What’s New in Radiology? Highlights of the RSNA 2015 Annual Meeting

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in late November 2015 is the premier scientific and educational meeting that brings together radiologists, oncologists, physicists, radiological technologists, and allied healthcare professionals from around the world. This meeting used to be dominated by “heavy metal” with flashy introductions of new imaging modalities. Today, there is more emphasis on smaller, light-weight, mobile, and more versatile equipment, along with new software enhancements for existing equipment to provide better clinical data and workflow productivity.

SPECIFIC EQUIPMENT TRENDS

Some specific trends related to imaging equipment include:

Smaller equipment footprint. Vendors continue their shift toward reducing the footprint of imaging equipment used in the hospital setting. For years, ultrasound vendors have been creating more compact, portable equipment that still maintains high image quality, but now general radiology vendors are following suit. These changes also help bring down the price of the systems considerably. Some examples include:

  • GE has a new 3T MRI system called SIGNA Pioneer that allows hospitals to upgrade from a 1.5T without sacrificing valuable real estate in the hospital.
  • For PET/CT, Siemens showcased Biograph Horizon PET/CT which offers a smaller footprint and lower cost. Siemens accomplished this by removing the chiller and offering an air-cooled system along with a low electric circuit.
  • General radiography vendors are now offering nonpremium (and lower cost) solutions with fixed floor-mounted X-ray systems with a smaller footprint that do not require ceiling infrastructure or added support.
  • Additionally, vendors such as Del Medical and Shimadzu are able to place the generator cabinet within the patient table freeing up space within the room.
  • Toshiba introduced the industry’s smallest tilting C-arm multipurpose system available. This unit installs adjacent a back wall to improve patient access and allow for more complex procedures — such as providing routine angiography capabilities within an existing radiology/fluoroscopy procedure room.

Imaging options for remote locations. As hospitals continue to merge and consolidate, there is a growing population that does not have regular access to healthcare. For ultrasound, vendors are creating systems that are battery operated, highly portable, and easy to use. This allows nontraditional healthcare workers to send images they acquire from this equipment to remote clinicians for review. Vendors are also offering portable, small-scale X-ray systems that can be used for home health visits in conjunction with telemedicine.

OTHER GENERAL TRENDS

Some other general trends related to imaging include.

Software enhancements for existing equipment. For example, new MRI software was introduced this year to enable faster and more efficient cardiac and lung exams. Advancements in ultrasound and CT software were also prevalent.

Enterprise imaging takes off. A major overarching trend is the rise of enterprise imaging and the movement away from disparate picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). This movement has gained a lot of momentum due to healthcare reform and the need for centralized repositories for patient data and images — referred to as vendor-neutral archives (VNAs) — that enable greater access to the data.

3-D printing. Over the course of just a year, 3-D models based on CT, MRI, and sometimes ultrasound scans have outgrown their limited role in surgical planning to become an indispensable tool in almost every imaginable application. New 3-D printers for the myriad applications — including otolaryngology, congenital heart disease, vascular surgery, and interventional cardiology — come equipped with different kinds of plastics suitable for creating everything from implantable heart valves to specialty prosthetics.

New role for radiologists. Radiologists are being told to “add value” to the healthcare experience by interacting more with patients. This is not a role that most radiologists are comfortable with and imaging departments are not typ