Welcome Note for ICR2014

Iranian congress of radiology has been held for over three decades and in my opinion, this year ICR is in one of its turning points by becoming a truly international meeting in the region. After several years of efforts to promote the meeting in the neighbor countries, now we have registrants from abroad who have found the congress beneficial in the past years. And we consider it as one of the most important achievements of Iranian society of radiology.

Oncologic imaging is one of the most interesting fields in diagnostic and interventional radiology which is becoming more and more applicable in clinical situations. It is a multidisciplinary practice area requiring vast knowledge not limited to the imaging modalities and findings but also including tumor staging, radiation oncology, surgical and interventional treatment options and most interestingly hybrid imaging as a new approach to visualize cancer. So, it has been a wise decision by congress program committee to select oncologic imaging as one of the major themes of the meeting enriched by outstanding guest speakers invited from all over the world. The pre-congress course on PET/CT will be an invaluable opportunity for introductory training, fitting both practicing and resident radiologists. We are grateful for the kind support of European society of oncologic imaging for their contribution. Also we are thankful for leading experts in the field of oncologic imaging who accepted for contribute as faculty of 30^th ICR.

This year, Iranian society of radiology has the honor of granting the first resident research award. It is a thoughtful foundation based on generous donation of Prof. Bonakdarpour, one of the pioneers of skeletal radiology at international level. This foundation is running by a board of trustees elected by the founder and for the first round, the grant will be awarded to best resident papers of ICR2014.

I am pretty sure this congress will be another step forward in the history of Iranian congresses of radiology.

Mansoor Fatehi, MD, CIIP

General Secretary, Iranian Society of Radiology