Retention Management is a new feature of McKessonâ??s Enterprise Image Repository (EIR), offering the ability to delete data that no longer needs to be retained. It provides the flexibility to set different parameters according to different policies and requirements. System Dashboard is a new tool in the EIR which helps administrators manage and monitor how the system is performing. These features were showcased at the 2012 Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) meeting.

ITN Editorial Director Helen Kuhl talks to Katherine Andriole, Ph.D., FSIIM, program chair for the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) 2012 meeting, about current trends in imaging informatics, including topics such as social media, quantitiative imaging and mobile technologies. Dr. Andriole also discusses some of the topics that will be of importance in the coming year, including the continuing challenge of integration and the evolving role of the radiologist.

J. Raymond Geis, M.D., SIIM Chair, and Mitchell M. Goldburgh, Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences, discuss the "Corporate Leadership Circle," a partnership allowing vendors to communicate with SIIM members in expanded ways about new technology and to create vendor/provider collaborations to resolve technology challenges.

Gary Levine, M.D., program chair/incoming president of the National Consortium of Breast Centers, gives an overview of current trends in technology, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and regulatory activity that will impact women's health.

Gary Levine, M.D., program chair/incoming president of the National Consortium of Breast Centers, discusses how breast centers can use social media to educate the public regarding breast health and their services at the 2012 NCoBC meeting, held in Las Vegas in March.

The Chicago Zoological Society's (CZS) Brookfield Zoo is the first North American zoo to use 3-D advanced visualization imaging technology. This video shows a video fly-through of reconstructed 3-D computed tomography (CT) images of an aardvark, Humboldt penguin and African crested porcupine. The zoo is using Web-based software from Vizua to create animal CT scan advanced visualization reconstructions. Read the related article.

Eliot Siegel, M.D., FSIIM, FACR, who is on the Board of Directors of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), discusses a number of the society's initiatives and benefits of membership with ITN Editorial Director Helen Kuhl. Siegel is professor and vice chair radiology for the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Diagnostic Radiology and chief of imaging for the VA Maryland Healthcare System.

Siegel elaborates on a number of benefits of SIIM membership, which extend beyond the society's annual meeting. These include: the TRIP initiative, a workflow efficiency aid; the Imaging Informatics Marketplace buyer's guide; a mentoring program, and access to numerous resources on the website. SIIM also is considering several exciting initiatives for the future, including webinars and regional meetings.

For more information: www.siim.org

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) President Mike Herman, Ph.D., radiation oncology medical physicist, Mayo Clinic, explains the role of the society and its goal to improve patient care. Activities include sharing the latest scientific research, developing best practices, education, setting guidelines for certification and the roles of various staff under mediacl physicists, and how physicists can better serve their hospitals. The main focus in sessions at the AAPM annual meeting include patient safety concerning radiation dose and how to lower these doses in practice. Herman said AAPM is also calling for a national patient safety event recording process to make it easier to see where there are mistakes so they can be addressed. The society is also Herman said the process needs to be easy to access and use. He spoke to ITN at the some 2010, 52nd annual AAPM meeting 

Find more news and videos from AAPM meetings

"Most people have no idea what a tremendous impact radiology and telemedicine have on poor and remote regions of the world," said Rebecca Cornelius, M.D., professor of radiology, neuroradiology, department of radiology, University Hospital, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. Cornelius was one of the physicians on the panel and video presentation "Zero Footprint Radiology and Telemedicine Build a Platform for Sustainable Care," which Imaging Technology News (ITN) hosted at the SIIM 2010 annual meeting.

The panelists described how physicians based in the United States used teleradiology and telemedicine technology to treat patients located in a remote clinic in Honduras. The panelists made the case that this technology suite is the basis for sustainable health care outreach programs in the future. ITN Editor Cristen Bolan then presented a video illustrating how physicians and technicians equipped The Roy and Melanie Sanders Frontera Medical Center in Honduras with the digital imaging and informatics infrastructure.

Several providers donated the suite of imaging technology. The equipment included a telemedicine system and ultrasound probe from Global Media, the VirtualPACS Web-based picture archiving and communication system (PACS) from MedWeb, a portable digital x-ray system from MinXray and a computed radiography (CR) unit from iCRco.

In this video, Dr. Juan Vasquez gives a live demonstration of how the imaging suite quickly and seamlessly operates. Vasquez started by taking an X-ray image, processing and reviewing it on the CR, and uploading the data set to the PACS in under 10 minutes. The guest of honor, Honduran Minister of Health Arturo Bendaña, himself a trained physician, easily toggled through the streamlined digital workflow. Vasquez explained how the transition from film to digital x-ray would save the clinic on significant costs incurred from developing film. Vasquez then examined a patient's thyroid gland with the ultrasound probe connected to a laptop computer. Next, he used a high-definition telemedicine camera to capture superficial anatomical images. Finally, he uploaded the images and consulted with physicians over Global Media's video-conferencing system. Jeffrey E. Heck, M.D., executive director and founder of Shoulder to Shoulder, explained to onlookers this was a model for delivering high-tech care, including expert specialty consultations, to some of the most remote and isolated areas of the developing world.

"With the addition of this technology, poor people have access to the same set of services that any well-equipped health center in the United States has access to," Heck said.

The panelists included: - Rebecca Cornelius, M.D., professor of radiology, neuroradiology (Clin Geo), University Hospital; University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine; Department of Radiology - Phillip Silberberg, M.D., head of Shoulder-to-Shoulder Radiology, pediatric radiologist, Kosair Childrenâ??s Hospital, - Roland Talanow, M.D., Ph.D., department of radiology, The Cleveland Clinic - Hayley Holland, MPH, director of grants and projects, Shoulder-to-Shoulder - Kim Guevara, corporate philanthropy officer and director of emergency management, Medweb. For more information: www.shouldertoshoulder.org

Related Radiology and Telemedicine in Honduras:

Radiologists Without Borders: The Heart of Radiology

ACS, Teleradiology Deliver Modern Healthcare to Honduras

Digital Imaging Delivers Modern Medicine to the Developing World

Digital Imaging Transforms a Nation

Radiology IT Explores New Frontiers

Computed Radiography Delivers Modern Medicine to Remote Regions

Radiology Delivers Modern Medicine to Rural Honduras

There is no doubt that medical imaging procedures save lives. However, one size does not fit all. Because children are three to five times more sensitive to radiation than adults, and cumulative radiation exposure can have adverse effects, it is critical for doctors to lower radiation levels when imaging a child. That is why in 2007, the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) initiated the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging. Not long after, the American College of Radiology (ACR), the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT), and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) joined the Alliance.

The Image Gently campaign is the Alliance's initiative to raise awareness for lowering radiation dose used in pediatric imaging. The aliance is actively working with imaging manufacturers to standardize dose assessment and display for children. Although disagreements about the accuracy of the risk models or the degree to which the risks of radiation are emphasized are ongoing within the medical community, the message of the Image Gently campaign is clear: Reduce or "child-size" the amount of radiation used when obtaining a CT scan in children. To child-size the amount of radiation used, Image Gently encourages doctors to ask their medical physicist to determine the baseline radiation dose for an adult for that site's equipment and compare that dose with the ACR Standards.

While these guidelines are clear, it is not certain how widely doctors have implemented these radiation-reducing measures to date. To gage the impact Image Gently on medical imaging practices, Imaging Technology News (ITN) spoke with Marilyn Goske, M.D., chair of the Alliance, and Neil Johnson, M.D., president of the Society for Pediatric Imaging, both practice at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

ITN: How serious a risk does radiation imaging pose to children?

Dr. Goske: One of the first things we need to remember is when children have imaging it is being done for an indicated medical condition and for a benefit for that patient. That is really what the Image Gently campaign revolves around. Once a study if medically indicated it behooves all of us in pediatric imaging to promote radiation protection and try to lower the dose and still maintain the quality of the exam so that we get the diagnostic information that we need. We know from studies, particularly from the atomic bomb survivors in Japan, that if children receive radiation from a bomb blast such as that one, they are more sensitive to radiation. Now medical imaging is different as it's a different form of energy and quite diffrent in how it's given for the imaging test, but it's the best we have. The data from that tells us that we need to be overly cautious and conservative, and that if we are going to use this technology, we want to use it in the safest way possible.

ITN: How exactly is the Alliance standardizing dose assessment and display for children?

Dr. Goske: We are working together under the direction of Keith Straus, who is the medical physicist at Boston Children's Hospital, Mr. Tom Toth, who is the former chief physicist at GE Healthcare, and Stephen Vastaghat the Medical Imaging Technology Alliance (MITA). The four major CT vendors have signed on to come up with more standardized dose displays so that when we complete a CT scan and we look at the images on task and that we have the information we need to interpret the information more accurately. Under the current system the CT dose that is displayed, which is the CT dye volume and the DLC are based on 32-centimeter adult-size phantoms. So if the patient is on the table and is exactly the same size as the phantom, the dose display is reasonably accurate. But in our patient population where you have an infant who weighs 5 lbs., for example, the younger they are, the smaller they are compared to the size of the phantom, and the more discrepant the dose display is. According Mr. Strauss in a paper that he published, the dose display can be off by a factor of three. So we are actually underestimating radiation dose for those small patients. We are working with numbers to get those displays more accurate so that radiologists, radiologic technologists and medical physicists have a better idea of what our smaller patients are really getting in terms of radiation dose during CT scans and other imaging procedures. Dr. Johnson: It's a very simplistic but important idea that we give our patients the right dose. We use the analogy of flying. We all fly in a commercial aircrafts, so we take risks. But there is a huge benefit when we minimize the risk. What we are trying to do is minimize the dose of radiation to children. We are not trying to stop these scans when they are needed medically. We are trying to do them with the minimum dose possible.