The End Of An Era

Everyone who is anyone in the PACS business knows Mike Cannavo, the One and Only PACSMan.  I'm very sorry to report that the PACSMan is no longer with us.  But don't grieve...Mike is still alive and well.  He simply had to move on to greener pastures, given the current economic troubles with PACS and everything else, leaving the PACSMan entity behind.  Mike posted this message to AuntMinnie's PACS forum:

After 28 wonderful years it’s time for the PACSMan to finally hang up his shingle and just become just plain Mike again. It’s been a blast but change is necessary for growth and my life is changing in so many ways.

My sons have grown into wonderful young men, men I am exceptionally proud of, and my role as a dad has slowly evolved over the past few years. I am now more of a confidant and mentor than taskmaster and taxi driver. Soon, all too soon, my house will be emptier as my baby heads to Rhodes College in Memphis to start college. My oldest attends college locally and still lives at home but between school and work (both at the Apple store and as a top notch web-site developer) I don’t see him nearly as often as I used to either. So it’s really just me and Elvis, the world’s wackiest beagle, and sadly soon he too will no doubt be headed down the road to a new home since my new job requires a bit of travel.

New job? Yes, after years of being on my own I have indeed elected to join the racks of the steadily employed and it’s not heading up Merge or Iron Mountain either . I have loved being a PACS consultant- no position could have been better given the requirements I had when my kids were growing up- but the position I was recently offered allows me to help more than just a handful of clients a year. That is very important to me- sharing the knowledge- just as it has been over the past several decades in the 350+ articles I’ve written and in the countless presentations and Webinars I’ve given. I have been given the chance to take on a phenomenal position in a phenomenal company with a phenomenal leadership team and frankly it’s just too good to turn down. So it’s my turn now.

Know I am really going nowhere and will still be very actively involved in the radiology community, just not as the PACSMan. . . I’ll probably change the blog title to something like “Confessions of an Ex-Altar Boy” or something equally reverent. You will also see my comments in the PDF now and then but under a different moniker. And who knows, someday the PACSMan might indeed make his triumphant return, probably doing it just like Jesus did by riding in on a donkey to Jerusalem, but instead my riding onto the floor of the RSNA on one instead . We’ll just have to see what the future brings.

To Brian Casey, Erik Ridley and rest of the AuntMinnie staff, thank you for giving me to the chance to share what I have learned over the years with our readers. To the AM readers, thank you for making my articles number one each time they were published, and especially the ever politically-correct PACSMan Awards® which I will miss writing more than anything else I’ve ever done. To my clients, end-users and vendors alike, you are the very best and your kindness and support will never ever be forgotten.

When my son graduated high school a month or so back (Summa Cum Laude no less) it was a bittersweet moment for me. It signaled that my role as a dad was pretty much over. I’m still not sure how to deal with that- empty nest is hitting me a lot harder than I ever expected- but Matt’s class motto put things in its proper perspective for me. The saying is attributed to Dr Seuss and goes “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” And so that is what I will do and hope you will as well.

Thanks for 28 years of smiles. Until we meet again I remain.

Mike Cannavo- The One and ONLY PACSMan

Well, there you have it.

I've been in communication with Mike since 2003, when I first started dabbling heavily in the PACS field as a semi-educated consumer.  Our corresponding friendship started with my wondering how to handle some nasty trolls who were attacking me on the PACS forum.  Mike responded:

A lot of these folks making the postings suffer from a disease known as LDS, and I'm not talking about the The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints either. It's Little D*ck Syndrome- where you have to make up for your "shortcomings" somehow so you mock on the first person who seems to know what the hell they are talking about. I live it every day.

Classic Mike.

I'm expecting him to keep his promise, and appear to us in unexpected ways, be it on a new blog or in some clever new persona on AuntMinnie.  In the meantime, if you want to know the Mike I know, head to his blogsite before it goes away- http://thepacsmanpontificates.blogspot.com/. We share a lot more in common than most would imagine. Mainly our warped sense of humor and love of filet.

But maybe, just MAYBE, the annual PACSMan awards can morph into the DoctorDalai awards?  Would anyone mind very much?

Godspeed in your new career, Mike!