Welcome to the first installment of this year's Road to RSNA preview of the 2013 RSNA conference in Chicago. For the fifth year in a row, we're providing a modality-by-modality overview of the most important scientific sessions, poster presentations, educational exhibits, and refresher courses to serve as your guide to events at McCormick Place.
As always, RSNA attendees will have a plethora of PACS educational opportunities to select from, highlighted by a flurry of presentations exploring the utility of mobile devices in medical imaging. A multisession course on mobile computing devices returns to the schedule for Monday, December 2 (8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., VSIN21, Room S404CD), and attendees can expect a number of presentations assessing the utility of mobile devices for communication, education, and diagnostic review of images.
Other popular PACS content areas for RSNA 2013 feature archiving issues and the cloud. Notably, a few presentations also encourage radiologists, if they haven't already, to participate in the U.S. government's meaningful use IT stimulus program.
Refresher courses
The schedule of PACS-related refresher/informatics courses kicks off with a 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. session on Sunday, December 1, on the often-neglected topic of ergonomics (ICII12, Room S501ABC).
Two refresher courses held in conjunction with the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) are back for RSNA 2013 and on the agenda for Monday, December 2. Part 1 of Practical Informatics for the Practicing Radiologist will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon (ICII21, Room S501ABC), while part 2 will run from 12:30 p.m. to 2 pm (ICII22, Room S501ABC). A course on meaningful use for radiology IT vendors is slated for Monday afternoon from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. (ICII24, Room S501ABC).
Those interested in display issues will want to take in a refresher course on display technology scheduled on Tuesday, December 3, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. (ICIW32, Room S401AB). On Tuesday afternoon from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., the RSNA will provide attendees with a whirlwind tour of its various informatics projects (ICII33, Room S501ABC). Another course held in conjunction with SIIM will explore next-generation infrastructure for medical imaging in a session running from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (RC426, Room S404CD).
A course on managing radiology IT in the electronic health record world (RC530, Room S404AB) will be held at 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 4. Dr. David C. Levin has been a prominent speaker on teleradiology outsourcing, and he'll be sharing his perspective in a talk entitled, "Teleradiology versus Local Radiologists: Issues and Perspectives," as part of a special course for hospital administrators on Wednesday that runs from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (SPHA41H, Room S103B).
Interested in using the Radiation Dose Intelligent Analytics for CT Examinations (RADIANCE) open-source software? You'll want to attend a hands-on course for using the software for dose monitoring and quality assurance (RC554, Room S401AB) on Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., and also on Thursday, December 5, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. (RC754, Room S401AB).
Later on Wednesday afternoon, a course will explore Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) efficiency from image acquisition to the report (ICII44, Room S501ABC). That session is slated to run from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Radiologists can get a primer on cloud computing at a Thursday morning course (RC630, Room S403B) from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Breast imaging interoperability challenges, and their solutions, will be the subject of the final Thursday morning PACS-related course (ICII51, Room S501ABC) and will run from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
To view the RSNA's listing of abstracts for this year's scientific and educational program, click here.
