RSNA Press Release

OAK BROOK, Ill. (September 11, 2009) — Radiologist Laura W. Bancroft, M.D., from Florida Hospital in Orlando, will bring her medical expertise to Bolivia 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. Bancroft, clinical professor at Florida State University School of Medicine and diagnostic radiologist at Florida Hospital in Orlando, will be joined by a fellow radiologist as she embarks September 18 on the 12-day trip. She will spend her visit giving presentations and teaching intensive seminars to members of Bolivian 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 am thrilled to be part of the RSNA Visiting Professor program, and I am looking forward to sharing my interesting musculoskeletal imaging cases with radiologists in this region," Dr. Bancroft said. "Furthermore, I am eager to learn about unique musculoskeletal diseases from the radiologists serving South America, and share them with my North American colleagues."

Dr. Bancroft, who is also adjunct faculty at University of Central Florida School of Medicine and Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, is accompanied by William W. Mayo-Smith, M.D., from Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University in Providence. Locations of the presentations in Bolivia include Hospital Obrero, Hospital Materno Infantil and the annual meeting of the Bolivian Radiological Society in La Paz.

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)