Semin Musculoskelet Radiol
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1796631
Society News

The European Diploma in Musculoskeletal Radiology: Webinar Program of the ESSR

1   Radiology Department, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
2   Medical Faculty, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
,
3   Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Paediatric Radiology and Neuroradiology, University Medical Centre Rostock, Rostock, Germany
,
4   Department of Anatomy, University of Crete School of Medicine, Heraklion, Greece
5   Department of MSK Imaging, Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound Practice, Heraklion, Greece
,
Carlo Martinoli
6   Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
,
7   Department of Radiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium
8   Department of Radiology, AZ Sint-Maarten, Mechelen, Belgium
9   Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universities of Antwerp and Ghent, Belgium
,
10   Radiology Department, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, United Kingdom
,
11   Department of Medical Imaging, Zuyderland Medical Centre, Sittard-Geleen, Heerlen, Brunssum, Kerkrade, The Netherlands
› Author Affiliations
 

Abstract

The European Diploma in Musculoskeletal Radiology (EDiMSK) is a recognized European qualification of excellence for musculoskeletal (MSK) radiologists. Webinars have become a vital component of electronic learning. This article introduces European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology members to its webinar program that offers an additional source of direct interactive learning from renowned MSK radiologists. These webinars contribute to Continuing Medical Education and assist in preparing for the EDiMSK exam. We discuss the concept, history, and organization of the webinars.


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What Is a Webinar?

A webinar, short for web seminar, is an online event conducted live over the Internet. It enables participants to engage in presentations, lectures, workshops, or seminars from remote locations. Webinars are a powerful form of electronic learning material (ELM), offering a flexible and cost-effective way to deliver content, facilitate professional development, and promote community engagement.[1] [2]


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Webinars and Continuing Medical Education

Continuing Medical Education (CME) is essential in health care by helping ensure that physicians are always up to date on the latest information in their field. In most European countries, CME is required for obtaining and maintaining accreditation.[3] [4] Despite the post-pandemic resurgence of live educational events (LEE), ELM and hybrid events are gaining importance, especially among younger professionals.[5]

A 2019 survey by the Accreditation Council in Imaging (ACI) revealed that 80% of respondents believe CME accreditation would enhance their motivation to attend webinars, underscoring the need for expanded accreditation to maintain quality and eliminate commercial bias.[6] The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the shift toward online education, consisting primarily of webinars and on-demand resources.[7] [8] [9] The European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and ACI adapted by enabling providers to convert LEE to ELM.[5] A 2023 ACI survey indicated improved ELM content quality since the pandemic's onset in spring 2020, with a focus on preserving speaker engagement and interactivity.[5]


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Concept of European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology Webinars

The European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) live webinars are designed for radiologists and residents in radiology with an interest in musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging and MSK interventions.[10] The aim is to promote the society's mission in education and research of imaging and image-guided therapy of MSK diseases with a focus on the European tradition of problem solving in this field.[10] New knowledge should be brought from science into clinical practice. The webinars contain interactive lectures given by opinion leaders in their field, clinical case vignettes, live discussions, and practice tips.[10] Presentations are optimized for micro e-learning (i.e., for the comfortable use with mobile devices).[10] The learning objectives are focused on the requirements of the European Diploma in Musculoskeletal Radiology (EDiMSK) offered by the ESSR and the MSK part of the European Diploma in Radiology offered by the European Board of Radiology.[10] [11]


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Brief History of European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology Webinars

The first ESSR webinar was held on May 7, 2018, initiated by ESSR president-elect Prof. Franz Kainberger and the chair of the ESSR Education Committee, Prof. Carlo Martinolli. Dr. Omar Albtoush, member at that time of the newly established ESSR Young Club during the ESSR Annual Meeting in Bari in 2017, presented two cases of complex joint trauma, followed by Prof. Franz Kainberger's lecture on multimodality imaging of early arthritis. This historical webinar, moderated by Dr. Danoob Dalili, member of the ESSR Young Club at that time, was recorded and is still accessible on the ESSR website[12] under the tab “ESSR WEBINARS.”

As of June 2024, 50 of 54 past webinars are available for ESSR members ([Table 1]). At the beginning, each session typically included presentation of a national MSK society or MSK group, a warm-up case, a main lecture, and finally an interactive audience question-and-answer section. The basic structure has remained with some flexibility. There was one combined European Society of Oncologic Imaging (ESOI)-ESSR webinar in 2020 discussing soft tissue tumors. Starting in 2022, other disciplines related to MSK imaging became involved (sports medicine surgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedic surgery, pathology, and rheumatology). Since 2020, webinars have been held on Mondays and last an average of 71 minutes (range: 52–98 minutes). There are a maximum of 10 webinars per year, with a 2-month summer holiday break.

Table 1

ESSR webinars from 2018 with lecturers and case presenters

Year

Title

Case presenter

Speaker

2018f

Imaging of early arthritis—new frontiers for multimodality imaging

Omar Albtoush/DE

Franz Kainberger/AT

Imaging of osteoporosis and body composition

Carmelo Messina/IT

Giuseppe Guglielmi/IT

Imaging of the tendons and ligaments of the ankle

Alexys Perez/ES

Eva Llopis/ES

Lumps and bumps of the soft tissue—how to differentiate benign from malignant lesions?

Julie Desimpel/BE

Filip Vanhoenacker/BE

2019

MRI of the pediatric knee

Bert Degrieck/BE

Lennart Jans/BE

Exploring the jungle of the posterior triangle of the neck with ultrasound

Federico Zaottini/IT

Carlo Martinoli/IT

Sports imaging: Imaging athletic groin pain

Hardi Madani/UK

Philip Robinson/UK

Subtle and manifest signs of spinal injury

Timothy Woo/UK

Victor Cassar-Pullicino/UK

ESOI/ESSR joint webinar: Imaging and response assessment of multiple myeloma

Andrea Baur-Melnyk/DE

Knee femoropatellar instability: How does CT/MRI contribute to treatment decision?

Ana Catarina Vieira/PT

Diana Afonso/PT

Spinal degenerative disk disease

John Hynes/IE

Eoin Kavanagh/IE

Postoperative shoulder

Benedikt Schwaiger/DE

Klaus Wörtler/DE

2020

Imaging of elbow instability

Florian Huber/CH

Reto Sutter/CH

Early-onset OA of the hip joint

Evangelia Vassalou/GR

Apostolos Karantanas/GR

Interventional musculoskeletal ultrasound: Common applications

Jon A. Jacobson/USA

Rheumatoid arthritis

Grzegorz Pracon/PL

Iwona Sudol-Szopinska/PL

Imaging of cruciate ligaments

Magdalena Chmiel-Nowak/PL

Anagha P. Parkar/NO

The MSK: Soft tissue tumors

Filip Vanhoenacker/BE

Metal artifact reduction MRI: From principle to practice

Jan Fritz/BE

Care, learn, innovate: The role of imaging professionals in the management of osteoporosis patients

Eleni Kariki/UK

Imaging of osteoarthritis

Edwin Oei/NL

2021

MSK interventional oncology

Julia Weiss/FR

Roberto Luigi Cazzato/FR

Imaging of shoulder instability

Christoph Schäffeler/CH

Artificial Intelligence in MSK: Recent developments

Michael Recht/USA

Congenital skeletal pathology: In search of the skeleton key

Pilar Aparisi Gómez/NZ/ES

Imaging the menisci: The basics, pitfalls, and what not to miss

Holly Christopher/UK

Andrew Grainger/UK

Clinical dilemmas in MR neurography interpretation

Shivani Alhawat/USA

Possible traps in evaluating bone and soft tissue tumors

Kitija Nulle/LV

Hatice Tuba Sanal/TR

Whole-body MRI: The optimal technique and the current musculoskeletal applications

Kai Vilanova/ES

Role of imaging in body composition

Amanda Isaac/UK

2022

Spondylodiscitis infectious and noninfectious

Antoine Feydy/FR

The limping child

Alberto Bazzocchi/IT

Injuries of the hand and pulleys

Andrea B. Rosskopf/CH

News in peripheral nerve imaging

Marie Faruch/FR

Overuse sport lesions in children: Imaging findings

Alberto Vieira/PT

US-guided carpal and cubital tunnel release

Alexander Loizides/AT

Calf injuries

Jaime Isern-Kebschull, Gil Rodas (sports medicine surgeon)/ES

Giant cell tumor of bone: Diagnosis and post denosumab findings from a radiology and pathology perspective

Kirsten van Langevelde/NL, Pancras Hogendoorn (pathologist)/NL

Imaging of axial spondyloarthritis—a practical approach

Massimo Donalisio/CH

Patrick Omoumi/CH, Augusta Ortolan (rheumatologist)/IT

Ultrasound imaging of skin tumors: Clues to the differential diagnosis

Elena Julián Gómez/ES

Elena Gallardo/ES

2023

Bone-RADS

Connie Chang/USA

Advances in MR imaging of the painful hip arthroplasty

Florian Schmaranzer/CH

Christian Pfirrmann/CH

MR imaging of pediatric growth plate disturbances

Saira Haque/UK

Cryoablation in the musculoskeletal system: Ten years of experience

Antoine Moutiez/FR

Thomas Le Corroller/FR, Roberto Luigi Cazzato/FR

Ultrasound of the distal biceps brachii tendon

Yacine Carlier (orthopaedic surgeon)/FR, Jean-Baptiste Pialat/FR, Antoine Moraux/FR, Lionel Pesquer/FR

Ultrasound elastography in musculoskeletal radiology

Nežka Harej/SI

Žiga Snoj/SI

Imaging of chest wall and abdominal wall in athletes

Javier Arnaiz/QT

Advances and value of MR imaging in early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis

Sanne Boeren/NL

Monique Reijnierse/NL, Annette van der Helm-van Mil/rheumatologist/NL

Soft tissue tumors in children

Emilio Inarejos/ES

US of iatrogenic nerve injuries

Elena Drakonaki/GR

2024

MSK infection in children: New techniques for well-known pathologies

Gianluca Folco/IT

Emilio Inarejos/ES

Sacroiliitis in clinical practice and beyond

Filippo Del Grande/CH

MRgFUS for the treatment of benign bone lesions

Julia Daffinà/IT

Francesco Arrigoni/IT

US-guided interventional procedures of sport-related injuries

Matteo Catania/IT

Davide Orlandi/IT

Abbreviations: Bone-RADS, Bone Reporting and Data System; CT, computed tomography; ESOI, European Society of Oncologic Imaging: European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology; MRgFUS, MR-guided focused ultrasound; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; MSK, musculoskeletal; OA, osteoarthritis; US, ultrasound.


Countries cited: AT, Austria; BE, Belgium; CH, Switzerland; DE, Germany; ES, Spain; FR, France; GR, Greece; IE, Ireland; IT, Italy; LV, Latvia; NL, Netherlands; NO, Norway; NZ, New Zealand; PL, Poland; PT, Portugal; QT, Qatar; SI, Slovenia; TR, Turkey; UK, United Kingdom; USA, United States.



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Webinar Organization and CME Accreditation

The ESSR webinar team, most of whom also moderated in the past, consists of a member of the Executive Committee (councillor responsible for webinars), the Chair of the Educational Committee, and a representative of the Young Club of the ESSR. Other members of the Educational Committee may also participate in the preparation ([Table 2]). The ESSR office provides administrative support and ensures that all deadlines are met. Since 2023, ESSR subcommittees have become more involved in moderating the webinars as well as in proposing topics and speakers. Each webinar has been accredited with 1 CME point since 2022, meeting expectations of European radiologists, expressed in 2018.[6] Timely application of CME submissions to the ACI are required for CME accreditation, and unexpected cancellations may result in nonaccredited substitute webinars.

Table 2

Webinar teams since 2018

Year

6/2018–6/2019

6/2019–6/2020

6/2020–11/2020

11/2020–6/2021

6/2021–6/2022

6/2022–6/2023

6/2023–6/2024

6/2024–6/2025

ESSR Councillor on behalf of ESSR Executive Committee

Maria Tzalonikou

Maria Tzalonikou

Anagha Parkar, Sebnem Ihsan, Amanda Isaac

Ana Isabel Garcia Diez

Ana Isabel Garcia Diez

Mitja Rupreht

Mitja Rupreht

ESSR Educational Committee chair

Miraude Adriaensen

Miraude Adriaensen

Miraude Adriaensen

Miraude Adriaensen

Elena Drakonaki

Elena Drakonaki

Elena Drakonaki

Marc-André Weber

ESSR Educational Committee member

Danoob Dalili

Danoob Dalili

Danoob Dalili

Danoob Dalili

Danoob Dalili

ESSR Young Club representative

Danoob Dalili

Danoob Dalili

Carmelo Messina

Carmelo Messina

Ana Vieira

Ana Vieira

Barbora Horehledova

Barbora Horehledova


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Participants and Interactivity

For the first webinar held in 2018, only 100 participant places were available due to limitations of the software. The number of available spots for participants was quickly increased before the second webinar. The average number of participants is now 221 (range: 49–380), and the average number of questions posted is 14 (range: 3–70). The number of questions posted in the interactive audience question-and-answer section also reflects growing interactivity. To obtain CME credits, participants are required to complete an evaluation form after each webinar, providing valuable feedback. As the webinars and the platform continuously evolve, questions and proposals are welcome. ESSR members are invited to e-mail their input, including suggestions for webinars, topics, and speakers, to the ESSR office.


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ESSR Webinars as Preparation for the EDiMSK Exam

Nearly all ESSR webinars are freely accessible to ESSR members in good standing and can serve as a valuable source of information for the written and oral part of the EDiMSK exam.[12] [13] [14] [15] They can be found under the “E-LEARNING” tab on the ESSR website,[16] highlighting another advantage of the webinar concept. Other ELM, consisting of lectures of the ESSR annual meetings, tumor webinars, and ultrasound presentations, can be found at the same tab. Also, because CME credits in MSK events recognized by the ESSR are necessary to fulfill one of the eligibility criteria required to enter the EDiMSK exam, as well as to renew the EDiMSK, ESSR webinars represent a suitable tool to earn them.


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Conclusion

The ESSR webinar program of the ESSR represents a very useful resource for candidates preparing for the EDiMSK and continues to develop with an increased variety of topics and participant interaction. We wish all candidates success at the EDiMSK examination.


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Conflict of Interest

None declared.

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our gratitude to all presenters and panelists, moderators, webinar teams, the ESSR Executive Committee, all ESSR subcommittee chairs, and the ESSR office for their continuous support, enthusiasm, and time dedicated to the work on the ESSR webinars.


Address for correspondence

Mitja Rupreht, MD, PhD
Radiology Department, University Medical Centre Maribor, Slovenia, Medical Faculty, University of Maribor
Maribor
Slovenia   

Publication History

Article published online:
13 December 2024

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