by
Joanna Padovano, Reporter | November 19, 2012
From the November 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Aside from the 1984 meeting that was held in Washington D.C., the rest of the meetings during the 1980s were once again held at McCormick Place. Around that time the society began to distribute official programs and saw an increased presence of international radiologists at the meetings. Towards the end of the decade, attendance at RSNA’s annual meeting was more than 40,000.
Continuing to expand
By this point the meeting was being held in a portion of the newly constructed North Building at McCormick
Place as well as in the original Lakeside Center; both buildings were connected by a walkway. Due to the overwhelming size of the event, the society started printing Walk through the Week, a brochure that outlined the scientific assembly based on subspecialty topics.
In 1990 the RSNA Scientific Assembly was considered the largest annual medical meeting in the world. That year’s conference introduced a concept and demonstration area for the display and hands-on use of computer-based education, research and practice-management programs and databases. The meeting also offered second-year residents an “Introduction to Research” course, which was co-sponsored by RSNA, the American Roentgen Ray Society and the Association of University Radiologists. Around the same time RSNA began to publish the Daily Bulletin, a newspaper that informed attendees of important events at the meeting.
At the 1992 meeting, infoRAD featured the first public presentation of a standard for digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM). The following meeting featured RSNAnet, a fiber optic communication link that allowed exhibitors to transmit radiologic images and other scientific information between the East and North buildings of McCormick Place. In 1994 more than 55,000 people attended the scientific assembly. Toward the latter part of the decade, RSNA annual meetings publications were available online, and the society began to accept electronic scientific abstracts of papers.
9/11 prompts questions
Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the RSNA board struggled to decide whether or not they should cancel the annual meeting, since such a large gathering could have potentially made attendees vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
They ultimately chose to go ahead with the meeting and attendance that year was lower as a result.
In 2002 the society fully succumbed to the digital revolution, which was the theme of that year’s event. At this point RSNA members could use the Internet to manage their profile, renew their membership, make a donation, submit scientific abstracts and register for annual meeting courses. At that year’s meeting there were presentations that discussed the prevalence of wireless and handheld technology in the field of medical imaging.
