Emerging technologies articles.

THE Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) recognizes that research and development of new techniques and therapies is vital for the continued success of interventional radiology and medicine as a whole. Dissemination of knowledge of groundbreaking information to potential researchers in interventional radiology is clearly a critical part of this process. Consequently, in 2005, the SIR Operations Committee identified emerging technologies as an important initiative and assigned part of the task of bringing these to the attention of SIR members to the Technology Assessment Committee of the SIR Standards Division. “Emerging technology” is an umbrella term including a wide variety of biologic research that could be potentially used by interventional radiologists. These could be new developments that are still “under the horizon” or techniques that are already used successfully in some parts of the world but are not well known elsewhere, particularly in North America. This issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology contains the first of these Emerging Technology articles. Dr. Michael Kuo, an interventional radiologist at the University of San Diego Medical Center, and Dr. Albert Hsiao, a research scientist at the University of San Diego Medical Center, have generously provided us with three articles on molecular medicine, the first of which will kick off this new endeavor. We anticipate that readers will find these of interest and that some will discover in these or future articles the missing piece of the proverbial puzzle they have been seeking for their own research. Finally, if any of our readers would like to contribute an Emerging Technologies article, we encourage you to contact us through the SIR or at the e-mail address given here. From the Department of Radiology (S.F.M.), University of Western Ontario, London; and Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Peterborough Regional Health Centre, One Hospital Drive, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7C6, Canada; and Department of Radiology (J.F.C.), University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado; and Department of Bioengineering (A.H.), University of California San Diego, San Diego, California. Received January 3, 2006; accepted January 5. Address correspondence to S.F.M.; E-mail: [email protected]