all very approachable, caring, and friendly. The electronic tools provided were very useful for their educational practices. Given the enthusiastic reviews of the program by both the participants and professors, it is likely that a third annual course will be organized by both institutions next year. In an effort to build upon the relationships being developed through these symposia, ACER plans to sponsor one or more SMRI leaders to attend and experience the 2014 AAR annual meeting, this year in Baltimore, Maryland. 2013 ACER International Outreach The Alliance for Clinician Education in Radiology (ACER) together with the Sociedad Mexicana de Radiologia e Imagen co-organized a first of its kind, one day, Radiology Educational Symposium in Mexico City, January 29 2013, dedicated to the training of advanced educational skills to academic radiologists. This innovative symposium was organized by Dr. Eric Stern, a previous invited professor in Mexican Society of Radiology annual course, and founding President of ACER, and by Dr Jose Luis Ramirez -Arias, past President of the Mexican Society of Radiology and Imaging, and coordinator of Radiology Postgraduate Education program in the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The invited symposium speakers were all members of the ACER leadership, and included Dr. Petra Lewis, ACER President; Dr. Jocelyn Chertoff, ACER Past-President; Dr Jannette Collins, ACER Past President; Dr Angelisa Paladin ACER President-Elect; and Dr. Eric Stern. Participating speakers from Mexico included Dr. Guillermo Elizondo-Riojas, Chairman of Radiology in the University Hospital of Monterrey , Dr. Miguel Stoopen-Rometti, Director of Radiology of CT Scanner de Mexico, and Dr. Jose Luis Ramirez-Arias. The SMRI President ,Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Treviño welcomed all the ACER professors and participants to this historic meeting. The symposium registrants included over 40 academic radiologists involved in postgraduate radiology education programs around the country. The main themes of this new symposium ACER-SMRI Clinician Educator Program 25 focused on promoting the concepts of life-long learning, appreciating adult learning theories, improving presentation skills, and effectively using new educational electronic tools, through both didactic sessions and hands-on workshops. Given the enthusiastic reviews of the program by both the participants and professors, it is very possible that a second course will be organized by both institutions next year. In recognition of the success of this program, Dr. Eric Stern Gratefully received the SMRI Educational Excellence award at the SMRI annual meeting.
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