Meeting 2019 Thank you

Thank you

Thank you to all the delegates who attended the 2019 ARGANZ Meeting in Auckland. We hope you enjoyed the program and the opportunity to mix with colleagues.

We are very grateful to Assoc. Prof Koenraad Mortele and Asst. Prof Alessandro Furlan for travelling to New Zealand to share their knowledge and provide us with thought provoking world class lectures. We would also like to acknowledge our expert faculty of local guest speakers, MDT panellists and chairpersons for their contributions. Additional thanks to our trade industry partners who support the meeting.

In support of abdominal research we were delighted to hear the presentations by four trainees in the main auditorium. Congratulations to the 2019 winners of the Mendelson Research Prize. 

First prize: Dr Michael Chan; for the presentation on "HCC screening for high risk patients who have suboptimal screening ultrasound: A screening protocol with abbreviated, non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging" - trip to the ESGAR Meeting 2019 or 2020.
Second prize: Dr Jonathan Dillon; for the presentation on "Can a computer learn how to detect prostate cancer on a multiparametric prostate MRI scan?" - complimentary registration to the ARGANZ Meeting 2020.

Thank you also to those who presented posters at the meeting. The poster that received most delegate votes was Dr Stephanie Tan for her poster on "Magnetic resonance enterography in the diagnosis and follow up of Crohns Disease: An algorithm and pictorial".

The meeting lectures will be available on the ARGANZ website in the registered users section within the next two weeks in both pdf form and as an audio recording. If you are not already a registered user of the ARGANZ website, please complete the online registration form at www.arganz.org/index.php/about-arganz/register.  Activation may take up to 3 days. 

Dr. Kirsten Gormly, on behalf of the ARGANZ executive

Chair, ARGANZ

 Premium and School of ARGANZ Breakfast Sponsor 

New liver Medicare rebates in Australia

ARGANZ, acting on behalf of RANZCR, has been the lead applicant campaigning for a liver MRI rebate. After an extensive process this has now been approved for two patient populations. The first is patients with colorectal carcinoma and suspected liver metastases for the purpose of characterisation or interventional planning. The second patient population is patients with chronic liver disease (Childs-Pugh A&B) with known or suspected hepatocellular carcinoma and a liver lesion over 10mm. An additional item number has been created to co-claim hepatobiliary contrast agents, recognising that these are considerably more expensive for providers. The item numbers are likely to become active in May 2019.

Unfortunately the application for liver MRI for patients with suspected focal nodular hyperplasia/adenoma was rejected by MSAC as it was viewed to be not economically viable, despite the higher accuracy and absence of radiation.

Further information regarding the approved item number and the proposed item descriptors can be found in the Public Summary document at http://msac.gov.au/internet/msac/publishing.nsf/Content/1372.1-public

ESGAR offer for ARGANZ members

ARGANZ is delighted to announce a collaboration with ESGAR, allowing us to bring more abdominal imaging educational content to our members.  Free access to the recorded content of past ESGAR meetings will be available to ARGANZ members until the end of 2018.  To access log into the ARGANZ website and go to the resources tab / education offers / ESGAR offer.

We thank ESGAR for their willingness to collaborate with ARGANZ.

ARGANZ Update on CT Colonography

CT Colonography (CTC) is a very useful test which is currently underutilised in Australia.  ARGANZ has provided an update on this topic which is available   pdf here (104 KB) .

Current literature demonstrates that CTC is equivalent to OC for the detection of polyps with advanced histology and that no significant cancers are missed when cathartic and faecal tagging agents are used.

The New Zealand society of Gastroenterology suggests that symptomatic patients who; are >80yrs, have relevant co-morbidities including respiratory risk from sedation, have an abdominal mass or have had a failed or incomplete colonoscopy, are referred to CTC rather than OC. 

The key issues include

1. Lengthy waiting lists for optical colonoscopy when many of those patients could be appropriately assessed by CTC
2. Lack of radiologist and referrer awareness of Medicare criteria for referral
3. Limitations of access for patients in rural areas.

ARGANZ is committed to helping our members to promote the availability and appropriateness of CTC to their referrers and to make the test more widely available to those in rural areas.

A new MSAC application will be started to expand Medicare funding to patients who do not have timely access to optical colonoscopy. 

Any member wishing to assist with the MSAC application would be greatly welcomed. If you are interested please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The full ARGANZ update on CTC is available   pdf here (104 KB)

A useful fact sheet about CTC for discussion with referrers is available   pdf here (57 KB)