Tag: RSNA

Canon’s Meaningful RSNA Innovations

Posted on by Jake Fishman

After taking a virtual approach to RSNA last year, Canon Medical Systems made its presence felt at RSNA 2022, unveiling an interactive “digital patient journey” booth that featured an interesting mix of new products and business model innovations. 

SP MRIs – Canon unveiled SP-suffix configurations of its Vantage Orian and Galan MRIs (1.5T & 3T), adding new features intended to enhance MRI team efficiency (tablet UX interface, intelligent Ceiling Camera), while making a number of its image quality and productivity-focused solutions standard (AiCE DLR, Fast 3D acceleration, ForeSee View automation).

Mobile XR – The new Mobirex i9 brings a rare update to Canon’s U.S. mobile X-ray lineup, launching with an emphasis on its small size, mobile/flexible design, and its use of Canon’s next-gen CXDI-Elite wireless detectors.

Mobile MI – In a different type of mobile expansion, Canon launched a mobile version of its Cartesion Prime Digital PET/CT, which seems to be a good fit for mobile coaches given its Air Cooled technology and small footprint (fits in 3.15×7.1 meters).

Future Proof Packages – Canon rolled out its interesting new Non-Obsolescence Program, which allows CT and MRI customers to purchase an up-front package that gives them access to all future hardware, software, and service options as they become available. The program covers five years of upgrades, and is priced well below what users would pay if they ordered each item individually.

Glassbeam Clinsights – Canon’s Inclusive Analytics Suite added Glassbeam Clinsights Utilization Analytics, which analyzes DICOM and HL7 data to help Canon service customers understand imaging utilization and productivity levels across their fleets (multi-modalities and vendors).

The Imaging Wire’s RSNA 2022 Reflections

Posted on by Jake Fishman

RSNA 2022 is officially a wrap. We hope you had a blast if you made it, and had a great week if you stayed home. We also hope you enjoy our recap of radiology’s most important event in at least three years.

Crowds & Conversations – RSNA’s attendance and overall energy continued to trend upward, as most of the 31k people on-site were super engaged and truly excited to be there. Although attendance was still well below RSNA 2019 (~49k on-site), it was a big jump from last year (~23k on-site), and infinitely better than 2020’s virtual RSNA.

Much Rad Love – If you had “I’m not a radiologist but…” on your RSNA bingo card you’d be in a good spot, because the exhibit hall was full of non-rads talking about how to help radiology teams be more effective and more satisfied.

Focus on Productivity – Perhaps due to all that vendor empathy, just about every new product (hardware and software) focused on eliminating steps / clicks / interruptions, improving workflow integration, alleviating burnout and labor challenges, and better matching diagnostic processes.

Getting Cloudy – There’s no debate that imaging’s shift to the cloud was one of RSNA’s top trends, as informatics vendors continued to strengthen their cloud capabilities and expand their list of cloud-based customers (especially if you include hybrid). There were, however, plenty of debates about who’s cloud tech is truly native and who’s aren’t.

AI’s Two Sides – It seems like many folks are still in AI’s “trough of disillusionment,” as conversations often drifted towards problems with AI’s performance, use cases, funding climate, and provider ROI. However, AI adoption has never been wider, AI products have never worked better, and there are plenty of AI trends to be excited about…

  • AI is becoming less narrow
  • AI workflow integration keeps getting better
  • More radiologists are interested in AI
  • There’s solid traction with operational and efficiency AI
  • We’re not talking about AI replacing radiologists (as much)

Modality Progress – Although there were only a handful of completely new scanners at RSNA, the major OEMs showed continued advancements in MR (image quality, low-helium, low-field, reconstruction, coils) and CT (spectral, photon-counting, upgradability), while nearly all scanners took big strides in operator efficiency.

The Takeaway

Radiology faces plenty of challenges, but it’s populated by some of the smartest people in medicine/medtech who are working hard to solve those challenges. Hats off to the RSNA team for getting all the smart people together every year to push those solutions forward.

RSNA 2021 Reflections

Posted on by Jake Fishman

The first in-person RSNA since COVID is officially a wrap. Hope you had a blast if you made it to Chicago and a productive week if you stayed home. We also hope you enjoy The Imaging Wire’s big takeaways from what might have been both the most special and most subdued RSNA ever.

Crowds & Conversations – We were already expecting 50% lower attendance than RSNA 2019, but the exhibit hall and cab lines looked more like 70% below 2019’s crowds (even less on Sunday & Wednesday). That said, most of the stronger companies had steady booth traffic and nearly every exhibitor emphasized that the attendees who did show up were ready to have high-quality conversations.

Focus on Productivity – Just about every product message at RSNA focused on productivity and efficiency, often with greater emphasis than clinical effectiveness. The modality-based efficiency enhancements seemed to be the most impactful, which is good news for technologist bandwidth and patient throughput, but might be bad news for rad burnout unless informatics/AI efficiency can catch up (it doesn’t seem like that happened this year).

Modality Milestones – The major OEMs did a good job making modalities cool again, debuting milestone innovations across both their MR (low-helium, low-field, reconstruction, coils) and CT (photon-counting, spectral, upgradability) lineups. We also saw the latest scanners take big strides in operator efficiency and patient experience. There weren’t many breakthroughs with X-ray or ultrasound, and most point-of-care ultrasound OEMs stayed home (rads aren’t their market anyway), but attendees seemed okay with that.

AI Showcase – The RSNA AI Showcase had solid traffic and high energy (especially on Mon & Tues), helped by continued AI buzz and the fact that RSNA finally let AI vendors out of the basement. The AI Showcase highlighted many of the trends we’ve been seeing all year, including larger vendors transitioning to AI platform strategies, an increased focus on workflow integration and care coordination, and a greater emphasis on radiologist efficiency. There were also far fewer brand-new AI tools than previous years, as many vendors focused on improving their current products and/or expanding their portfolio via partnerships. 

PACS Cloud Focus – PACS vendors continued to place a major emphasis on their respective cloud advantages, and there was a widespread consensus that cloud is on every imaging IT roadmap. The PACS vendors seemed to talk less about multi-ology enterprise imaging than previous years, and expanding EI beyond radiology/cardiology still seemed pretty futuristic for most players. It was also quite clear that most of the PACS players’ AI marketplaces/platforms haven’t been as prioritized as earlier announcements might have suggested.

Best RSNA Since… 2019 – We’ve heard some folks saying this was the “best RSNA ever” because it was easy to get around and it was great to see everyone, but those seem more like pandemic silver linings than “best ever” qualifications. Still, the imaging industry made the most of RSNA 2021, and everyone seemed truly happy to be together again after two long years of working from home. As long as COVID cooperates, we should be set up for an excellent RSNA 2022.

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-- The Imaging Wire team

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