“Those things can take a long time to really dissipate, and sometimes never,” said Dr. Carolyn Meltzer, chair of radiology and imaging sciences and executive associate dean of faculty academic advancement, leadership and inclusion at Emory University School of Medicine, during a session titled "Unconscious Bias: Does Radiology Have a Blind Spot?" “But being aware of them is important when we make decisions.”

Addressing burnout
Physician burnout was another widely-discussed topic at RSNA, with at least 10 education sessions devoted to quality of life in the workplace.
Experts encouraged wellness and mentoring programs and team-building exercises, and forming committees devoted to ensuring work/life balance.

The conference also featured a Wellness Lounge that offered yoga sessions, and there was chair yoga offered at the end of the day in the Discovery Theater.

Bringing imaging to the bedside
While the biggest news in radiology has been on the software side for a few years now, there was a notable uptick in compact portable hardware for bringing diagnostics to patients who cannot be transferred to the imaging department.

One of the biggest crowd pleasers at the show was Hyperfine, which performed MR scans (of fruit) on site. It was the first time ever that MR scans had been performed at an RSNA meeting.

The system requires no shielding and its safety zone on the show floor merely consisted of four stanchions surrounding the bore of the scanner.

Siemens Healthineers also made waves with the debut of SOMATOM On.site, a mobile head CT scanner that can be used on critically ill patients in the ICU. And along the same lines, Agfa debuted its new mobile X-ray system, the DR 100s.

Radiology is expanding into new areas
Whether it's evaluating new health hazards or making inroads against dementia, research highlighted at this year's meeting illustrated the growing importance of radiology in a changing society.

A pathologist and laboratory expert on a panel that discussed lung injury related to vaping, told HCB News that radiologists have an essential role in identifying vaping illness. Since many of the heaviest e-cigarette users are underage teens and young adults not yet emancipated from their parents, there have been cases of such patients trying to hide their vaping habit even after they fall ill. At RSNA the message was clear: radiologists need to ask directed questions about e-cigarette use, just as they would about tobacco.

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