Lessons learned from a radiology conference

I just came back from a conference in Chicago called the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). It is one of the largest medical conferences in the world, with over 55,000 attendees. RSNA is primarily a radiology conference attended by medical imaging vendors and radiologists from all over the world. It was so neat to hear Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Portuguese, Arabic, all around me. Even the vendor booths had a variety of international employees to communicate with the diverse crowd.

The presentations at this conference focus on clinical cases, continuing education, new advancements in radiology technology, research projects, and even life management skills (like reducing stress, using social media for advertising your private practice, avoiding issues with billing, etc).

I was sent to this conference to evaluate new medical imaging technologies that my hospital is considering purchasing, speak to vendors about future research projects, and my favorite… watch as many talks as I possibly could!

I love attending conferences. I feed off of an adrenaline rush the whole time and return to work with an extra boost of motivation to work on new projects and apply the knowledge I gained from the presentations. Some of the highlights from this conference were:
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• Seeing images of a novel ultra high resolution CT detectors for bone, thoracic, and neuro applications
• Getting hands on with a new portable extremity cone beam CT scanner that provides superior skeletal resolution at a quarter of the radiation dose
• Network with other students conducting research projects in my area while using different approaches
• Ask tons of questions to international radiologists and physicists who practice different methods in their countries
• Reunite with my former graduate family over tons of good food
• Stay in a city for a week where you can walk everywhere.. that was SO cool!​