Imablog

The technical exhibits closed at 2PM today. Just before closing, I was walking past the AFIP booth. The AFIP booth dude called out to me and said “Hey doc, I got a present for you” and plunked down a copy of the 2008-2009 edition of Radiologic Pathology (2 volumes) and told me to take it. I guess he didn’t want to haul it back to wherever he was headed. So now I’m coming back with a telephone sized 2 volume set of books crammed in my suitcase. A little more than I was expecting to come back with. Turned out to be a $150 freebie. Wow.

It’s not exactly something that’s all that useful to me, so I’ll probably donate it to the department library or something.

Today was the last full day for me at RSNA. Very informative sessions on ACR PET/SPECT accreditation and radiation dose management today. Dose management has become a very big topic for radiologists and physicists alike, but there still needs to be a lot of education done for radiologists, physicists, technologists and referring physicians. There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce radiation dose from modalities, but that will only go so far. Ultimately it will have to come down to changing the way referring clinicians order exams and radiologists taking a bigger role in protocoling and deciding what exams are really necessary.

Went back to the Siemens booth to get a closer look at their Zeego robotic angio unit. What do you get when you combine a robotic arm with an x-ray unit? Very cool, and very slick.

The great big flat panel display was also pretty sweet too. It’s still pending FDA 510(k) clearance so it’s not available with the Zeego in the US yet.

RSNA moment: I stopped by the GE booth to check out the Infinia SPECT/CT scanner. One of the Japanese GE reps came by and started yammering away at me in Japanese for a good 5 minutes before I could tell him I didn’t speak Japanese.