Synapse version 3.1 from Fujifilm Medical Systems USA features advances in data processing and presentation, extended dictation support, and DICOM query and retrieve functionality. Interaction with PACS made by other vendors is one of the highlights of the new software.

Researchers in Germany believe that MR imaging should be included among the World Health Organization’s options for diagnosing sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), which is associated with exposure to mad cow disease.

TeraRecon is promising distributed, user-friendly 3D applications through its AquariusNET 1.5, showcased at the RSNA meeting in Chicago. The enhanced image processing server is designed to work in concert with PACS.

After years of citing soft indicators like improved efficiency, some institutions can now present hard numbers to cost-justify installing a PACS. Two papers presented Thursday indicate both large cost savings and rapid return on investment with PACS implementation.

New data are refueling the drive for further utilization of MR imaging in the triage and characterization of breast cancer, according to studies presented Wednesday.

Research from Duke University, where stress fractures of the fifth metatarsal have been the proverbial Achilles heel of more than one Blue Devil basketball star, may help team practitioners identify players at risk for this injury even before symptoms develop.

Interventional radiologists can now kill two “birds” with just one probe. Simultaneous radio-frequency ablation of hepatic and pulmonary tumors is feasible, according to Italian researchers.

Toshiba America Medical Systems is showing its new Kalare digital x-ray system for the first time at an RSNA meeting. Designed to enhance productivity and clinical outcomes, the system will be offered at a value-oriented price, according Don Volz, director of the x-ray business unit for Toshiba.

In preliminary results from a three-country randomized trial, researchers report finding a correlation between MRI signs and the clinical symptoms seen in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

An Israeli HMO has reduced its high-tech imaging costs with the help of American College of Radiology appropriateness criteria that guide CT and MR use for its 1.6 million members.

Siemens Medical Solutions has introduced its Moblitt XP Digital, a mobile digital x-ray system with a flat-panel detector. The product offers instant image display to enhance both productivity and workflow and a fast archiving capability for speedy processing.

My favorite end-of-day refuge after walking miles in McCormick Place is a minimalist Asian fusion restaurant with delicious food and low prices. I read the RSNA Bulletin. I eat. I depart

Philips Medical Systems has been showing its flagship DigitalDiagnost VM digital radiography system as a marketable product at the RSNA meeting all week. The system, which appeared at last year’s meeting as a work-in-progress, began shipping in June.

Planmed, which markets a variety of advanced mammography products, is showing its Nuance full-field digital mammography system during RSNA 2004. A work-in-progress, the Nuance is being displayed with a tomosynthesis capability.

Digital mammography’s latest vendor, Siemens Medical Solutions, is showing its new Mammomat Novation system on the 2004 RSNA exhibit floor. The product meets all the demands of modern mammography practices, providing digital screening, diagnosis, and stereotactic biopsy capabilities. Since receiving FDA approval in August, Novation has been installed at 10 sites, and the company expects to install another 20 by year-end.

Tuesday morning, after Dr. David Levin and Dr. Alan Kaye’s course on self-referral in imaging, someone was handing out a press statement as attendees walked out the door. The title, “Patients belong in the imaging picture,” is profound. I agree, and groceries belong in the grocery store. I cannot think of a single imaging study I have ever done that would have been more useful had the patient not been in the study.

SmartPACS has unveiled a new radiology information system that it says will solve common integration problems.

With the help of diffusion-weighted imaging, spectroscopy, and directionally encoded color maps, MR is advancing understanding of hippocampal abnormalities in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

U.S. radiology has hit a conundrum: Demand for imaging interpretation services continues to increase, but the pool of radiologists emerging from residency programs remains fixed at about 3100 per year.

The use of expert witnesses in radiology malpractice cases had a few defenders, but it continued to draw fire in a pro-and-con debate Monday.