Barcelona EuroPACS

Barcelona

Wed 25 Jun 08 to Sat 28 Jun 08

CAR (Computer Assisted Radiology) began with support for an initiative by the Senate of Berlin in May 1983 directed at the creation of a new congress on information technology in biomedicine. It was one of many government subsidized technical congresses in the divided Berlin that was intended to increase the city's vital contacts with the outside world. Initially, computer graphics and computer vision in biomedicine were proposed as the meetings foci, with the human body as the principal theme. A first definition of CAR, based on CT, was made in 1984 (Ref. 1).

With strong international participation, the first CAR conference and exhibition took place at Berlin's International Congress Center (ICC) in June 1985. The main tracts for the three-day conference were as follows:

digital imaging, e.g. CT, MR, DR, US, SPECT, and PET
picture archiving and communication systems (PACS)
medical workstations for viewing, analyzing and interpretating biomedical images
computer assistance in radiological diagnosis, radiation therapy and surgery

The initial CAR meeting program included computer assisted surgery (CAS) topics, such as computer assisted orthopaedics and computer assisted stereotactic surgery. The expected impact of CAR was recognized by Prof. Heinz Oeser, formally a President of the Deutsche Röntgengesellschaft (DRG) (Ref. 2) " CAR wird die Entwicklung der Medizin entscheidend beeinflussen, mitbestimmend bei der Gestaltung des Gesundheitswesens wirken - richtungsweisend als Flaggschiff der gesamten Medizin." (CAR will decisively effect the development of medicine, impacting the structure of the healthcare system - giving direction as the flagship of medicine.)

A contribution from Prof. Tamon Inouye from Japan stated (Ref. 3) "Future developments in computer assisted radiology can be achieved only in deeper and wider international cooperation beyond the concept of conventional cooperative work in radiology".

More info: http://www.cars-int.org/