What I am looking for is the new breakthrough technology or (even better) a system that would lead to health business disruption and to health democratisation.

That would require a system or product that is replacing existing expensive technologies (being able to answer the main diagnostic questions sufficiently well or open up new opportunities) with a price tag of 10% of the current product offerings. Of course - just like the last 30+ years I did not really find anything that meets these criteria. It is a little bit like in the car industry … you kind of know what the next generation VOLKSWAGEN GOLF will look like or where the improvements likely will be - and they are almost always combined with an increased price tag ☹

The AI offerings do confuse me in the meantime. There are several companies that advertise workflow and image segmentation solutions for a very narrow field and I do not understand the differences anymore. I also do have problems to understand the business models of these companies for standalone individual products on an annual subscription model. There is clearly a need for a platform offering here … with the large OEM vendors and established PACS companies at an advantage. I listened to some of the product presentations and obviously see the benefits and advantages for the users, but am still not clear on the selection criteria and the integration.

No doubt there will be much much more coming and also sure that there will be some consolidation in the very near future.

You also saw the huge focus on AI for reconstruction, noise reduction, image enhancement, patient positioning and protocol selection as part of the image acquisition in the booth offerings of the large OEM. The presentation focus is in the meantime clearly on “monitors” rather than on the physical product showcase.

So now to the bad (or rather disappointing) news: I did not find anything that really excited me (but based on my above mentioned criteria) or that I did not expect to be presented anyway. This years RSNA was going back to normal, networking, having fun, walking the booth, and occasionally listen to the semi-exciting news about novel product innovations.

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