Neuroimaging in European academic neurology: present status and future organization

Thanks to an ever increasing array of sophisticated techniques, neuroimaging has become an integral part of clinical neurology and a major tool in the neurosciences. Because, undoubtedly, the role of neuroimaging will grow even further, a Task‐force on Neuroimaging was created by the EFNS in June 1996 to assess how academic neurology in Europe should adapt to such rapid changes. The present report summarizes the conclusions reached by this task‐force. After a brief survey of the current optimal use and potential developments of neuroimaging in academic neurology, a set of recommendations and guidelines are proposed, which can be summarized as follows: The future place of neuroimaging in neurology departments: because neuroimaging has become an integral part of clinical neurology and neurosciences and is increasingly based on neurophysiological knowledge, it must be better incorporated within clinical neurology departments than it is at the present time. Although rare examples exist where large neuroimaging equipments belong to clinical neurology departments—in analogy to the situation that prevails for cardiology—this situation (which some might view as an “ideal case”) raises reg