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SIIM 2007 Report
Contributed by Herman Oosterwijk
Published Jun 15, 2007
The recent Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM, formerly SCAR) conference was held in Providence, Rhode Island, a picturesque location between New York and Boston. I've attended many SIIM conferences over the years, so perhaps I?ve become a bit jaded, but I was looking for more than I found at this year?s gathering.

Noticeably absent on the agenda this year was a true site visit, as well as the virtual elimination of the reception -- which was always a great networking opportunity. Actually, there was a reception, however, the location and catering (desert and a cup of coffee) paled in comparison with previous events.

It seemed that everyone was asking the "What?s new?" question. In my time at the conference, I was never able to establish a consensus about this; which generally means that there was more old than new. Of course, the exhibiting vendors would have liked us to believe otherwise; but interestingly enough, even the reporters covering the event seemed to have trouble finding new topics about which to write.

The same applied to the presentations: there was not much in the way of breaking news or findings, rather more ?updates? on subjects. This is not to say that there weren?t some interesting things in these sessions. For example, I learned that a high-availability data center needs not only back-up power but also back-up air conditioning; otherwise its servers will overheat in no time.

A fascinating and informative presentation was delivered by representatives from the Mayo Clinic who demonstrated what scalability is all about. The facility uses 16 servers for image archiving and provides access to more than 100 million images for tens of thousand of users.

The team used a commercial PACS only for short-term archiving (less than 3 months), spotlighting how much information goes back and forth between the image manager and long-term archive. The presenters commented that the lack of standardization between the PACS image manager and the image archive could definitely be improved.

A great deal of the buzz at the meeting was about the American Board of Imaging Informatics (ABII) certification exam, the Certified Imaging Informatics Professional (CIIP) program. The ABII is a non-profit organization founded by SIIM and the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) earlier this year. A group of 100 volunteers took the inaugural exam, after expressing some anxiety about the general lack of materials and tools to prepare for the test. It is expected that this preparation shortcoming will be alleviated in the near future as educators focus on developing these resources.

A cooperative effort to address this issue was begun with the formation of a SIIM subcommittee, the Educational Advisory Network (EAN); its first job is to further define and refine the learning objectives for the CIIP program. OTech is participating in this effort, which should result in the development of a consensus document before the end of 2007.

Herman Oosterwijk, president OTech Inc.


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