Radiology

I can’t wait to “pinch and drag” to get a better look at potential abnormalities on a mobile screen!

Conventional 2D mammography images the whole breast in one exposure. Two images of each breast at orthogonal angles to one another are then acquired in order to aid the physician in creating a mental 3D picture of the breast. This is to ensure that the doctor is able to extrapolate information from 2D pictures and then subsequently find them in 3D space, in this case, the breast. The Achilles heel of conventional 2D mammography is the ability to find cancer in women with mammographically dense breasts. While it is fairly straightforward to visually detect cancer in a fatty breast, only about 50 percent of cancers will be visible in extremely dense breasts.

The more things change, the more they stay the same…an old saying that seems appropriate as we head into 2012.

Over the past several years, the rate at which articles describing, almost alternately, the benefits and risks of screening mammography, seems to have significantly increased. Some of the articles have shed more light on this valuable examination, better defining its role in a women’s health regimen. Others have only further muddied the waters surrounding the somewhat controversial issue of screening mammography. As with any screening examination, there are issues that need to be discussed and better understood by the clinicians and patients who choose to use this tool.

This blog post is a response to a lecture presented at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting in Chicago. The lecture was entitled, “Outsourcing Emergency Radiology to Teleradiology Companies: The Debate Goes On.”  The presentation offered incorrect, unsupported statements about teleradiology and was based on a few anecdotal stories. I feel these blanket statements denigrated practicing teleradiologists.

The Radiologic Society of NorthAmerica (RSNA) annual meeting is around the corner and our booth will be packed with demos of our scalable technology solutions that support the needs of radiology practices and hospitals nationwide. Our world-class radiologists will be on hand to answer questions and guide you through our innovative radiology solutions. Here is a sneak peak at what you can expect when you visit booth #7513 at RSNA 2011!

Teleradiology plays an important role in improving the standard of care for patients who have the unfortunate circumstance of having their illness present at times when physicians, nurses and hospitals are not always at their best and/or most fully staffed. It has long been known that the standard of care maintained by a hospital at 2 p.m. is not the same standard that is seen at 2 a.m.  And, why is that? Why in this day and age with our level of technology and high levels of training does this persist?

In my opinion, it is a great time to be an information technology professional in health care. I perhaps have a “right angle” view having spent 20+ years in other industries before jumping into health care. For the last 6 years, I have found the “digital deficit” in health care technology to be simply astounding.

Yesterday I provided an overview of the metamorphosis of diagnostic imaging over the past 20 years and described the four main components of a modern radiology practice. Today, we take a look at how the integrated, synergistic approach to diagnostic imaging is greater than the sum of its parts.