Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Deep down, you know you missed him. He is, of course, the one and only PACSman, the inimitable Michael J. Cannavo, perhaps radiology's most watched (and most opinionated) expert on imaging informatics technology.
After a two-year stint working for a major PACS vendor, Mr. Cannavo is back offering his nuggets of wisdom on PACS. In his new column, he offers 10 lessons he learned while working "on the dark side," as he calls it.
You may love him or hate him, but odds are you always read his stuff. So get over to our PACS Digital Community at pacs.auntminnie.com, or just click here to see what the PACSman has to say this time.
New fetal US criteria
In other news, a multispecialty panel has released new criteria for fetal ultrasound that it hopes will lead to fewer pregnancies being terminated mistakenly because the fetus was thought to be nonviable.
Published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the new guidelines are designed for those viewing fetal ultrasound scans to help them determine if a pregnancy is viable. In general, they raise the threshold for nonviability, such as by advising physicians to wait until an embryo reaches 7 mm to determine if it has a heartbeat, rather than the old threshold of 5 mm.
The panel said that the old criteria weren't stringent enough to rule out false-positive scans. Read all about the new guidelines by clicking here, or visit our Ultrasound Digital Community at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
Last chance to vote in the Minnies
Finally, have you voted in the Best Radiology Image competition in the Minnies, our annual event recognizing excellence in radiology? If not, you only have a few days before voting closes at midnight on Sunday, October 13.
We're taking votes on our Facebook page, where you can choose one of the two images that are finalists for the award. Get started by clicking here, and "like" the image that you think deserves recognition.