January 13, 2006 - SCAR Presentation to Focus on Image Overload

January 13, 2006 - Great Falls, VA - The Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR) will present a co-sponsor session at HIMSS 2006 entitled, "Growth in Imaging Volume -- Emerging Solutions: SCAR's Transforming the Radiological Interpretation Process (TRIP™) Initiative." The presentation takes place February 15, 2006, 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. in Room 33 of the San Diego Convention Center. The HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) annual meeting takes place February 12-16.

"Growth in imaging volume is often attributed to growth in patient volume, but the new capabilities that result from upgrades to imaging modalities, especially CT, can be an even greater factor," says Richard L. Morin, PhD, Brooks-Hollern Professor, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, and co-presenter for the SCAR session with Katherine P. Andriole, PhD, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

"Medical imaging is increasingly a key clinical triage event. Healthcare enterprises are seeing an increase in the number of patients being imaged, the number of studies per patient, and the number of images per study," according to the abstract for the SCAR session.

SCAR developed the TRIP™ Initiative to address this growing problem of image overload. The presentation will first describe the advancements in imaging modalities presently seen, as well as what is expected in the near future. In addition to the benefits these enhancements bring, the problem of image data overload will also be introduced, followed by a discussion of the SCAR TRIP™ Initiative, which hopes to provide solutions to this looming crisis in medical imaging.

TRIP™ corporate partnerships provide ongoing support for activities such as annual research conferences/workshops, quality research by young scholars through the SCAR informatics grant program, and forums in which industry, government, and academia can come together to interact and share results. TRIP™ partners include SCAR corporate members AGFA Healthcare; BARCO; Siemens Medical Solutions, Inc.; GE Healthcare; Emageon; FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA; Stentor, Inc.; LumenIQ; TeraRecon, Inc.; Vital Images; and Philips.

For an update on the current status of the TRIP™ Initiative, see the white paper in the upcoming March issue of the Journal of Digital Imaging. For more on the TRIP™ Initiative, SCAR, or the HIMSS co-sponsor presentation, visit the SCAR website at www.siimweb.org.