Miss one committee meeting and suddenly you're a man with a mission at the RSNA show

BY BRADLEY M. TIPLER, M.D.

All I really need to know I learned at the RSNA

Last summer I was gone for a monthly meeting, and ended up in charge of implementing PACS in our hospital. What a perfect job: lots of research and no perks. This is in contrast to my two partners in charge of selecting our new MRI system. They had to go to Germany to see the latest scanners–twice.

So I spent my week at last year's RSNA meeting learning about PACS. The meeting actually turned out to be an excellent place to learn about this stuff, in a variety of formats.

The smartest thing I did was sign up for a week-long course on computers in radiology. Once or twice a day the course met for an hour and a half. Taught by a panel of PACS users, researchers, and suppliers, the course covered more than I ever wanted to know about buying, using, and maintaining these systems. It was just what I needed, and I thank all the people who worked on it.

I also spent time cruising through infoRAD. This electronics Super Wal-Mart continues to amaze and overwhelm me. They had some excellent hands-on courses and lectures, as well as so many small exhibits that they were difficult to sort out. Unless you're a computer geek who enjoys any application of computers, no matter how esoteric, you should take the infoRAD tour before you spend much time there.

Last year marked the opening of the new South Building at McCormick Place. The convention center now approximates the square footage of the city of Los Angeles. Fortunately, the older East building was mostly closed for renovations, so the bulk of the meeting was conveniently accessible in the two newer buildings. They also added several new eateries, so you can get your $7 slice of pizza and $2 cup of coffee without waiting in a mile-long line.

All these building changes meant that the technical exhibits seemed bigger than ever. And since every other vendor was offering something related to PACS, this was also a tremendous area to gather information–albeit a little biased–on how to bring our practice into the digital age.

Armed with a core knowledge and critical buzzwords from the course I was taking, I was able to visit the vendors, try out their systems, and not look like a complete idiot. I was not able to convince anyone to put a teleradiology unit in my home and office on a free trial basis, and absolutely no one offered to fly me to Europe for a week to look at their latest and greatest toys. The best I got was an offer to visit the VA Medical Center in Baltimore. Still, when you want to compare radiology equipment, there is nothing close to the RSNA floor.

Some of the best parts of the RSNA are the evening social/marketing events. Every year I meet some nice people, have a lot of fun, and learn a little too. This year I met polo and PACS wizard Peter Young from Mexico City, who was nice enough to spend the better part of two evenings helping me understand these systems. Unfortunately, he is nothing close to an eight-ball wizard, which insured we had plenty of time to talk one night, since only the team that wins gets to keep playing.

No trip to the Chicago meeting would be complete without spending at least a day in the scientific exhibits. As always, last year's exhibits contained too many excellent displays to digest. So much information, so little time. And as always, some topics seemed so obscure and some displays so confusing, I couldn't walk by them fast enough.

Most of the changes at the RSNA meeting last year were improvements–but not all. In the past, I always enjoyed going over the bulletin boards and accompanying piles of brochures announcing upcoming meetings and courses around the world. It was chaotic and unorganized, but interesting. This year it was replaced by an "electronic bulletin board." Very organized, very controlled, very boring. Please RSNA, allow both an electronic board for the control freaks and the old jumble of brochures and notices for us less anal-retentive types.

I learned a lot in Chicago about PACS, a field I was only curious about previously. I also reinforced my belief that it doesn't pay to miss group meetings.

DR. TIPLER is a private practice radiologist in Staunton, VA. He can be reached by fax at 540/332-4491.