"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations yet to come. I look upon war with horror." -- U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman, August 11, 1880
Dear CT Insider,
Generations yet to come may not know peace, however fervently they might wish for it. But they may find some solace in a new generation of robots that will scoop up wounded soldiers from the battlefield and make them whole again without human intervention.
The Trauma Pod project aims to bring an unmanned intensive-care unit and operating room right into the battlefield, saving lives and then quickly ferrying wounded soldiers to safety. Naturally, CT will do the imaging work.
At least that's the plan. A project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and technology industry leaders, the Trauma Pod has plenty of work ahead before its eventual deployment in 2020-2025. For starters, robots will need to be smaller and nimbler, scanners will have to be miniaturized, and a mountain of software instructions will have to be written.
But the project is well under way, and best of all, promises a wealth of peacetime uses for the technology. Don't miss the story -- and the intriguing videos -- in this issue's Insider Exclusive story, delivered to you before anyone else can read it.
Meanwhile, our newly redesigned CT Digital Community is highlighting stories from last week's International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT, sponsored by California's Stanford University. Just scroll down for meeting coverage on reducing contrast-induced nephropathy, dual-source CT, progress in biopsy and oncology imaging, and potential CT lung CAD problems -- with more to come.
CT also teamed up handily with molecular modalities at the recent Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting -- as represented in the society's Image of the Year, a promising SPECT/CT combination from a study to rule out heart disease.
Whenever molecular imaging needs a little anatomic sharpness, look for the story here in your CT Digital Community.
