Dear AuntMinnieEurope Member,
One of the greatest challenges in healthcare today is how best to organize and integrate the huge volume of information and data that is being generated. The incredible explosion of medical technology, know-how, and therapies has put a strong emphasis on how to manage the process effectively, and ensure all essential details are not only accessible but secure.
Imaging professionals are not exempt from these pressures, and have a key role to play in meeting this challenge. Image data must be acquired, displayed, and stored appropriately within the radiology department, and then made available quickly to referring clinicians, surgeons, and others.
Given the urgent need to shed light on this area, I am thrilled to announce the creation of our new Healthcare Informatics Digital Community. This special area of our site will be devoted to in-depth, focused news on how computer hardware, specialist software, and communication devices can be used to form networks to collect, analyze, and transmit data and information.
We aim to bring you practical, jargon-free articles and case studies about harnessing the massive potential of IT. Click here to view a story about how errors can be identified and reduced in breast reports performed with speech recognition tools.
Also, find out how some Belgian radiologists are using technology to make home reporting a feasible option. Both of these articles are based on presentations made at ECR 2011, underlining how informatics has now become part of mainstream radiology.
Country reports also are an integral part of our coverage, and radiologists in Norway are striving particularly hard to cope with the structural changes being implemented by government officials and hospital management.
Finally, the future well-being of radiology hinges on the profession's ability to recruit and retain talented individuals. A session on this hot topic was held during ECR 2011 and featured several shrewd presenters. Click here to read our special report.
