An Op-Ed by Michael Friebe, Editorial Advisor and Contributing Reporter
RSNA's first year of the second century (101st meeting) ... brought some changes for my 24th attendance ... after 10+ years at the Intercontinental I stayed for the first time at the UNION LEAGUE CLUB and HOTEL - a very good choice and probably the only hotel in Chicago with an official dress code (e.g. no jeans during the weekdays!) that is handed out to you during the check-in. But also a very beautiful pool on the 21st floor which opens at 5am on weekdays - ideal time for jet-lagged Europeans ;-)
Another first for me was the fact that I only stayed till Tuesday evening giving me a full three days of RSNA ... I believe I will leave it at that for the future, met probably just about everyone and saw most likely just about everything.
A lot of people asked me on whether I would provide the walking statistics again ... yes, of course ... and you will get even more statistics this time including the personally walked booth size of some of the major vendors and a short statement on the booth appearance.
RSNA is still in two halls and probably will not need an extension in the coming years - I saw a lot of open spaces and expansion potential. My feeling was that the Sunday had a very low attendance, Monday picked up a bit and Tuesday was already down again. Maybe RSNA should eventually consider to shorten by one day. While I did not see any numbers I would estimate a low double digit drop in attendance compared to last year.
Weather was OK, never below freezing and only light rain on one day (Monday). This year I even spent quite a bit of time at the educational exhibits. Hundreds of e-presentations and posters including some interesting review works that I bookmarked and will download once I am back in Germany.
Have I seen many great new things and disruptive innovations? No! Some new products I will mention in the latter part of this report, but in general the show was focussed on incremental innovations and on software for collaboration, data and image exchange, improved efficiency and of course on image enhancement.
Worth to mention a quote from Jeffrey Immelt (CEO GE) at this point, who gave the NEW HORIZONS lecture "NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE AROUND THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE, IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THINGS TO BE STABLE OR IF YOUR ARE LOOKING FOR THINGS TO BE CERTAIN, YOU ARE GOING TO BE WAITING FOR A LONG TIME". How true and how frustrating at the same time especially for someone like the author of this report, who regularly invests (and believes) in new technologies and then has to realise that it always takes a lot longer and requires a lot more money than initially anticipated. But then, if everyone is hesitant no new innovations and technologies would be developed and subsequently commercialised. Please note the subtitle of this years RSNA -- INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO OUR FUTURE.
