In the last couple of years, pedagogy has spawned a new phrase: virtual congresses . Several of these already are in operation with favorable responses. And several others are committed and in production stages.
Among those deemed amazingly successful is the one devised by radiologists in Spain and Argentina including Lluis Donoso Bach and Ricardo Garcia Monaco and later embraced by the InterAmerican College of Radiology. This filled a gap in Spanish-language programming that certainly accounts for part of the enthusiasm about it from InterAmerican College of Radiology societies and members.
In the last couple of years, the American College of Radiology has been working on a similar concept and may have gone public by the time you read this. The American College of Radiology has a sliding scale of charges with radiologists in developing countries getting a free ride. The European Society of Radiology has announced the electronic availability of selected presentations from its annual convention. Likely, there are others I do not know about including commercial offering. And also, by the time this reaches your bathroom reading pile, the International Society of Radiology will be into a worldwide program, also organized by Ricardo Garcia Monaco and Lluis Donoso Bach with help from others and available through the International Society of Radiology web site.
When I first heard the phrase virtual congress, I thought it was a bit pretentious and misleading. The contents are a series of lectures by some of the luminaries of the radiology jet set. On reflection, I thought again that the contents of most programs are lectures by the same folks who have transmuted their slide sets into powerpoint versions. Access is achieved via web sites, with erstwhile users punching in passwords before leaning back in their consoles to share the wisdom of the modern multitudes. The cost is modest or nothing at all and the timing is entirely the choice of the viewer.
At least one critic of the virtual programs argues that they will speed the demise of most of the real conferences and live programs, thus depriving many of our societies of their principal functions and much of their revenues from meetings. A few years ago, I would have agreed. But as I remain involved in efforts to bring modern radiology to all parts of the world, I begin to see these efforts as complementary to the rides on a jet plane, nights in a hotel, and shoptalk in the bar plus dinner with an eager salesman. Some of the borderline meetings may fade away, but the well-estabished ones with their bountiful scientific and commercial exhibits will go on. Their multiple functions cannot be supplanted by electronic versions of lectures.
It is a pragmatic observation that radiologists from most parts of the world lack the financial resources and opportunities to attend the major radiology meetings. Taking learning opportunities to the stay-at-homes can be done electronically far more easily and less expensively than taking the teachers into remote areas. With the continuing political unrest in too many parts of the world, the principal requisite for participating in a virtual effort is a reliable electricity source and the computer gadgetry to tap into web sites.
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