Trends in imaging IT forecast changes to radiology practice

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Trends in radiology used to be simple and predictable. They came from within, from technologies and issues related to modalities: MR, CT, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and radiography. Even the early adoption of PACS was modality-driven, linked inextricably with the adoption of digital x-ray.

Consumer demand for open MR broke this pattern, launching midfield as a viable clinical option. Today radiology seems primed for new developments, this time driven by the consumer, this time in information technology. Wide-scale access to the Internet, made possible by inexpensive PCs and mobile communications devices, has whetted an appetite for health information, empowering patients to research medical questions while giving them the means to own the results of imaging exams and lab tests. Catalyzing the reaction among information technologies and the desire to use them in healthcare is a political initiative to make healthcare more efficient through the widespread use of IT.

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