The Enterprise | Trends to Watch

I'm a big trend watcher - whether it's technology, finance or fashion. For this month's cover story, we polled our readers (thanks to the hundreds who chimed in!) to determine technology priorities and thus the industry's "Top 10 Trends." I don't want to give it all away (even though you've already seen the Top Trends on the cover) - but multislice CT, for sure, is the center of our universe.

As you'll see from the charts, we've broken the Top Trends down further to facility type and size - such as small, medium and large hospitals and imaging centers - and it's interesting to see how they break down by job title, too. Increasing imaging procedure volume tops the lists of hospital executives and administrators as well as radiology administrators and business managers. Improving department workflow is most important to CIOs and VPs of information systems and chiefs and directors of radiology, while PACS administrators have network security tops on their minds.

Hospital executives and administrators - as well as radiology administrators and business managers - see improving department workflow and buying a multislice scanner as their No. 2 and 3 trends. CIOs and VPs of information systems are concentrating next on network security and increasing imaging procedure volume. Chiefs and directors of radiology put increasing imaging procedure volume and buying a multislice CT scanner as Nos. 2 and 3, while PACS administrators have their sights set next on managing multislice CT images and improving department workflow. (For a full listing of the Top Trends charts by title, see the chart below.)

The planets are aligning around CT again in this issue in Taming the Torrent of Multislice Images: Tips to Speed CT Workflow. I guess trends do have that way of continuing to pop up.

Happy holidays from the staff of Health Imaging & IT - and peace to you and yours in 2006!

Top Trends by Job Title

Hospital CEO/CFO/COO/Administrator

  1. Increasing imaging procedure volume
  2. Improving department workflow
  3. Buying a multislice CT scanner
  4. Network security
  5. Increasing growth in cath labs
  6. Managing multislice CT images
  7. Adding/improving web access to images
  8. Adding wireless capabilities to the network
  9. Providing image access outside of radiology (OR, ER, ICU)
  10. Buying digital radiography

CIO/VP of Information Systems

  1. Improving department workflow
  2. Network security
  3. Increasing imaging procedure volume
  4. Adding/improving web access to images
  5. Managing multislice CT images
  6. Adding wireless capabilities to the network
  7. Providing image access outside of radiology (OR, ER, ICU)
  8. Buying a multislice CT scanner
  9. Buying an EMR system
  10. Adding enterprise image storage

Chief/Director of Radiology

  1. Improving department workflow
  2. Increasing imaging procedure volume
  3. Buying a multislice CT scanner
  4. Adding/improving web access to images
  5. Providing image access outside of radiology (OR, ER, ICU)
  6. Adding advanced visualization software
  7. Managing multislice CT images
  8. Buying computed radiography
  9. Network security
  10. Buying digital radiography

Radiology Administrator/Business Manager

  1. Increasing imaging procedure volume
  2. Improving department workflow
  3. Buying a multislice CT scanner
  4. Managing multislice CT images
  5. Adding/improving web access to images
  6. Buying digital radiography
  7. Buying digital mammography
  8. Providing image access outside of radiology (OR, ER, ICU)
  9. Adding enterprise image storage
  10. Network security

PACS Administrator

  1. Network security
  2. Managing multislice CT images
  3. Improving department workflow
  4. Improving the speed and bandwidth of the network
  5. Adding/improving web access to images
  6. Providing image access outside of radiology (OR, ER, ICU)
  7. Increasing imaging procedure volume
  8. Adding enterprise image storage
  9. Buying a multislice CT scanner
  10. Adding advanced visualization software

 

Mary Tierney
Mary C. Tierney, MS, Vice President & Chief Content Officer, TriMed Media Group

Mary joined TriMed Media in 2003. She was the founding editor and editorial director of Health Imaging, Cardiovascular Business, Molecular Imaging Insight and CMIO, now known as Clinical Innovation + Technology. Prior to TriMed, Mary was the editorial director of HealthTech Publishing Company, where she had worked since 1991. While there, she oversaw four magazines and related online media, and piloted the launch of two magazines and websites. Mary holds a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. She lives in East Greenwich, R.I., and when not working, she is usually running around after her family, taking photos or cooking.

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

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