Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Our Imaging Informatics Community this week features a pair of new articles on the changes occurring in the field of PACS.
First up is a story by Senior Editor Erik L. Ridley on how data mining in radiology will lead to more personalized care, according to a presentation by Dr. Eliot Siegel at the recent New York Medical Imaging Informatics Symposium.
Commonly referred to as big data, the mining of this information will enable radiologists to make more intelligent decisions. Dr. Siegel uses as an example the standard radiology report, which is full of unstructured, untagged data that cannot be discovered using current data mining systems.
This needs to change for radiology to be relevant in the future. Read more about Dr. Siegel's thoughts by clicking here.
Next up is part 1 of a three-part series by PACS consultant Michael Gray on the paradigm shift going on in PACS, as healthcare enterprises move from department-based viewing of medical images to a single, enterprise-wide architecture.
The shift is being accompanied by the rise of technologies such as vendor-neutral archives (VNAs), viewers that work as plug-ins to VNAs, and enterprise worklist applications.
The problem, Mr. Gray believes, is that healthcare institutions continue to issue requests for proposals based on the old department-based PACS infrastructure. Learn more by clicking here, or visit the community at informatics.auntminnie.com.
Choosing radiation therapy Wisely
Finally, visit our Women's Imaging Digital Community for a report by Associate Editor Kate Madden Yee on how the Choosing Wisely initiative is having a positive impact on the use of radiation therapy for breast cancer.
Researchers presenting at the American Society for Radiation Oncology meeting earlier this month analyzed changes in the use of short-course radiation therapy regimens after such protocols were recommended in September 2013. They found that use of these hypofractionated procedures more than doubled in the quarter after the recommendation was issued.
Read all about it by clicking here, or visit our Women's Imaging Digital Community at women.auntminnie.com.
