White Matter Study Group

 <><originally ciculated to WMSG members and the ISMRM - slightly reformatted for online publication><>

Contact Person

Greg Stanisz

Review of administrative plan and proposed changes:

No change in governance is suggested.

Summary of election procedures:

a)    The elections for the governing committee are held annually in accordance with balloting guidelines specified in article IV, 4 of the Society bylaws.
b)    The committee is compromised of six members elected for three years. The WMSG members vote separately for the Chairman of WMSG group.
c)    The Scientific Director and Secretary are chosen by the committee members.
d)    WMSG student members elect their representative on separate ballot. The student representative is elected for one year term from active student members of the WMSG.

Committee Members (as of March 2008): 

Greg Stanisz, PhD (Chair)
Charles Gutmann,  PhD (Scientific Director)
Roland Henry, PhD (Secretary)
Stefan Ropele, PhD
Derek Jones, PhD
Hugo Vrenken, PhD

Membership

WMSG membership has been growing in the last five years. In 2008, the WMSG had 426 members (96 full members, 200 students, 119 technologists, 10 associate members) from 27 countries. In 2004 WMSG consisted of 84 members

Review of activities for previous five years

Annual Scientific Meetings:

Annual Scientific meetings of WMSG have been organized every year during ISMRM conference. We have maintained high level of scientific discussions. – See Annual Scientific Minutes.

Workshops:

1.    2004 – “Workshop on Aging Connections: Advanced MRI of Age-Related White Matter Changes in the Brain”, 21-23 October 2004, Boston, Ma (ISMRM sponsored) – Charles Gutmann, chairman of the organizing committee.
2.    2006 – “Imaging Myelin: Formation, Destruction and Repair”, 8-10 February, 2006, Vancouver, BC, Canada, (ISMRM endorsed)  – Alex MacKay, chairman of the organizing committee.
3.    2008 – “Pathogenesis of White Matter Injury”, 23-26 September 2008, Krakow, Poland (ISMRM endorsed) – Greg Stanisz, chairman of the organizing committee.

The workshops were very well attended; the average participation was above 80 (all participants), with more than 60% of the attendees being the WMSG members.  The scientific programs and audience were multi-disciplinary (physicists, clinicians, neurologists, computational scientists).  All workshops offered student stipends (up to $750), CME accreditation and allowed participants to present their latest results in a form of oral and poster presentations.  Workshop scientific programs are attached.

Students Involvement:

The WMSG has continued to involve student members of the ISMRM in study group activities. 

- Since 2007, we have invited student representative (elected by student members) to participate in all works of the study group governing committee. We were the first study group to hold official elections of student representative.
- We have also held student poster competitions during annual ISMRM scientific meeting (since 2007). Each year we select three finalists from posters presented at the ISMRM meeting. At the last workshop, we have also organized oral sessions specifically for student members.
- Student membership increased from 95 (2006) to 200 members (2008).

Website:

In 2007 the White Matter Study Group created a website (www.wmsg.org). The website in addition to providing information about study group activities, serves as an active discussion forum. It is widely accessible and is being created and modified by the study group members.

WMSG contribution to the ISMRM activities:

The members of the study group and the study committee have made numerous suggestions to the Scientific Committee of the ISMRM in respect to scientific program of the annual meetings. We were instrumental in proposing new scientific categories that more precisely reflect research interests of the ISMRM community in respect to white matter diseases. We also suggested inclusion of the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system pathologies in the scientific categories.

Plan of activities for next five years:

The WMSG is committed to continue with excellent scientific program. In the view of new exciting potential therapies for white matter diseases and continuous improvements in the MRI technology, we would like to extend the scope of our research interests to include and expand the following: spinal cord and peripheral nervous system imaging,  MRI monitoring of stem cell therapies and non-standard imaging techniques (for example C¹³).  We intend to improve the dialog between basic researchers and clinicians to provide efficient and optimal imaging methods for white matter. This topic will be discussed during our annual meeting in Honolulu, 2009.
This year, the WMSG will have three new members of the governing committee (including new chair). Such a transition happens every three years. It has become the WMSG tradition to use this opportunity to reflect upon successes and shortcomings of the WMGS and define the future goals of the study group. Therefore, the details of the activities for the next five years will be discussed in Honolulu.  In particular, we will discuss:

1. The themes and locations of the next two workshops. In 2010, we propose to organize a gathering of basic researchers and clinicians to discuss “Their ideal imaging protocol for White Matter” (working title).
2. In 2012, our members from Vancouver propose to organize small workshop on “T2 relaxation in White Matter – Data Collection and Analysis”
3. We will propose to organize a joint meeting between WMSG and Diffusion Study group “DTI meets WM”.  It has been a growing interest in our community in using Diffusion Tensor Imaging to evaluate WM integrity. We are of the opinion that both study groups will benefit from the joint workshop. WMSG members will learn about the latest DTI techniques, while DTI group can further appreciate quantitative WM techniques as being complimentary to the diffusion measurements.
4. We will extend the involvement of the student members in WMSG activities. We will also try to recruit more technologists to our study group.

Fifty two full members, 29 students, two technologists and one associate members signed a petition in support of the WMSG reinstatement.

Appendix

Minutes from the WMSG Annual Meetings (2005 – Miami, 2006 – Seattle, 2007 – Berlin, 2008 – Toronto)