Monthly Archives: November 2015

Don’t Go to The RSNA for The Great Research

The Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference is one of the most popular and most well-attended conferences in radiology.  The deal is the same – you submit some academic work you completed, and if it is deemed worthy, you are offered a not-quite-golden ticket to attend the not-quite-chocolate-making conference center.

You spend upwards to one week in a place with 20,000 strangers pushing around, 4,000 some CME-worthy offerings, and another 700 vendors trying to decide whether you have money to buy a CT table.  Sometimes people say that you go to the RSNA conference to learn about the newest research, to get ideas from being bathed in the sheer high density of smartness that we assumed would somehow disperse by diffusion.  The research is great, the vendors are great, the city is amazing, but these aren’t the reasons to go to the RSNA conference. If the research is important enough you will see it in a journal, if you need a product you will find that vendor on the internet, and Chicago… is indeed amazing, but it would be more so in September than December.

The reason that tens of thousands of people come together on this one week is not for the great research.  It’s for each other.  Go for the great people.  The world-class research is just a bonus.

Registration Now Open

Radiology’s largest annual conference is held in Chicago this year from Nov 29 – Dec 4

Towards Healthcare Interoperability: What Must Be Done?

Interoperability is becoming the most sought-after in healthcare, but needs further standardization.  Image Credit: http://cloudpro.co.uk

A few days ago, Walgreens announced a new deal with Epic Systems, joining numerous health systems (and one of its major competitors, CVS) by implementing Epic’s famous electronic health records (EHRs). In its press release, Walgreens cited interoperability as one of the primary reason for this transition:

QuoteThis state-of-the-industry EHR will enable more seamless communication with health systems and local providers, and gives us enhanced capabilities to deliver better health outcomes through greater care coordination and interoperability.”

Interoperability has become the holy grail of technology adaptation in many industries.  Continue reading

If You Must Multitask, Do It Well

busyphone

In the radiology reading room it is easy to get distracted.  Phone calls, clinician visits, and of course, the actual study that sits on the screen.

For a second year resident taking night call at Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, independent interpretation is just half of the challenge (and one I describe as The Gorilla Detection Exercise).  The other half comes from managing phone calls, protocols, and physician consultations.

Quote… humans do not have Intel Inside. We suffer dramatic performance cuts because of the task-switching overhead.

Continue reading