Tag: RSNA

Today was a day for all things angiography and CT. Started off with a refresher course session on radiation dose optimization and management in interventional radiology. Nothing new there, but some interesting points from the radiologist’s perspective.

A couple of science sessions on CT and a final refresher course on advanced CT topics including cardiac CT and dual energy CT that were very interesting and informative filled the rest of the day.

On the exhibit floor, I saw Philips’ newest SPECT/CT scanner, the Brightview XCT. It’s the first SPECT/CT scanner I’ve seen that incorporates a flat panel detector for the CT portion. The detector also folds away against the gantry when not in use. From the images they showed off, it looked like a chest/abdomen/pelvis CT could be done with about 4 bed positions. It was hard to tell how diagnostic the CT images could be, but they looked pretty decent.

Medrad’s Intego mobile PET injector is now FDA cleared and was being shown off in their booth. It’s a pretty cool device that takes care of metering out doses from a vial of bulk F-18 FDG, injecting it into the patient and flushing the line. For a busy PET/CT operation, it should go a long way to reducing radiation exposure to the techs. At close to 350 kg, it’s a pretty hefty cart to push around though.

Saw a few companies with interesting test tools that would be nice to have for a routine QC program. Wish I had seen them last year when I had money to shop for equipment.

Although today is technically the third day of RSNA, it’s really the first full day I’ve been able to spend at sessions and cruising the technical exhibits.

The theme for my RSNA is radiation dosimetry and molecular imaging, which is the focus of most of the sessions I’ve signed up for. There’s a lot of interest in reducing and optimizing radiation dose patients receive during imaging procedures.

Discovered a few interesting things wandering around the exhibit hall today.
Neurologica has a new portable high resolution gamma camera that they’re looking to start marketing sometime 2009 Q1. Based on the same mobile platform that their Ceretom CT scanner is built on, the rep at the booth told me that it consists of 24 NaI modules arranged in a ring. The brain images they were showing off were pretty impressive looking. The field of view along the z-direction wasn’t all that large though (looked like about 10 cm or so), so imaging an entire brain would probably require moving the scanner to 2 or 3 bed positions.

Gammex has a software product that automates the analysis of the ACR CT accreditation phantom. Looks pretty easy to use and should take a lot of work out of analyzing the phantom.

On a somewhat more whimsical note, the MedicalTies booth had a wide selection of anatomical and imaging related ties and scarves for sale. Although I normally dislike wearing ties, I may have to pick one of these up.

A trip to Publisher’s Row had me walking away with two books and my wallet $215 lighter. Ouch. They should be worthy additions to my bookshelf though.

After you’ve gone to 2 or 3 RSNA meetings, you pick up a few tips on getting around and surviving the 4-6 days you’re there. So I thought I’d write about some of the things I’ve learned about RSNA survival.

Wear Comfortable shoes

Comfortable shoes are a must at RSNA. Your feet will be your primary mode of transportation, so forget fashion and forget looking good, unless you happen to enjoy having sore feet. At RSNA, you will do a lot of walking. You can easily cover a good 3-4 miles in a day just walking around McCormick Place, especially if you’re wandering through the two technical exhibit halls. If you’re not walking, you’re standing and either talking to someone or studying something.

Pace yourself

There’s a lot to see at RSNA, and if you try to do it all at once, you’ll end up burning out and exhausted.

Go early, leave late

Most people try to arrive at McCormick around 8ish. The Technical exhibits open at 10. If you didn’t get breakfast before McCormick, there’s a McDonald’s that offers pretty quick service, but lines quickly stretch outside the door after 7:30. The computer terminals also start getting crowded around 7:30-8. I like to arrive around 7, grab some breakfast at McD’s maybe (about the only time I’ll ever eat at McD’s), check my mail (plenty of open terminals, so theren’s no need to be rushed) and spend an hour or so studying some of the posters.
The Technical exhibits close at 5 PM, and that’s about when the exodus from McCormick begins. That’s also when the lines for the busses are the longest. You can easily spend 30-45 minutes standing in line just waiting for the bus. Instead of waiting in line, just head back to the poster exhibits and study a few more posters. Earn another hour of CE credits and then by the time you head back to the busses, the lines are gone and you’ll be on the bus about the same time as you would have been if you waited.

Explore

Plenty of things to see and do, not only at RSNA, but in Chicago.

Dress Accordingly

Everyone seems to wear dark or black suits/clothes, especially the people working the technical exhibits. So, if you want to be inconspicuous and blend in, wear dark clothes. If you want to be distinctive, stand out and make it easy for others to find you, wear something colourful.

Leave your coat behind

You’re walking around all day, and the last thing you want to do is be lugging around a heavy jacket all day. Yes, it’s November, and Chicago is cold in November. But about the only time you’re outside are the 5 seconds it takes to walk between your hotel lobby and the bus, and between the bus and McCormick Center. So, unless you have a nasty smoking habit (they make you go outside to smoke), the coat can be dispensed with. But if you insist on wearing one, there are coat checks where you can leave it. Then your only problem is remembering which coat check you left your coat at.

Leave your bag behind

Same advice goes for your bag/briefcase. All it will do is leave you with a sore and tired shoulder. If you happen to collect things through the day, there big roomy plastic bags available. Just grab one of those to hold your stuff in for the day.

It’s my last day here at RSNA. It’s a pretty light day, with scientific sessions just in the morning. That leaves my afternoon free to catch up on the technical exhibits.

This morning, I went to a refresher course on dual modality imaging and software based image registration. It was pretty interesting, and I learned a few very low-tech tips for doing image registration without needing expensive hybrid scanners or fiducial markers. Dual modality imaging (PET/SPECT CT in particular) is becoming an increasingly popular and valuable imaging method for diagnosing, especially for cases where the diagnosis from either modality is inconclusive.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the technical exhibits to check out some of the various offerings.

One new item was a (relatively) small corner called the RSNA Mobile Computing Pavillion. It was a collection of wireless, TabletPC, PDA and software vendors offering solutions for wireless and mobile computing in the radiology/healthcare environment. Got my first look at a TabletPC from Motion Computing. They’re pretty neat devices. I’m tempted to get one for my wife instead of a laptop.