Surgeons at Texas Children's Hospital successfully used CT images to create a 3-D model of a pair of conjoined twin's anatomy to assist in surgically separating them. That was the first time conjoined twins with that degree of complexity were separated.

However, Rybicki explained in his session, there is still an unmet need for radiologists to render DICOM images as 3-D printed models that provide tactile feedback and tangible depth information of anatomic and pathologic states. Radiologists are traditionally used to diagnosing with 2-D images from CT and MR.


The hurdles in the way of widespread adoption of 3-D printing include cost, training, materials, equipment, guidelines, a lack of consensus in terminology, and reimbursement. However, a lot of vendors at RSNA have introduced 3-D printing software and hardware, which Rybicki said will drive down costs over time.

2) Big ticket modalities can wait

It's no longer about the latest widget, instead it's now about helping the hospitals become more efficient with what they have, David Pacitti, the new president of Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., said at a meeting with the press.

The decision-making process is much more complex now that more stakeholders including providers, payors, policymakers, patients, employees and suppliers are involved. The population is aging and putting a strain on the health care system and reimbursements are continuing to decline.

All of these factors are converging on a volatile health care landscape in which hospitals need to ask themselves what services make them most valuable.

1) You cannot say interoperability enough

That's it. Interoperability. Every year companies chip away a little more at realizing those eight magical syllables. The word deserves a place right next to better outcomes, faster, and for less money in the Tenets of Health Reform hall of mottoes.

This year Health IT companies, the ones that might make someone think of the HIMSS conference, were drawing major crowds at RSNA. Enterprise imaging is at a tipping point and radiologists may finally be starting to slip out of their silos.

More than anything, this has been the theme of RSNA. How do we get the entire hospital to play nice together? How do we simplify radiology while adding massive loads of information and cross-channels? How do we accomplish this securely while letting the data sing its snowflake song?

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