RSNA Press Release

OAK BROOK, Ill. (August 21, 2009) — Radiologist L. Santiago Medina, M.D., M.P.H., from Miami Children's Hospital, will bring his medical expertise to South Africa as part of the International Visiting Professor Program offered by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The program fosters international relations among radiology societies to assist with medical education in developing and newly developed nations.

Dr. Medina, a neuroradiologist and pediatric radiologist, as well as director of the hospital's Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics (HOPE) Center, will be joined by two fellow radiologists as he embarks August 24 on the 11-day trip. He will spend his visit giving presentations and teaching intensive seminars to members of South African radiology societies and hospital radiology departments.

The program is mutually beneficial. The visiting team of radiologists informs local doctors and hospitals about the latest advances in diagnostic and therapeutic radiology. In turn, the visiting professors experience firsthand the obstacles faced by medical professionals in the host countries.

"I feel that the most important thing about this program is that it encourages the educational and scientific exchange between the United States and South Africa in the field of radiology," Dr. Medina said.

Dr. Medina is accompanied by Jill E. Jacobs, M.D., from the New York University Langone Medical Center, and Leanne L. Seeger, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles. Locations of the presentations in South Africa include Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, Radiological Society of South Africa National Congress in Johannesburg, the University of the Free State, Universitas Bloemfontein and Pelonomi Hospital.

The International Visiting Professors Program was founded in 1986 and is administered by RSNA's Committee on International Relations and Education (CIRE).

RSNA is an association of more than 43,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to excellence in patient care through education and research. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

The RSNA Committee on International Relations and Education was established in 1986 to advise the RSNA on how the Society might provide international assistance to enhance radiologic education in countries requesting and requiring assistance. (RSNA.org/International/CIRE)