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RSNA, just like I pictured it...

Wednesday,  12/02/09  05:59 PM

This past Monday and Tuesday I made my annual pilgrimage to the RSNA show in Chicago (Radiological Society of North America).  This huge conference features about 50,000 attendees and nearly 1,000 exhibiting companies in the largest medical imaging show in the world.   Some of the larger exhibitors have city-block-sized booths with hundreds of employees, including bars and restaurants, conference rooms, presentation theaters, and all kinds of state-of-the-art medical imaging equipment.

Digital Pathology isn’t a big deal at this show – yet – but many of the Radiology imaging companies are aware of digital pathology and some of them have even begun their own product development, such as GE and Philips.  It is always interesting to go and see what the industry is doing, and especially to compare what has changed year-over-year.  Of course one of the biggest changes this year was that the whole show was scaled back; most companies plan their presence at the show a year in advance, and given the economic downturn at the end of last year, booked smaller spaces for this year.  As a result the overall square footage of exhibitors was less than in years past, and somewhat less spectacular.  It is still an amazing showcase.

What follows are a few notes and pictures from the show (please click any picture to enlarge)… 

Welcome indeed! RSNA, just like I pictured it.

McCormick Center Grand Concourse never fails to impress.

Good to know.

The show is smaller this year, but not small; as always the sea of booths is amazing.

GE has a smaller presence, but not small; they still have a city-block-sized booth.  This year their theme is "healthy imagination".

Toshiba's presence is as large as ever.

... exhibit booths stretch off into the distance ...

... in every direction ...

A meeting with Stephen Willaert of Barco.  They use Aperio's ImageScope viewer to demonstrate their 3840 x 2400 pixel 800 lumen 16-bit color 30" display.  Cool!

I like this Hologic navigation pad.  Something like this dedicated to digital pathology reviewing would be great.

Okay, time for a walk around the hall!

GE Healthcare - here we go...

Very cool projection screen. The display technology for exhibits keeps getting better.

If this RSNA had a theme, ''women's healthcare'' was it. Featured everywhere...

GE is definitely in the imaging hardware business. Note FDA 510(k) pending sign.

Inside GE's innovation pavilion. Omnyx were exhibiting their digital pathology system here.  I managed to get myself kicked out :)

Check out this display.  Amazing.  Would be great for reviewing slides!

Healthcare IT is an increasingly big emphasis for GE

Hitachi has some amazing MRI machines.

Invivo, another MRI vendor. I like their ''private'' meeting room.

Nuance - a speech-to-text company. A few too many concurrent messages in this display, I think.

Bracco had a huge booth. Among other things, have software for *improving* image quality.

Vital Images - 3D workstations. Had a nice meeting with them, they're expanding into other 'ologies' and have a nice 3rd party API.

Hitachi's presence was scaled back this year. Note empty carpet areas.

IHE is an initative sponsored by NEMA (the DICOM people) to demonstrate inter-operabilty between vendors.

Thinking Systems - CAD solutions (pattern recognition).  I love the 256 processor activity map (displayed between the people in the foreground).

As usual remote MRI trucks on display, but this year a focus on breast cancer.

Konica Minolta had their usual array of amazing digital radiology machines.

Varian - emphasis on software solutions for *Oncologists*

One of the more interesting and different booth designs...

NightHawk - outsourced radiology services - their presence has expanded

NightRays - lots of other companies are in the ''Nighthawk'' business now also.

Imaging on call - customized teleradiology (aka outsourced :)

Fuji has had the same booth for years, but still big and impressive.

These photomultiplier tubes from a Chinese company are like fine sculpture.  Also would make a great chess set :)

The huge Toshiba booth was packed. Now featuring women's health prominently.

Toshiba's industrial design is awesome!

biospace - X-Ray machines you can stand in! Whole body images, cool.

DR Systems - a San Diego -based PACS company, we might work together...

Merge Healthcare - a company or an imperative? Huge presence as always...

Quantum digital radiology systems - note emphasis on 'made in U.S.A.'...

Cerner has a huge presence, primarily featuring HIS and RIS solutions.

Sentinelle featured a lot of pink-colored devices, saw that a lot...

Pink was definitely in vogue at this show, even pharmas like Bayer got into it.

Shimadzu's mobile digital X-ray machine, compact and cool.

Medrad is a PACS company moving into EHR.

Brit Systems - best penguins at the show :)

Digrad makes 'test phantoms'; targets used for calibrating digital radiology systems.  Perhaps there will be 'test phantoms' for digital pathology too some day...

Bard - handheld breast core biopsy devices. These are used to create the needles analyzed by our customers.

Carestream had a strong entry into the 'lifelike display' sweepstakes, wow. 32 monitors stitched together.

Imris systems for neurosurgery - imaging and surgery on one table.

TeraRecon sells systems which manage radiology imaging workflow.

An increasing number of Asian firms exhibit at RSNA, including many from Korea...

Canon had their usual large presence; they make components for other vendors.

Philips had a HUGE exhibit area, with lots of cool 9-panel displays.

Philips' industrial design is pretty cool. Note new message: ''people focused healthcare''.

Philips had an interesting ''workflow pavilion'' with maps showing how their products integrate. Nicely done.

SonoScape - a Chinese ultrasound vendor.

Amicas is a leading EHR vendor; always like this poster at their booth...

The Agfa city. They'll take you there (wherever 'there' is :) ...

... especially if 'there' is image-enabled EHR. They need Aperio for digital pathology :)

McKesson had a somewhat scaled back presence, booth was full of people.  Interesting new tagline: 'take financial control'.

Sony has radiology solutions, and entered the 'huge lifelike display' contest with a strong entry...

Virtual Radiologic's teleradiology booth seemed scaled back from previous years.

Dalsa - Camera vendor (!) and also make digital X-ray panels.

Time to cross the bridge to the Lakeside Plaza... no shortage of attendees.

... keep going straight through the RSNA administrative booths ...

... and there's Lake Michigan! Calm and clear today.

This year the Lakeside Center had exhibitors also, instead of a big CME area.

The winner, largest display - Siemens. Their huge booth had a huge monitor running from one end...

... to the other.

Siemens tagline: 'images, my way.'

Covidien is one of the leaders in FNA equipment.

Sectra - another company focused on women's health.

The inner guts of an MRI - very cool. The rollers have to conduct power into the rotating center.

Quest International - support for imaging monitors. And they have a pretty big one of their own!

Hologic turned pink for the show as well...

... they seem to be marketing to patients as well as to hospitals.

A sobering reminder of what RSNA is all about.

Always the coolest part of visiting McCormick Center - the programmed water fountains :)

And the coolest part of attending RSNA in Chicago is always... Michigan Avenue, dressed for Christmas!

Every year RSNA gets a little more interesting for Digital Pathology; wonder what it will be like next year?  Stay tuned...