Left foot on yellow! Right hand on green! Who could forget the limb-twisting, laughter-inspiring, (sometimes naughty) party game Twister? Hilarity and fun always arise when players spin the color wheel, directing hands and feet to certain spots on the giant plastic game board splayed out on the floor. Through its rows of colored dots, that board connects everyone. Likewise, in the imaging space, it’s crucial to stay connected?and it can be easy with technology, our industry’s version of the giant game board.

At Medical Imaging, our goal is to keep you, our readers, connected and informed about the latest trends in imaging technology and how they can be applied in your facility and career. To that end, we have launched “A Closer Look,” in which we show you an image and provide a few notes about the patient. However, the diagnosis, findings, and information about the image-capturing technique are available exclusively online. (By the way, if you have an incredible case-study image you’d like to share, use the technology at your fingertips, and ! I’d also love your feedback on this new department.)

Also, this month’s “Informatics Report” features a question posed by one of our readers and a response from columnist Michael Mack. Because this type of Q&A is so beneficial?not just to the person asking the question but also to our entire readership?we’ve launched an “Expert Insight” section on our Web site. This Q&A corner will feature experts in various areas of medical imaging who can answer your questions. To start, we are featuring questions and answers from Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle-CEO of the Imaging Center Institute, a strategic development firm for outpatient radiology services; and managing director of Practice Builders (Santa Ana, Calif), a strategic planning and marketing consultancy to 30-plus radiology practices. To check it out or ask a question, visit Expert Insight.

Additionally, we’re looking for your help so that we can stay connected. Simply take our PACS usage survey, available online at PACS survey. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to complete. We want to learn more about your PACS solution, such as how many vendors were considered, which solution you’re using, how many service calls have been placed, and the like. The results will be the cover story of our April issue. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey?even if your facility doesn’t have a PACS. (We want to know that, too!)

Finally, I expect that the upcoming annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)?February 12?16 in San Diego?will help to keep us all a little more connected. The Medical Imaging team will be attending, so put your left and right feet on that brown carpet and connect with us at Booth 1751. See you there!


Andi Lucas
Editor