By Jim Knaub
Radiology Today
Vol. 11 No. 5 P. 4
Remember when thinking about PACS for the radiology department was looking at the big picture?
Skim the program for next month’s meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) in Minneapolis and you’ll see that ship has sailed—perhaps onto Lake Superior, the big lake they call “Gitche Gumee.” PACS has simply grown beyond the radiology department and in some ways even beyond imaging. Its future is integrating DICOM images into enterprisewide (and beyond) digital image and information networks.
Our interview with David S. Mendelson, MD, FACR illustrates this change. Actually, so do Mendelson’s job titles. In addition to his duties as a pulmonary radiologist, Mendelson is the director of radiology information systems and chief of clinical informatics at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. In an exclusive interview with Radiology Today, Mendelson discusses implementing voice recognition-based reporting at Mount Sinai and how it fits into digital workflow and information exchange.
Also in this issue, veteran medical practice administrator and writer Timothy W. Boden reports on the current state of goodwill value in radiology. While measuring and quantifying observation forms the core of the scientific method and is central to physician training, it doesn’t really apply to goodwill. As a practical matter, goodwill could pretty much be defined as the net value of all those things you can’t measure that people are willing to pay for anyway. Boden interviewed experts in the field and contributes his own considerable experience to this topic. While the traditional concept of goodwill value seems to be gone from partnership buy-in and pay-out arrangements, it still seems to exist in merger and acquisition deals.
Finally, I hope to see some of you in Minneapolis at the SIIM annual meeting. Stop by Booth 513 and tell me what you see as the most important and interesting developments in imaging informatics.
Enjoy the issue.
jknaub@gvpub.com