Exciting Imaging Products
I may repeat myself (from last year's reports), but there were nice improvements in workflow, acquisition time, image resolution and quality - no groundbreakingly new RSNA offerings however (this was the exact wording from last years report ... true for 2017 as well and therefore recycled).

As mentioned already the OEMs are ready and prepared for ML and AI, but did not highlight that on their booth showings, which were focusing on the necessary incremental improvements. All showed new fully digital 3T systems with lots and lots of channels. The MR LINAC (Philips/Elekta) was shown on Elekta’s booth and presented in a lunch symposium that I attended. I cannot believe that this is the way forward considering the cost constraints and the already existing inequalities in health care provision. The companies need to think more in terms of making processes and procedures easier, cheaper and that come with a smaller footprint. That may then really lead to disruption. I actually know that the OEMs are actively thinking about that and they may already have some great product ideas, but not a clear business concept yet. Will be exciting to see their reaction if a medium size vendor introduces such a system.


Siemens Healthineers showed a new CT / Angio combination and a clever new camera concept with the potential to reduce user positioning errors and decrease X-ray dose. They use an infrared stereo camera system over the CT patient bed that measures the patient volume and distance to the X-ray tube. I can see many potential additional applications for that including tool tracking, automated patient classification and protocol selection.

Toshiba highlighted a new CT with 0.25mm detector dimension that increased the resolution dramatically ... unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the price also increases dramatically. And Philips was presenting the new fully digital PET/CT and an improved spectral CT.

GE combined high-end ultrasound with the Fibroscan method for liver diagnosis that I believe will be successful within that dedicated market segment, as it provides valuable additional diagnostic information also for screening.

Disruption? What is on the horizon?
Machine learning is the hottest and most promising development - no, promising is actually not the right word anymore, because it is clear that ML and AI will improve the diagnostic quality significantly and will definetely stay. So lets call it “emerging” and for many it is also rather frightening, as it will come with workflow changes, will change reimbursement and delivery, and most importantly will change the role of the radiologist. It will most likely not be “bye, bye radiologist”, but possibly lead to an empathetic disease management role for the radiologist on behalf of the patient. From a patient's point of view that sounds awesome.
And let me mention in that context some of the cool companies that I am working with and/ or that I like and that were present at this years show — check them out: CONTEXTFLOW (AI, ML from Vienna), PIUR IMAGING (Ultrasound Tomography), INTERVENTIONAL SYSTEMS (Surgical Assistance), SMART REPORTING (the name says it all), SURGICEYE (Surgical Nukmed); MR:COMP (MRI compatibility), and of course VISUS.

Since this October my research group (engineering innovations for new image guided therapy devices including a machine learning and signal analysis group) in Magdeburg is additionally running an INNOVATION LAB directly at the university clinic and we - together with our clinical partners - would like to work with you on the exciting RSNA product highlights for 2018 and beyond — www.inka-md.de
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