Figure Stuff Out

I stumbled upon Sway today.  Microsoft Sway promises to make creating web presentations easy, which is a fairly big claim.

I also happened to be studying MSK for the Core Exam, so I made a Sway approaches to mass lesions in bone. There will also be some comments on Sway.

Here’s the disclaimer: I am not an MSK expert, just some guy studying for the Core Exam!  Also, all images here belong to their original owners, not me.

Also, Sway’s navigation is a hybrid between ​PPT slide show and web-based scrolling. It takes a little getting-used-to.  Definitely try it in full screen, but it can also be embedded in a web page like this.

All in all, I was impressed with Sway, and I hope it continues to mature.

It did crash twice on me, but no content was lost as the app continuously saves your edits to the cloud the same way we have come to expect web apps.  Sway is the easiest way to create engaging content by removing the guesswork in design layout.  Whereas PowerPoint seems to encourage you to create bulleted lists after bulleted lists,  Sway encourages you to get your point across through pictures and videos.

I really like the direction the software is taking because this is how radiology content should be shared.

For someone who always needs to be doing something to keep focusing on the topic at hand, Sway kept me on task by providing an immersive environment for creating content. That’s always a plus.

A friend did me a favor yesterday without being asked.  I asked him why.

He said earlier this week his neighbor decided to shovel snow for the entire block. The neighbor dug out everyone’s cars from several feet of deep snow.

The cynical might endorse The Chain of Screaming, but the opposite is equally true.  In the aftermath of the most severe blizzard the northeast has seen in recent years comes a warm act of kindness.

Cynicism and kindness are both contagious.  Which one will you spread?

Radiology is probably the most exciting field of medicine to be in right now.

Yes – reimbursements are less generous.
Yes – volume is paradoxically increasing, and we are busier than ever.
Yes – you spend most of your time away from patients.

Physicians are inherent scientists. We observe a pattern and draw a line of extrapolation. We do this subconsciously and assign value to these insights. If reimbursement decreased by 10% from last year, in 12 years we will be left with 35% what we started with!  However, we now know drawing lines using historical data requires a nuanced approach.

The best time to get involved in a profession as a young professional is at a time of rapid change. History records only times of conflict, of artistic or cultural debate, of Renaissance, the industrial revolution, and the digital age. Change is the enemy of stability and favors the adaptable. Change gives rise to new ideas and new efforts. Change is why Silicon Valley start-ups rise and fall with the ticking clock but yet remain some of the most exciting careers in today’s America.

It is in the midst of fluctuation, not stability, that we find the most fulfilling career opportunities. Radiology doesn’t guarantee success – your medical training did that for you. Radiology offers an environment to be creative precisely because so much of its future is in the air rather than in stone carvings.

So will you seize the unique opportunity and guide the flow of an entire medical discipline at a time of your life when you are best suited for it? If you have always been fascinated by medical imaging, now is the time to jump in.

I had a wonderful discussion with an old friend from college who was trying to learn more about radiology. A computer scientist classically trained in a top US university for software engineering, she has years of experience in data science. She is now trying to apply her extensive expertise in analytics to healthcare. In our discussion, she began to express her concerns – having taken only 1 introductory biology course in college, she was worried that her limited knowledge in healthcare and medicine will prove to be the lynchpin of this transition.

Continue reading →

In diagnostic radiology, information is the currency. Although the clinical knowledge in diagnostic radiology is the most salient component, information in radiology comes in many forms. What is the most appropriate next step in diagnosis? What is the most appropriate way to explain the clinical impact of this incidentally noted, indeterminate adrenal nodule? How to describe this finding in the most understandable way now that our patients are reading our reports?

Image Credit: Larson et al, AJR, Figure 2

Continue reading →