Still decompressing a bit from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago last week…As usual it was a very busy few days but certainly well worth it. MEDecision was rather active at this year’s event as we announced a partnership with InsiteOne, which is the largest imaging archive in the U.S. We also provided the key technical infrastructure for the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Image Sharing Demonstration, which proved to be quite popular: it attracted more than 200 visitors a day. We worked with about a dozen or so other vendors on the Image Sharing demo, including GE, Philips, InterSysems, Microsoft and several others. Personally, I was equally pleased and flattered by the standing room only attendance at the refresher course I conducted called The Practical Applications of XDS-i. We had a really engaged and inquisitive group and it was a pleasure to interact with them.
Overall I thought there was a distinct energy at RSNA this year that perhaps wasn’t as palpable in past years. I think it’s safe to say that this was the year that imaging exchange went mainstream at the show. By my count there were at least five new companies offering some flavor of imaging exchange for radiologists to connect with referring physicians, patients, trauma centers, hospitals and so on. Of course, actual adoption is still in its earliest stages but in my 10 years of working in this field, I have never experienced this level of interest. Undoubtedly, a lot of it can be traced to external factors such as health information exchanges, the meaningful use mandates set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the whole reform initiative itself, but it’s very exciting to see imaging and its vast potential start to capture some of the spotlight. This is clearly just the beginning. As reform efforts move forward there will be a tremendous reliance on technology, which will really open the door for the imaging industry to show what it can do.
Elliot Menschik, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder, HxTechnologies, a MEDecision subsidiary, and leader of MEDecision’s electronic health record and health information exchange solutions
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