View From The Balcony..

I'm back at RSNA for what must be the 13th or 15th time since my first time way back in 1990.  Or was it 1989? Back then, the meeting spanned the entire Lakeside building, which was all there was of McCormick Place at the time.

Today, many of the BIG vendors have reoccupied Hall D of the Lakeside building, although I'm seeing a lot of empty space in the periphery of the North and South exhibit halls.

I'm sitting up on the Balcony Cafe in exhibit hall.  It's quieter up here, the wifi is strong, and there are numerous power outlets. My iPhone 4 is gobbling up battery power, thanks to iOS 5.0.1, and I've stolen Mrs. Dalai's Macbook Air to facilitate reporting from the floor.

The atmosphere here is pretty vibrant, and there seems to be a lot of interest at the booths, although I have no idea of how much money is actually changing hands.

I've been to several educational sessions already, and I've spent some time on the floor.  There isn't a LOT thats new, but there are a few interesting things here and there. I'll have a separate report on the Siemens Media Breakfast later, but their big news involves the introduction of two new CT scanners.  And, there was a remark made in passing almost concerning the act that RIS/PACS is now a commodity, and as such it may not justify quite the same level of investment it once did. That's unfortunate, as syngo.plaza might actually be Siemens' first functional PACS.

I've had a look at one of the two SPECT/CT candidates, and while its bone SPECT images haven't improved much, there are some other minor improvements.  I'll have a peak at the other one tomorrow or Wednesday.

A friend of mine who works at McKesson had me take a look at their latest PACS GUI. While it's busy and has maybe too much customization, I'm coming to appreciate what it can do; it's a very powerful interface, and if I needed to replace a PACS, it would be on my short-list of competitors. McK has finally decided to converge the various clients, so the view is more or less the same no matter if you access the PACS from home or office. So far, no iPad client, but there is something pretty revolutionary in the works, although apparently not yet enough of a work-in-progress per se that it can be seen by the likes of me.

Probably my greatest accomplishment today was to connect the folks of Blackford Analysis to a major PACS vendor. The rest is up to you, mates!

What has surprised me most of all is the number of folks who remember me from earlier interactions, and continue to read the blog. I continue to be humbled by the fact that anyone actually looks at this thing, but you all have my deepest gratitude for doing so.

Tonight, dinner with some old friends, and then meeting up with some other old friends. My daughter might even be able to break away for a moment and join us!

I'm tired already, and it's only Monday at RSNA...