About Us

The Friends of Radiology in Ukraine (FRU) is a registered nonprofit organization that was founded in 1992 by M. Paul Capp, a Ukrainian-American who was then the executive director of the American Board of Radiology, shortly after the Ukrainian declaration of independence. Friends supported publication of Ukrainian language radiology educational resources.

In 1996, a conference program was founded by Friends of Radiology member Dr. Leo Wolansky in collaboration with the L’viv Med Institute in 1996 as a “Radiology school”, with the purpose of promoting, tuition-free, Ukrainian-language education in medicine, specifically, radiology. The course is entitled “Practical questions in Contemporary Clinical Imaging.” After its inception, the course took place every two years, excepting 2014 which was postponed. Over the years more than 3500 Ukrainian health professionals have attended. The majority has been from western Ukraine but representatives from numerous distant regions have attended, including Kharkiv, Kyiv, Poltava, Dnipro, Odessa, even Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea. The program has also been the subject of multiple news articles and television news reports, which profiled the high educational value of the course and patriotic mission.

The conferences have been recognized by the Association of Radiologists of Ukraine; the World Federation of Ukrainian Medical Associations, the postgraduate diagnostic imaging department of the Danylo Halytskyi Medical University in L’viv; and the Simex–Sono Educational Center. The conferences have also been accredited by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

The distinguished faculty has included Myron Pozniak, Andrij Wojtowycz, Thomas Herman, Roman Klufas, Erich Lang, Myron Wojtowycz, Larissa T. Bilaniuk, Myrosia Mitchell, Ariadne Bach, Gregory Geba, Leon Prockop (USA); Marco Essig, Patrik Zamecnik (Germany); Vladimir Rogozhin, Volodymyr Medvediv, Iryna Dykan, Yakiv Babiy, Marina Pervak, Oleh Dynnyk, (Ukraine); Wayne Tymchak and Markian Shulakewych, from Canada; Jerzy Walecki, Aleksandra Michałek, Katarzyna Sklinda, Mariusz Furmanek, Cezary Szary (Poland); Ihor Kociumbas, (Australia), as well as many more. Dr. Yuri Ivaniv and Dr. Leo Wolansky have co-chaired the course since 1998. The next course will take place June 17-19. The American Society of Neuroradiology's International Collaboration Committee has founded two visiting professorships to Ukraine, the first award recipients being Dr. Donald Schomer and Dr. Jonathan Morris, who will give several lectures each. In 2016 Dr. James Abrahams (Yale) and Dr. Larry Ginsberg (MD Anderson) were the award recipients. In 2017, Greg Zahachuk (Stanford) and Frank Lexa (UPMC) were ASNR Outreach Professors. In 2018, the conference spanned eight days, with the featured speaker being Rajan Jain (NYU), but also significantly contributed to by Don Schomer, Stephen Yevich, Ray Cody Mayo, Diana Kaya, Halyna Pokhylevych, and Toma Omofoye all from MD Anderson. Markian Shulakevich (Ottawa) and John Kachura (Toronto) also lectured. In 2019, Friends partnered with the ASNR and with ARU to add a Neuroradiology Course in conjunction with the international congress of the ARU. Rajan Jain, Noriko Salomon (UCLA), Amy Juliano (Harvard), Maria Gule (MD Anderson), Bruno Policeni (U of Iowa), Ana Franceschi (Hofstra U.), and Leo Wolansky presented. Acting Minister of Health, Ulana Suprun gave opening remarks.

The course program has received repeated grant support from the UMANA Foundation. Sponsors have also included the ISMRM, ASNR, Olea Medical, Simex-Sono, Bracco Diagnostics, and Zonare Medical.

In 2015, Ivan Wolansky and Dr. Leo Wolansky, created a Facebook site featuring lecture material for direct community outreach. In 2017, Ivan Wolansky created this independent website and is currently its webmaster.

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