"I cannot emphasize the importance of this mission, neither is it possible to envision the potential that our deliberations can achieve. It is a mission that must succeed if we are to benefit, even preserve, Radiology in its present form. The task must appear monumental, but then, we are trying to do something to benefit almost 75% of mankind by ensuring the best delivery of Radiology and its many imaging modalities to them. That is only possible if we continue to upgrade and uplift standards of practice in a specialty that is not just expanding in scale and scope but, more importantly, in its relevance to the overall healthcare of our people." —Professor Lenny Tan, AOSR Secretary/Treasurer

I recently had the pleasure to attend the fourth and final meeting in a series of meetings held by members of the Asian & Oceanian Society of Radiology (AOSR) entitled "Workshop on Education and Training in Radiology." These meetings have been rotating through various member countries and have been attended by committee members who represent their respective countries.

I couldn't help but think how appropriate it was to hold this final meeting in Manila, as the Philippines, like the AOSR, is a diverse entity made up of approximately 7,000 islands and home to 120 different ethnic groups.

Twenty–three countries have respresentatives in the AOSR. The following countries participated in the workshops:

Australia	T. Chakera, Representative
Bangladesh	N. Islam, Representative
People's Republic of China	J.P. Dai, Representative
Hong Kong	F.L. Chan, Representative
India	S. Aggarwal, Representative
Indonesia	M.S. Singgih, Representative
Japan	Y. Hiramatsu, Representative
Korea	K.S. Cho, Representative
Malaysia	B.J.J. Abdullah, Representative
Pakistan	N.R. Zaidi, Representative
Philippines	L.S. Pabillo, Representative
Singapore	L. Tan, Representative
Sri Lanka	S.P. deSilva, Representative
Thailand	S. Suthipongchai, Representative
Chinese Taipei	H.M. Liu, Representative

The AOSR scheduled these four workshops to develop some standards, targets, and goals which could be applied to teaching and training in radiology. This series of meetings was made possible by contrast media manufacturer, Bracco, and all were well attended by the representatives. The AOSR covers an enormous geographic region, which contains approximately two–thirds of the world's population. Given the diverse cultural and economic extremes present, the task the AOSR faces would be much more difficult without Bracco's strong commitment to this region and to education in radiology.

There is a wide variation in the standard of training among the member countries. The number of training centers present within each country varies also, with the highest number in Japan (233) and Korea (85) (Figure 1). The number of training centers per one million population is similar in Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, all of whom have between 2.05 and 1.33. There is still a significant lack of training centers in member countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, with a range between .12 and .30 training centers per one million population (Figure 2). Furthermore, there is a large disparity between the underdeveloped areas with large populations and the more industrialized countries with respect to the number of people per radiologist (Figure 3). Countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan have 960,000 and 472,727 people per radiologist, respectively, while New Zealand and Japan have 19,892 and 23,636 people per radiologist.

Standards regarding continuing medical education and radiology subspecialty classification were addressed. Once these standards can be established, all countries would benefit from an improvement in the skills, knowledge, and competence each radiologist would posses.

Furthermore, member countries might be able to offer training to each other, as well as to non–member countries in the region such as Mongolia, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. This objective would also increase the number of radiologists available to the population in the region.

The Asian Development Bank has recently stated that the transformation of Asia from the financial crisis two years ago to the world's fastest growing region has exceeded all expectations. Furthermore, the developing economies are set to repeat their 1999 average of 6.2 percent growth in GDP.

As the Asian region continues to grow in affluence and as the population ages, lifestyles and life expectancies will improve, thus placing more demands on the healthcare system in each country. Patients will require better and more sophisticated healthcare facilities and services. Asia's growth in medical technology is predicted to be 20% annually, with industrialized countries only averaging one–third of this figure.

It is critically important, therefore, that a governing body such as the AOSR try to achieve some sort of professional standardization for this extremely diverse region. Dr. Lenny Tan from Singapore, AOSR Secretary and Treasurer, was the organizer for these workshops and, as part of his leadership role, he directed the Manila meeting. The AOSR should be quite proud and grateful to have such a dedicated member. Dr. Tan kept the discussions lively and focused on the many difficult issues at hand. Salient conclusions on numerous complex topics were often reached and agreed upon by the members present.

Bracco has helped the AOSR reach an important milestone in its development. At the conclusion of this meeting, a draft of standards and goals for radiology training and services will be available for review by the entire group of member nations.