workforce planning
Viewing Art
Immitates Life
By Mark Lerner
I just returned from my annual trip to
the RSNA. Whenever I go, I make it a
priority to go to the Art Institute of
Chicago (don’t tell my boss). I rank this
institution second only to New York’s
Metropolitan as the best museum in this
country. A highlight of each visit is to
see Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. What
I especially enjoy doing is sitting on a
bench watching peoples’ reaction to this
work. This year was no different from
others. It was difficult to obtain a clear
sight of the painting as individual after
individual stopped to admire the realist
scene (circa 1942) of three lonely people
perched on stools in a diner in the middle of the night. Most of the time, the act
of viewing is combined with animated
conversation with others about the feelings they are experiencing.
(To view an image of the painting, go
to: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/
hopper/street/ hopper.nighthawks.jpg)
My self-directed tour of the museum
serves to reinforce my view that there is
greatness in the world. But I could have
come to the same impression from my
experience at the 2011 RSNA conference.
I would label this year as the one of the
direct digital plate. It seems that every
manufacturer produces one and they are
a remarkable technological invention. At
about the thickness of my thumbnail,
they record x-ray images with much
higher resolution and much lower radia-
tion exposure than computed radiology
cassettes. Many transmit the information
wirelessly. They weigh no more than one
volume of “Merrill’s Atlas of Radiograph-
ic Positioning and Procedures.”
It is astonishing the progress that has
been made regarding performing porta-
ble x-ray examinations. One vendor pro-
vides three options for the way these
studies are completed. One unit uses a
built-in computed radiology reader.
Another converts GE’s AMX4+ to direct
digital imaging. The last one uses their
own direct digital system with wireless
cassettes, which are soon to be available in
two different sizes. The innovations
regarding the direct digital plate do not
stop here. One manufacturer has even fig-
ured out how to record fluoroscopy imag-
es with their product.
Mark Lerner is the director of diagnostic imaging at
the George Washington University Hospital. He can
be reached at Mark.Lerner@gwu-hospital.com.
