Dear Imaging Informatics Insider,
The recent Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) annual meeting was exciting and inspiring, filled with fascinating research and thought-provoking discussions on the future of imaging informatics.
Among the many interesting research initiatives was an effort by an NYU Langone Medical Center team. The group aimed to develop a decision-support software tool to improve radiologist adherence to guidelines when recommending follow-up imaging for incidental findings. Our coverage of the research is this issue's Insider Exclusive, which you can access before our regular members.
In other articles from SIIM 2015, researchers from Emory University reported that most patients would like to have their photos embedded into their scans to avoid patient identification errors. Click here for our coverage by International Editor Eric Barnes.
We also have articles on how a software package could make radiology reports more patient-friendly, how adopting a vendor-neutral archive can provide workflow and cost savings, how a data-mining algorithm can unearth subtle imaging findings in PACS databases, and how imaging informatics professionals have a lot to offer in today's turbulent healthcare environment. Stay tuned for more SIIM 2015 coverage in the coming weeks.
In other news, researchers from Canada recently reported on how they addressed inaccuracies in radiology reports that were caused by speech recognition software. Contributing writer Louise Gagnon has our coverage.
We also have a few new editions of our popular Mobile App Spotlight series. Our first one takes a look at the CincyKidsRad hospital account on the Figure 1 image sharing app, while the second presents Mammography Localizer, an iOS app designed to help users localize breast lesions. Another app, CT Anatomy, offers a cross-sectional guide of normal anatomy as seen on CT.
May was also an active month for vendor consolidation in the imaging informatics sector. National medical group Mednax inked a deal to acquire teleradiology giant Virtual Radiologic for $500 million, while Fujifilm Medical Systems USA snapped up vendor-neutral archive firm TeraMedica.
Finally, a recent meta-analysis found that clinical decision-support software can have a positive but moderate effect on appropriate ordering of imaging studies. On the downside, the authors of a controversial paper on decision support published in December 2014 shared their findings in a research letter in the June 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Is there a topic you'd like to see covered in the Imaging Informatics Community? As always, please feel free to drop me a line.
