Dear AuntMinnie Member,
CHICAGO - RSNA opened its 100th annual meeting this morning amid much pomp and circumstance. The society has a series of events planned over the next week in McCormick Place to observe the centennial.
The anniversary finds RSNA and radiology at a crossroads, as the specialty searches for avenues forward in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Radiology has been beset by forces ranging from the unintended effects of new technology to new business models that threaten to disintermediate radiologists.
But there are signs that things could be changing for the better. Getting CT lung cancer screening approved for Medicare payments was a huge win and will be a major topic of conversation this week. Also, anecdotal reports are growing of an influx of new individuals seeking healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
So despite the doom and gloom of the past several years, radiology has much to look forward to in the next 100 years. Hopefully, RSNA 2014 attendees will leave this year's meeting with a new sense of optimism as the specialty adapts to its challenges.
As always, AuntMinnie.com has a team of editors on the scene in McCormick Place to provide up-to-the-minute coverage. In our coverage of today's opening session, RSNA President Dr. N. Reed Dunnick discusses how radiology will advance by combining its strength in research and discovery with a new focus on patient-centered care.
In other articles, researchers from Germany found that adding diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to FDG-PET/MRI for women with pelvic malignancies wasn't worth the additional scan time. And the jury may still be out on the value of screening ultrasound in states that have passed breast density notification laws.
These stories and more are available in our RADCast @ RSNA special section at rsna.auntminnie.com.
![Axial images from unenhanced calcium score cardiac CT (left) and curved planar reformation images from CT angiography (right) show that higher long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with greater coronary artery calcium and more obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Top row: Images in a 68-year-old male patient with higher 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (7.9 μg/m3 for particulate matter measuring ≤2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5] and 17.4 parts per billion [ppb] for NO2) with extensive CAD (coronary artery calcium score [CACS] >1,000 and obstructive CAD [≥70% diameter stenosis]). Bottom row: Images in a 57-year-old female patient with lower 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (6.3 μg/m3 for PM2.5 and 4.6 ppb for NO2) with no CAD (CACS = 0 and no obstructive stenosis).](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/06/hanneman.r6SMLzkezo.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
