SIIM 2020, Emerging COVID-19 Pediatric Condition, Women and Alzheimer's, Data Interoperability

The Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine launched its first virtual meeting this week and was met with great enthusiasm across the board. From Wednesday to Friday, investigators and radiology leaders and vendors from around the country shared insights and perspectives about all things imaging informatics. From technology tools to improve patient engagement to quality control protocols for imaging studies to even the future of imaging informatics, SIIM offered extensive content. Visit Diagnostic Imaging’s SIIM page for the latest news.

We learned more this week about how COVID-19 is affecting children. Researchers from Evelina London Children’s Hospital examined chest X-rays, chest CT, and abdominal ultrasound studies from 35 children admitted to their hospital. What they discovered is an emerging disease – Multisystem Inflammation Syndrome in Children – MIS-C. It is characterized by airway inflammation, rapid development of pulmonary edema, coronary artery aneurysms, and extensive intra-abdominal inflammation changes. They shared the specifics of their imaging findings in the journal Radiology.

Radiology investigators had bad news this week for women. They discovered the higher rate of Alzheimer’s among women is not because they live longer than men. In fact, women have four strikes against them. In a study from Neurology that exams PET and MRI scans of both middle-aged men and women, researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine discovered women have worse scores for four measures used to assess their risk of Alzheimer’s biomarkers. With the scans, they found women have lower volume of both gray and white brain matter, higher levels of amyloid-beta plaque, and lower glucose metabolism, an indicator of brain activity.

And, finally this week, Diagnostic Imaging turned again to examine the role that data interoperability has played in this pandemic and will continue to play in the months and years to come. We spoke with Matthew Michela, president and chief executive officer of interoperability company Life Image, about how data could improve our understanding of COVID-19, as well as what we’ve learned from the pandemic and best practices facilities can implement for bolstering their data interoperability and accessibility. Here’s what he had to say.