Meaningful Use
Bradley J. Erickson, MD, PhD, FSIIM
Chair
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the ‘stimulus package’, promises to spend a significant amount of money promoting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) through an incentive system. Those physicians who make “Meaningful Use” of an EHR will receive incremental payments from CMS starting in 2011. That key phrase, ‘Meaningful Use” has been the subject of much discussion. Several groups have already proposed definitions. While those definitions have included many valid points, none has even mentioned imaging, including the initial recommendations of the HIT Policy Committee. That, despite the fact that imaging is a large part of the cost of healthcare in America, and is one of the most rapidly increasing …
Interactive Sessions
My co-leader (Tony Seibert) and I took pictures during our interactive session on setting policy for storing images from the new 64 slice plus CT units. Some of the units can generate 15,000 images for a study and these clearly will need careful handling. So the question is - Do you save them all? Do you save screen captures of the processed data which is usually more useful than the 15,000 individual images? Do you save both? If you save the “raw” 15,000 images, how can you show in the future how they were processed and displayed for interpretation and if you only save the processed data, how can you look back and reprocess if desired? The round tables each …
SIIM 2009 - Keynote Address
SIIM 2009 was one of the most interesting meetings I’ve ever attended. The changes in the format of the meeting meant that there were sessions designed to challenge the minds of all attendees, no matter how sophisticated their knowledge of Imaging Informatics. I will try to bring a bit of the experience to everyone over the next few days.
One of the most entertaining and interesting sessions, was our keynote speaker, Henry Petroski, PhD, and his presentation “The Design and Failure of Useful Things”. His premise was that limitations of design or objects are what trigger innovation
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A Different Kind of Show
Next week we’ll be at SIIM 2009, but this week we (my husband and I) are at Blade 2009 in Atlanta, the largest custom knife show in the US, maybe the world. We are vendors this year, my husband collects, buys, and sells custom and antique knives and its a WAY different group from the one at SIIM. We expect around 50,000 people here this weekend.
Meet the Authors
In the post below, I mention the great SIIM book, Practical Imaging Informatics. You can meet the authors and talk with all of us at SIIM 2009 in the SIIM Members Lounge and Resource Center from 2:45pm - 3:30pm on Thursday, June 4th. We will have the galley proof for the book at the informal event so you can see what you will get when you order the book.
I’ll see you there…
SIIM Book - Practical Imaging Informatics…
My husband and I ate lunch at the Popeyes in the Atlanta airport last Friday. I know . . . fast food is not good for us, but that’s not the topic of this blog. Popeyes had a greeter and dining area helper named Dwayne who welcomed people, helped them get their food to a table while navigating with a rolling suitcase and other stuff people tend to carry around when traveling. He brought diners straws, forks, and honey, whatever they needed so they didn’t have to get up from their seat. He helped clean up the tables and kept everyone laughing with
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Getting Ready for SIIM 2009
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the annual meeting this year in Charlotte, N.C., a truly beautiful Southern City. Charlotte is known as the “Queen City” and was named after Queen Charlotte Sophia of Mecklinburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III. The Citizens of the town named the town in 1768 to curry favor of the king, although we all know how that worked out. Incidently, Charlotte is in Mecklinburg county (another ploy to gain the king and queen’s favor). However, on May 20, 1775 after King George III had managed to irk the Charlotte citizens beyond their level of
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Should Radiology IT be Owned by the Chief Information Officer?
Our first “Point / Counterpoint” article is available for everyone as open access on the Journal of Digital Imaging online first. This article poses the question “Who should administer and maintain Radiology IT systems. George Bowers, a principal at the Baltimore-based Health Care Information Consultants, argues that the CIO of the organization should manage Radiology IT to avoid duplication of costs and maintain consistency of services. David Channin, MD, from the department of radiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, argues that Radiology is dependent on IT, is more complex and valuable, and in fact lead the way in developing
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SIIM Social Networking Survey Results
In a recent survey of SIIM members and visitors to the SIIM website, respondents said that they are using or plan to use the following SIIM social networking sites:
JDI/SIIM blog – 86%
LinkedIn – 61%
Facebook – 51%
Twitter – 44%
Are you an active social networker? Post your comments, start a discussion, or share your opinions on one of SIIM’s outlets today, and start accessing SIIM content when you want, where you want! Become a Facebook Fan; follow us on
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HIMSS
Chicago was much more pleasant in April than in November - December for RSNA. I attended the meeting on Sunday, did a presentation on the challenges Hospital IT will face in the future with the “other-ologies” coming on board with images and the need to store, display, and transmit them. Look to the June JDI for several articles on the way the departments outside of radiology are coping.
You may not know that Chicago is in the finals to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and Sunday attendees were treated to demonstrations by several different olympic champions. I took the picture of a fencing match below with my NEW IPHONE! Possibly my new favorite gadget. It can certainly burn up a lot …
