RSNA Press Release

OAK BROOK, Ill. (August 18, 2009) — Radiologist Leanne L. Seeger, M.D., from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will bring her 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. Seeger, diagnostic radiologist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, will be joined by two fellow radiologists as she embarks August 24 on the 11-day trip. She will spend her 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.

"This program helps promote international relationships in the radiology community and helps spread state-of-the-art information," Dr. Seeger said.

Dr. Seeger is accompanied by Jill E. Jacobs, M.D., from the New York University Langone Medical Center, and L. Santiago Medina, M.D., M.P.H., from Miami Children's Hospital. Locations of the presentations in South Africa include Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, Radiological Society of South Africa National Congress in Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch in Tygerberg.

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)