Introduction and Acknowledgements

Having grown up playing and socializing with real people, I never understood the social side of social media. I have 4 friends on Facebook and unanswered pokes from 2012. I’ve never tweeted (except after eating at our hospital cafeteria), and I couldn’t Snapchat to save my life. I have always assumed that most people would rather watch a documentary on the history of dental floss than follow my exploits as the world’s least interesting person. But as I was thinking about how I could use my newly acquired status as the Igor Laufer Visiting Professor to reach out to society members and bring us all closer together in the “off-season”, I considered the potential benefits of social media. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to get started.

     

My first step was to consult our SAR Chair of the Social Media Subcommittee, Carolyn Wang at the University of Washington (Unlike me, she probably gets invited to the President's Reception with a title like that). She suggested that I start blogging about my exploits. After assuring me that blogging wasn’t something you do to naughty pirates (in my defense, you have to admit that it does sound that way), she helped me set up this site. Now, instead of ignoring a once-a-year presentation at the annual business meeting, every member of the Society can have the opportunity to ignore regular updates of the VP’s travels throughout the year!


First some acknowledgements...

In all seriousness, I could not sign off on this first entry without acknowledging the man for whom this program is named- Dr. Igor Laufer. In addition to leaving an indelible mark on the field of GI radiology, he was a great teacher and a sincerely kind individual to whom we are all deeply indebted.

I also would like to acknowledge the generosity of the people at Bracco Diagnostics, Inc. for making this program possible.  

Finally, I would like to thank my Abdominal Imaging colleagues at Wake Forest University School of Medicine for being willing to support me during the up-coming year. I am fortunate to work with great people, and they deserve much of the credit for making this year possible.

What follows will be a testament of my trials and triumphs as the SAR Igor Laufer Visiting Professor. For those of you who don’t like suspense, I can release the following spoiler: I flew to lots of places and gave talks (this is what I plan to submit to the Board). For those of you interested in the history of dental floss, I recommend the article by Pagan Kennedy in the October 19, 2012 edition of the NY times.

Sitting in my endowed chair