Lectures and teaching sessions on intervention, musculoskeletal radiology, and oncologic imaging will form the cornerstone of the scientific program at the European Congress of Radiology, to be held in Vienna from 3 to 7 March.

Soft-copy reading rooms present unique challenges to designers of specialized PACS furniture. Multiple monitors and keyboards and

In the wake of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving every year, a city rises within the confines of Chicago's McCormick Place. It is a kind of radiological Epcot Center, a futuristic vision designed to dazzle; constructed of software, heavy iron, and handhelds; and swathed in platitudes.

After twice considering and rejecting endorsement of CT colonography as a cancer screening tool, the American Cancer Society is taking another look. Prompted by advances in reporting standards, technique, and training, the ACS may include the virtual colonoscopy technique as an optional test in its colon cancer screening guidelines by year's end. Such a move, coupled by favorable results from a national clinical trial, could push CTC into the practice mainstream, bolstering adoption, furthering development of computer-aided detection, and most important, fostering reimbursement.

Expert-i promises the ultimate expression of teleradiology: the control of MR scans being performed rather than simply the ability to read the results after the fact.

We didn't plan this edition as a themed issue, but in looking through it, quite a bit is devoted to human engineering and PACS. An article on visual acuity and soft-copy reading leads our news section. Another news article addresses the use of digital dashboards to track workflow, a human engineering innovation made possible by digital image management.

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina proved the survivability of medical records in digital format. Restoration of these records, however, is not necessarily easy, even with a sound disaster recovery plan. Veterans Integrated Service Network 16, the VA network for the South Central Region, faced many obstacles in making the records of the New Orleans VA Medical Center accessible again.

Sweaty hands, or palmar hyperhidrosis, can hinder a person’s social or professional life. A minimally invasive procedure performed under CT fluoroscopy guidance provides a permanent solution to the embarrassing problem, according to Belgian researchers.

Last year, an obese women in New York City claimed that her doctor suggested she go to the Bronx Zoo for an MRI because of her girth. Zoo officials, according to the New York Post, later said they had no elephant-sized MR machines onsite.

Carotid artery stenting does more than help prevent strokes. It could also improve thought processes in some patients, according to German researchers.

Our journal round-up this month includes articles on new techniques to avoid complications, combination therapies, and case studies of renal and adrenal treatment.

Creating a successful tumor ablation practice demands that physicians change the way they approach both cancer care and the practice of radiology.

Clear, effective imaging is vital to tumor ablation, but consensus on which imaging method to use when has been elusive. No imaging modality on its own is perfect, and what may work well in one situation will be ineffective in another.

Technology and procedures for tumor ablation continue to evolve. Experts are evaluating new techniques for protecting organs, reducing pain, and avoiding complications.

Released in late January, Fusion Matrix PACS version 2.1 introduces reading enhancements, including the ability to query and retrieve studies from third-party DICOM sources, reserve studies, and mark studies as preliminary. Other new tools include triangulation, which lets the user define a target point on an image to view the corresponding anatomic position in other series.

M&A fever has assumed a low-grade persistence, popping up from time to time in mergers and acquisitions whose motivations are light-years from those seen a decade or two ago. Rather than accretive earnings and expanded installed bases for service, corporate futurists are seeking to build expertise and portfolios that broaden and intensify core capabilities or replace alliances that no longer serve their purposes.

PACS offerings at the RSNA meeting demonstrated vendors’ efforts to come to grips with the reality of medical practice. They addressed issues of data handling in an environment populated by CT and MR scanners cranking out ever more data, subsequent demands for volumetric imaging, and the need to keep track of a spectrum of differing requirements among sites.

The medical device industry is running out of big companies, according to venture capitalist Rob Kuhling. That’s definitely bad news for start-ups, and it could bode ill for the medical community and patients as well.

It has been ages since ultrasound was the darling of medical imaging, when Acuson handed out light sticks to celebrate its introduction of color flow, ATL christened computed sonography, and Diasonics raised the curtain on “Angio” imaging. Those were the Wild West days of ultrasound, when one company’s success was soon topped by another’s. Things have changed. The ultrasound industry today is far more civilized.

The medical device industry is running out of big companies, according to venture capitalist Rob Kuhling. That’s definitely bad news for start-ups, and it could bode ill for the medical community and patients as well.