Slideshow: RSNA's 96th annual meeting

November 30, 2010

09:33 AM

RSNA takes Chicago's McCormick Place

A digital slideshow welcomes Radiological Society of North American members as they walk to and from scientific assemblies and technology demonstrations at the organization's 96th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago. An estimated 60,000 medical and science professionals from every part of the globe are in attendance. On the show floor, more than 700 exhibitors are displaying and demonstrating their technologies.

James Rawson, MD, Troy Oliphant and Bill Waters

James V. Rawson, MD, left, professor and chairman of the Department of Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Interventional Radiology at Medical College of Georgia, talks with Troy Oliphant, senior strategist at Cerner Corp. and Bill Waters, vice president, radiology, cardiology and imaging at Cerner. The trio met at the edge of a scanner displayed at the Cerner booth.

Computer stations at RSNA

Computer stations throughout McCormick Place are fully occupied throughout the day with waiting lines forming at many of them, as attendees try to keep up with e-mail and work between a day packed with meetings. Above this computer station are photos of featured speakers at the 2010 event, including former President Bill Clinton and Atul Gawande, surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and New Yorker writer.

"Be a top performer."

This sign, among many similar signs along the convention center floor, highlights the connection between information technology and radiology and imaging. IHE -- Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Initiative -- for example, demonstrates methods for sharing image-enabled electronic health records. The demonstration includes a patient-focused model for sharing medical images via personal health record (PHR) systems and showcases standards-based methods for communicating radiation dose information to data registries.

Foot traffic

RSNA meeting attendees walk to and from the Lakeside Center side of McCormick Place via an atrium connecting the exhibition halls to meeting rooms during light foot traffic. When meetings let out, the atrium is packed elbow to elbow.

Atul Gawande, MD

Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, author, and a New Yorker staff writer, delivered a keynote talk on Monday about the complexities that make solving the problem of the high cost of healthcare in the United States difficult to solve "The bell curve for quality and the bell curve for cost do not match," he said. Often, it turns out, the health systems that spend less money are the most effective. "There's an emerging lesson coming out of this," he said. Gawande also promoted the concept of a checklist as a patient safety measure. His book, The Checklist Manifesto, was a New York Times bestseller in 2009.

Information booths at RSNA

The information booths at the RSNA assembly offer daily newspapers of events and books that describe the hundreds of sessions and presentations. They are staffed with people who can answer any questions related to the annual meeting and give directions to anywhere within the convention center and also throughout Chicago.