Comfort, efficiency, and enhancement set next digital direction

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.

We've also got an article on the continued refinement of radiology's lexicon. This focus on the language of radiology will one day turn what used to be radiology's dictated and transcribed report on an individual study into a document that can be added to a database and probed with others for trends and new conclusions.

Elsewhere in this section, we have an article describing soon-to-be-adopted standards for computer workstations, that most vital element in the chain that links the radiologist and his or her interpretation to the digital system where the radiologist's knowledge will be stored and used.

The common thread? The digital environment is now an established fact. Increasingly, we will be looking at refinements that make this environment more comfortable for the interpreting radiologist, more efficient for radiologists and others who must manage the images, and more useful in improving patient care.

-John C. Hayes is editor of Diagnostic Imaging