There are many words to describe the Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Fascinating, informative, hectic and worthwhile come to mind immediately. The 86th edition of RSNA was no exception.

Much of the attention was focused on Philips Medical Systems International B.V. and its pending acquisitions of ADAC Laboratories Inc. and Agilent Technologies Inc.’s Healthcare Solutions Group. If those acquisitions come to fruition, Philips will become a $5 billion healthcare company, catapulting itself into a more competitive position against GE Medical Systems and Siemens Medical Systems.

Still, with all the talk of the medical imaging industry becoming a collection of mega-multinational companies, there remains room for entrepreneurs.

First-timer Edge Medical Devices comes to RSNA 2000 with a new digital radiography technology; Quantum Medical Imaging, born from the former Trex Medical, debuts a new radiology equipment line; and

two radiologists and a technology wizard formed Image Technology Laboratories and displayed their fledgling PACS product.

As in previous years, the Medical Imaging staff — with the help of Monali Patel, medical imaging analyst with Frost & Sullivan — found much to write about in Chicago. One word they will never use is “bored.”