From the January 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
By the HCB News editorial team
That spike and sudden decline in steps-per-day on your smartphone pedometer can only mean one thing: RSNA 2016 is officially in the books.
Last week, McCormick Place in Chicago was buzzing with health care professionals trying to get a sense of how radiology will look in 2017 — and many of them are still trying to process the deluge of information they ingested.
Whether your head continues to spin, you missed the show entirely, or you just want to compare notes... here is the HealthCare Business News list of top 10 trends and takeaways from RSNA 2016:
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Affordable is in
In the past, RSNA has at times felt like a car show for medical equipment; a showroom full of incredible machines that will probably not appear in your neighborhood any time soon. This year, there was a noticeable shift toward practical cost-saving innovations that might appeal to non-academic facilities.
With MAGNETOM Sempra, Siemens touted a relatively low-cost MR solution as its "most cost-effective" 1.5 Tesla scanner. The system is designed to be a workhorse for facilities that aren't looking for lots of bells and whistles, but also cannot risk the downtime that may come with inferior systems.
Hitachi unveiled the
Supria 16-slice CT scanner at last year's RSNA and began delivering units to hospitals at the beginning of this year. The XR-29-compliant system has led to a resurgence in 16-slice scanners, according to Mark Silverman, Hitachi’s director of CT marketing.
Even Toshiba's new Vantage Galan 3T is intended to bring the benefits of higher magnet strength to a more everyday setting. “3T has often been limited to research settings and the capabilities of the Vantage Galan 3T open up a new world of possibilities for routine and advanced MR," said Dominic Smith, senior director, CT, PET/CT, and MR for Toshiba. "The system dramatically simplifies complex MR exams and offers patients a quiet and comfortable experience, allowing health care providers to offer routine, high quality MR imaging to their patients.”
There's no hiding from MIPS
Next year's roll out of CMS' Merit-based Incentive Payment System has been a consistent source of anxiety for many radiologists. At RSNA, Dr. David Levin, Emeritus Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, likened the preparation process to that involved in a
colonoscopy; you don't want to do it, but you should.
