Welcome to the first installment of this year's Road to RSNA 2009 preview of the RSNA conference in Chicago. With this year's edition, we're providing a modality-by-modality overview of the most important scientific sessions, poster presentations, and educational exhibits to serve as your guide to events at McCormick Place.
"You're going to see less emphasis on nuts and bolts and architecture, and more on workflow," said Dr. Paul Chang of the University of Chicago School of Medicine. "In supporting complex workflow, the real issue and challenge is interoperability."
For example, the thorny workflow challenge of dealing with patient CDs will be featured in a number of talks this year. In other noteworthy trends, a number of presentations will explore content-based image retrieval techniques, which are showing promise for facilitating PACS searches based on visual image information.
Other popular topics slated for this year's program include tips on maintaining HIPAA compliance when sharing images, software tools for boosting quality assurance, and issues associated with off-the-shelf LCDs.
See below for a preview of a number of PACS-related scientific papers, posters, and educational exhibits slated for the 2009 RSNA meeting.
Refresher courses, too
Of course, PACS enthusiasts will still be able to complement advanced educational opportunities with a number of refresher courses, such as a two-part refresher course on Monday, November 30, with a practical bent. Given in partnership with the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), the course will cover topics such as the building blocks of a successful practice, communication in the electronic age, and digital dashboards (8:45 a.m.-10:15 a.m., II21, Room S501ABC) and redesigning the radiology reading environment, changing PACS vendors, and advanced imaging techniques (10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., II22, Room S501ABC).
Other notable PACS-related refresher courses include Tuesday, December 1, sessions on PACS quality control (8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., RC326, Room S503AB) and integration strategies (8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., RC330, Room S504AB). Those dealing with modality integration issues may also benefit from a Thursday, December 3, refresher course on the use of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profiles for digital mammography (2:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m., II52, S501ABC) and a Friday, December 4, refresher course on image management of new acquisition modalities (8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., RC826, Room S504AB).
Speaking of IHE, this year's Image Sharing Demonstration will emphasize the initiative's Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing for Imaging (XDS-I) profile, which defines a method for sharing medical images across different sites.
More details will also be shared on an RSNA proposal to develop a pilot for a multisite image sharing network, which would include patient authorization for data to be transmitted over the Internet (including to personal health records). Patients would be able to authorize the release of specific healthcare information, according to the society. IHE architecture, including XDS with complementary profiles for security and patient ID management, would be utilized in the proposed pilot to the U.S. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, according to the RSNA.
XDS-I will also be detailed at length in a Monday, November 30, refresher course, along with a discussion of current CD importation trends (8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., RC226, Room S102D). In addition, the use of IHE profiles to solve integration problems (including DICOM CDs, DVDs, and viewers) will be discussed in a Tuesday, December 1, refresher course (12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m., II32, Room S501ABC). A Wednesday, December 2, course will describe how IHE profiles can help with sharing of images (12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m., II42, S501ABC).
Continuing with the interoperability theme, the challenge of dealing with patient images on CDs is also the subject of a special focus session on the afternoon of Thursday, December 3 (3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., SFS04, Room S504AB).
For more RSNA radiology informatics previews, please be sure to check out our upcoming Advanced Visualization (including 3D and CAD) and Healthcare IT sections as AuntMinnie.com journeys along the Road to RSNA 2009.
