October 2016
In recognition of his significant accomplishments in musculoskeletal radiology, his contribution to the development of European radiology and his efforts to provide a legal framework for teleradiology in Europe, Professor Iain W. McCall will be awarded the Gold Medal of the European Society of Radiology at ECR 2012.
Iain McCall is Professor of Radiological Sciences at the University of Keele and Consultant musculoskeletal radiologist at Oswestry’s Orthopaedic Hospital, where he has worked for 33 years. He has continued to serve as Medical Director of the Hospital Trust after his retirement from clinical practice in 2009. He has taught a great number of radiologists in training on rotation throughout his career, and built up a five-year training programme for 25 radiologists at Keele university hospital.
His research interests have focused on musculoskeletal diseases, especially spinal degeneration and pain. He is currently involved in a large, EU-funded, multicentre study on the relationship of disc degeneration, MRI changes and genetics, and is also working on articular cartilage regeneration and repair with cultured chondrocytes, using MRI as the evaluation tool. He has a further interest in Achilles tendon injury, slipped femoral epiphysis and Paget’s disease.
He has been very active within the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), and was Registrar between 1994 and 1998. In 1999 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Radiology of the RCR for two years, a role that allowed him to significantly influence education and training of radiologists in the U.K.
His influence is also deeply felt in Europe, and he has served as the U.K. representative for radiology to the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) and President of the Radiology section. He has served as chairman of the professional organisation committee of the European Association of Radiologists (EAR), which later became the ESR, and was responsible for revising the five-year radiological curriculum that was adopted by most EU countries. He established and ran a programme assessing radiology teaching centres in Europe and helped to develop the continuing medical education and development policy for European radiologists.
He greatly contributed to the creation of the ESR in 2005, through the merger of the EAR and the European Congress of Radiology. He personally drafted and fine-tuned the ESR statutes over two years, and was subsequently appointed ESR President in 2008–2009.
He has carried out tremendous work for the development of a legal framework for teleradiology within Europe, to ensure continued high quality of patient care. He represented the EAR on the International Radiology Quality Network during the development of the international standards for teleradiology, and produced guidance documents on Good Radiological Practice and Teleradiology.
Professor McCall has been involved with numerous subspecialty and national societies over the years. He has been a member of the International Skeletal Society since 1982 and served as Editor of the society’s journal Skeletal Radiology for many years. He also served as Vice President and President of this society, and was recently presented with its Gold Medal.
He is an active member of the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine and the European Spine Society, and was the U.K. representative to the International Society of Radiology for many years. Among honours from many other societies, he received Honorary Membership from the RSNA in 2010.
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