Dear AuntMinnie Member,
CHICAGO - "Quality counts" is the official theme of this year's RSNA show, but its unofficial motto might as well be "Use the hand sanitizer." Alcohol gel stations placed throughout McCormick Place greeted attendees arriving for the first day of radiology's showcase conference, held amid concern over the international swine flu pandemic.
Obviously, meeting organizers hope the sanitizer stations will cut down on transmission of cold and flu bugs, which this year could include the H1N1 virus. Unfortunately, no similar precautions can be taken to address the virus plaguing capital equipment purchasing, which continues to take its toll on radiology.
The RSNA hasn't released any official attendance numbers yet, but the halls of McCormick Place seem unusually airy and spacious so far (even for a Sunday), a sign that restricted travel budgets may once again affect the conference, in a repeat of 2008.
But the show must go on, and this year is no exception. An impressive variety of clinical research is being presented this week, much of it reflecting the new focus on cost-effectiveness in healthcare. Another major theme is radiation dose reduction, as radiology strives to prove that it has both the willpower and the means to address growing societal concern over dose from advanced imaging procedures.
In studies presented on Sunday, Brazilian researchers demonstrated that perfusion brain MRI with a dynamic susceptibility-weighted technique can help guide treatment for brain cancer patients. And a U.S. team demonstrated that PET/CT can predict which metastatic lesions will be painful in the thoracolumbar spine. Get these stories and more in our RADCast @ RSNA, available at radcast.auntminnie.com.
Finally, this week marks the 10-year anniversary of AuntMinnie.com. The site was launched at the 1999 RSNA meeting as the brainchild of the late Dr. Phillip Berman, who recognized radiology's need for its own home on the Web to learn, educate, and exchange information with colleagues. Dr. Berman passed away earlier this year, but his vision and spirit live on, and we're planning to commemorate the anniversary in the coming months with a series of articles from our archives that illustrate just how far we've all come in the past decade.
