A first study of its kind has quantified the degree to which patients seek care across multiple unaffiliated medical facilities. The results suggest substantial mobility that could yield significant potential savings from the sharing of images across institutional borders.
Two new IT products from Mercury Computer Systems that are ready for commercial release are being highlighted at the 2006 RSNA meeting. The advanced function, new clinical applications, and improved image quality and performance of the Visage CS and Visage PACS will be featured. The company announced on Nov. 17 that its PACS and client server have cleared the FDA.
Aurora Technologies will begin routinely upgrading its installed base of about 20 dedicated breast MR scanners with an acquisition capability that boosts signal-to-noise by 300%, according to the company. The upgrade, called spiral RODEO (Rotating Delivery of Excitation Off-resonance), was commercially launched at the RSNA meeting.
News that CT use in the emergency room is soaring gets cheers in some corners and jeers in others. Radiologists heard from both sides of the appropriateness debate at a Monday morning session at the RSNA meeting.
I'm not sure why, but I think today is the best opening day of the RSNA meeting I can remember. Maybe it's because the weather in Chicago yesterday and today has been beautiful. Maybe getting lucky and finding several nice Christmas presents for my family last night, in just a couple of hours of shopping, is the reason. Maybe the fact that I didn't party last night is responsible.
Computer-aided detection pioneer iCAD demonstrated at the 2006 RSNA meeting SecondLook version 7.2, its latest mammography CAD product. It was released in September. The company will also exhibit works-in-progress products that address mammography and CT colonography. The company sells its latest version of CAD to end-users and OEMs.
Computed radiography arrived at the RSNA meeting Sunday ready for sale into the U.S. market as a mammography application. At the head of the pack was Fujifilm Medical Systems USA, the only vendor with FDA approval to sell CR for mammography. It received the agency green light in July.
MR peripherals maker Resonance Technology introduced at the RSNA meeting its new FuncLAB functional MRI system with automated image data processing. FuncLAB presents functional imaging tasks using high-quality 3D graphics and audio with an automated data processing component that eliminates complex, time-intensive manual data analysis. The server for processing fMRI data attaches to the department network. Functional and anatomic images are automatically sent in DICOM format from the scanner to the processor. Resulting brain maps of anatomy fused with functional results are available onsite and over the Web through a browser-based interface.
IT specialist ScImage debuted a multidepartment PACS, Version 3.0 PicomEnterprise, at the 2006 RSNA meeting. The PACS uses a single database, which allows exams to be scheduled, tracked, reported, archived, and distributed across radiology, cardiology, nuclear medicine, and orthopedics using one Web-based log-on.
IT developer Meta Fusion introduced at the RSNA meeting a value-priced RIS/PACS that can be tailored to imaging centers and small hospitals. The Helium system will ship preconfigured to customers’ specifications, thereby eliminating the need for IT support. Setup requires only that the site attach to the network and add a PC-based viewing station with minimal configuration. The scalable system is designed to grow with the installation. Remote 24/7 monitoring and upgrades that download automatically over the Internet are included.
The assumption that CT colonography is the logical choice for pairing with optical colonoscopy to stage colorectal cancer took a hit at the RSNA meeting today. A prospective study from Europe shows that whole-body FDG-PET/CT is significantly more accurate than CT colonography for staging colorectal tumors.
Philips Medical Systems has taken the concept of PACS to a 3D plane. The Dutch company featured its iSite PACS at the RSNA meeting as common ground for bringing together its digital imaging technologies.
Powerful corporations and Congress make big headlines -- for all the wrong reasons. Scandals plaguing the private and public sectors, however, can provide a wakeup call for radiologists to renew their commitment to ethical behavior, according to RSNA president Dr. Robert R. Hattery.
Continued concerns over breast MRI’s clinical cost-effectiveness can be fully addressed only if radiologists can reach a consensus on the appropriate indications and development of standard protocols, according to New York-based researchers.
New analyses of data from the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial show that digital mammography is superior only for pre- and perimenopausal women with dense breasts. Screen-film mammography may actually have an edge in older women with fatty breasts, according to a study presented at the RSNA meeting on Sunday.
All too soon, hordes of radiology aficionados will descend upon Chicago for the RSNA meeting. While we will cover the event via our annual Webcast, I'd like to mention some new features of the meeting that parallel evolving trends and our coverage.
Image quality and improved ease of use characterize latest technologies appearing on RSNA exhibit floor
Solutions include ways to store and distribute data while offering seamless integration with workflow tools
From time-of-flight to fusion imaging, innovations promise faster scanning of obese patients
Prototype systems offer a glimpse of tomorrow's CT marketplace
Developments demonstrate consolidation of field strengths at modality's high end
Fuji prepares major marketing blitz for RSNA meeting as competing vendors strategize about ways to join the fray
Vendors propose methods to boost quality of postprocessing, reducing stress of keeping up
Vendors prepare new technologies that blow the dust off old but updated ideas at RSNA conference
Quantitative data and new radiotracers developed for PET/CT boost detection of lung cancer while reducing false positives, according to research presented at the RSNA meeting.
When it comes to spotting suspicious lesions on a screening mammogram, computer-aided detection is no match for a dedicated breast imaging specialist, according a large study by researchers at Yale, presented Thursday at the RSNA meeting.
Although neurosurgeons depend on preoperative functional MRI to map eloquent brain areas, technique standards need strengthening and reimbursement is nonexistent. The recent formation of a dedicated fMRI society is serving to galvanize interest and search for solutions to these and other issues, according to a Wednesday panel discussion.
Philips Medical Solutions wants operators of its MR scanners to work smarter, not harder. To help, the company developed SmartExam.
National societies and individual institutions need to firm up guidelines governing the imaging of pregnant women, according to several presenters at a special focus session Wednesday.
Although the debate regarding MR colonography screening lives on, European radiologists agree dark lumen MRC is ready for prime time, according to studies presented Tuesday.