2. Putting patients first.
Liz Jazwiec told the story of her initial resistance to patient satisfaction during Tuesday's opening keynote. "I'm here to save your ass, not kiss it," was her motto as head ER nurse at Christ Hospital on Chicago's South Side before she was forced to change her thinking. Today, it's a different story for her and the hospital she works in. Many may relate to Jazwiec's resistance. But in today's changing health care environment, there is no choice. Putting patients first has to be a priority.

Vendors are full of ways to cater to patients with digital X-ray technology. On display at Toshiba American Medical System's booth was its "bread and butter" digital X-ray system. Besides many automatic features, the RADREX-i includes an overhead color LCD screen, which is mounted on the tube crane, and displays real-time images. Aaron Ybarra, product manager at Toshiba, told DOTmed News that this feature in particular keeps technologists near the patient so they can be more present during the exam.

Other features on products from vendors aimed at improving patient satisfaction include tilted wall bucky devices, an X-ray crane that comes down to wheelchair bound patients, and smaller, more lightweight detectors.

New tools available on workstations are geared toward having the technologist spend less time acquiring and processing images so that they can spend more time with the patient.

3. Digital X-ray.
Rich Pulvino from Carestream told DOTmed News that digital X-ray is getting a boost because of all the cost and reimbursement issues around MR and CT, which are only expected to get worse. Left and right, vendors were touting the benefits of digital X-ray during the show. Besides tools to improve image acquisition, X-ray vendors were showing off their small format wireless detectors for pediatric, orthopedic, and general radiology applications.

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