Pack the business cards and don’t forget the sunscreen, because the 2004 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference and exhibition is heading to sunny Orlando, Fla.

Sorry, Mickey, but with this year’s show offering more than 200 educational sessions, interactive workshops, and roundtable discussions, there’s no time for rides and sing-alongs. Set to take place February 22–26, the show is expected to attract more than 200,000 industry professionals to the Orange County Convention Center. With so much ground to cover, get a jump on things with Medical Imaging’s glimpse of products, services, and discussions being featured at the 2004 conference and expo.

Let’s Get Started!
Every year, HIMSS brings together individuals who play a leading role in IT healthcare and its functionalities. Opening the 2004 keynote addresses is former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich. During his 20 years in Congress, Gingrich passed legislation that balanced the national budget, transformed welfare, and saved Medicare from bankruptcy. As founder of the Center for Health Transformation (Washington, DC), Gingrich has redefined healthcare in America. He is scheduled to share his visions for healthcare in the 21st century on Monday, February 23 at 8 am.

AFC Industries’ Pole Cart is ideal for small, highly trafficked spaces and for when frequent movement is required.

Also scheduled to deliver a keynote address is Tommy Thompson, the US Health and Human Services secretary. As an advocate for American health and welfare, Thompson has launched a campaign to strengthen the nation’s preparedness for bioterrorism attacks. After serving as governor of Wisconsin, he received numerous awards for his public services, including the Anti-Defamation League’s Public Service Award. Thompson is scheduled to speak Thursday, February 26 at 8 am.

In combination with notable speakers, the show also will feature influential products and services. HIMSS promises to bring together the healthcare industry’s most innovative ideas, products, and services. More than 700 vendors are scheduled to display products that will impact the future of healthcare IT.

AFC Industries (College Point, NY) is introducing its Pole Cart computer, which is ergonomically designed for portability and user comfort. The space-saving, upright unit combines a small footprint with the stability and versatility of a larger, multisupport design. The cart features an adjustable monitor, keyboard, CPU, and writing platform.

Visitors to the Agfa (Ridgefield Park, NJ) booth will notice the company’s works in progress. Products like the IMPAX ES, which provides users with integrated radiology information systems (RIS), PACS, and speech recognition for reporting, will be available for demonstration. Agfa developed the system to address workflow inefficiencies inherent in diagnostic imaging.

Also featured at the booth will be Agfa’s portal solution Access Pt. This system provides the caregiver with comprehensive access to detailed patient information. Because the system uses the Internet, access to data is possible through local or remote PCs or PDAs, and can manage images and information for most studies.

AMICAS’ Light Beam features automated spine labeling to enhance spinal interpretation.

LightBeam from AMICAS (Boston) is a Web-based, on-demand diagnostic workstation for primary interpretation of images. Features to be demonstrated at the show include voice clips to enhance cross-department workflow and availability of audio-based preliminary indications.

AMICAS also will demonstrate its RealTime Worklist, which offers personalized, enterprise-wide workflow. The system is powered by instant-messaging technology for real-time study status.

Also debuting at HIMSS will be the company’s Workflow Accelerator. The system is programmed to queue studies in order of priority to ensure that the radiologist is ahead by one study. And the company’s Vision Watch Web-based application will be a focus point at the show as well. The system provides comprehensive system health monitoring, quality of service, and business decision support.

Codonics’ Horizon printer reduces film costs, improves workflow, and increases revenues.

Horizon, the newest medical imager from Codonics (Middleburg Heights, Ohio), is sure to attract some attention. The printer provides the versatility of a film imager, a color imager, and a grayscale paper printer, but does not require operator intervention to switch between color and grayscale printing. The Horizon outputs diagnostic images on standard-size film and is able to print color and grayscale images on various-size paper. The Horizon also features a built-in backup system, should the user’s network fail.

Dynamic Imaging’s Smart Load brings the power of 3-D processing to the Web-driven primary reading environment.

SmartLoading architecture from Dynamic Imaging (Allendale, NJ) will be one of several products on display at the company’s booth. The SmartLoading system displays 3-D images in large data sets to provide rapidly increasing levels of image information in areas currently being viewed, while the entire study continues to load in the background. The company’s SecureServer features a tool set to facilitate HIPAA compliance, and complements existing security features, such as advanced automated tracking of all system activity by user and study.

EMC’s Centera provides longer-term storage and is HIPAA compliant.

EMC Healthcare Solutions (Hopkins, Mass) will be talking to attendees about its patient information lifecycle management strategy. The company has developed a program that provides a patient-centric view of information through the integration of clinical, imaging, administrative, and financial data into a centralized information storage system. EMC’s strategy will enable its partners’ PACS and electronic patient record applications to store both short- and long-term information.

Synapse v.3.0 from FujiFilm can manage viewing and sharing information of radiologic and cardiac data from multiple modalities.

Fuji Medical Systems USA (Stamford, Conn) will be displaying its Synapse v.3.0, the first full-scale, Web-based enterprise PACS. Designed to analyze, present, and distribute large amounts of data, the system offers more tools and greater functionality for managing information. V.3.0 also features integrated document scanning, logging, and analysis tools for most system events.

InSiteOne (Wallingford, Conn) will be debuting its InDex Recovery system. The product provides secure, off-site storage to protect data, and it ensures continuity for disaster situations.

The company also will be displaying its InDex Web, a system developed in collaboration with RealTimeImage (San Bruno, Calif). InDex Web delivers real-time, secure Web-based access to images stored on InSiteOne’s archive system. Using RealTimeImage’s iPACS Web-based image technology, InDex Web provides continuous access to images archived at InSiteOne’s permanent data storage centers. This seamless retrieval of information is made possible via Internet connection. Images can be viewed at increasing levels of resolution to speed transfer over any bandwidth.

IntelViewer from Intelerad features advanced connectivity with digital dictation and other enterprise productivity tools.

Intelerad Medical Systems (Montreal) will be showcasing its diagnostic Web viewer and support monitoring tools. The InteleViewer is a full-featured JPEG 2000 Web-based viewer that allows customization for user preferences. Lossless and lossy compression levels can be adjusted to speed

communications over all bandwidths. The application uses the InteleBrowser Web interface and employs a streaming protocol to speed image distribution from server to user by progressively refining image distribution.

Also featured will be a selection of Intelerad’s new workflow tools and RIS interface extensions. These items enable order-entry and completion, radiologist work list, digital dictation, and transcription.

Kodak’s Workstation ensures privacy and security services, storage and archiving solutions, and remote-monitoring capabilities.

Kodak’s Health Imaging Group (Oakdale, Minn) plans to display a variety of its medical imaging and information technologies, including the new VIParchive

technology, RIS 2010 information system, and DIRECTVIEW PACS System 5. In addition, Kodak will present its latest services offerings, which include privacy and security services, storage and archiving solutions, and remote monitoring capabilities. The company plans to highlight features and benefits of its digital medical imaging systems that provide a flexible platform for future innovations.

Misys Healthcare Systems (Raleigh, NC) will unveil its Misys CPR, a computerized patient record system. The product enables users to protect their current IT investments while building toward computerized physician order entry and automation. Misys CPR is expected to influence acute care, clinics, physicians’ offices, and home care.

Planar Systems (Beaverton, Ore) comes to HIMSS 2004 touting its Invitium point-of-care workstation. The system provides patient safety and comfort as well as ease of use for hospital staff. Portable and compact, the Invitium can be mounted on desk stands, mobile carts, arm mounts, or wall mounts. The computer’s rugged exterior withstands impact, and its fluids-resistant enclosure protects the system from spills and leaks.

Two workstations are included in Planar's Invitium line: the Tk7 and Tn4. The Tk7 is designed to run full-featured or multiple applications on a point-of-care workstation. The system is configured to perform while producing minimal amounts of heat, which allows for fanless cooling. Designed for client/server applications, the Tn4 offers system durability by providing data storage through a flash drive instead of a hard drive. The flash drive offers greater resistance to impact and shock. From Planar's line of diagnostic imaging displays, the Dome C3 is a high-resolution digital flat-panel monitor that can display images in portrait or landscape mode. The C3 is available in grayscale as well as in color, and it combines low black levels and high luminance for a distinct gray scale image. Finally, for referral-quality viewing, the Dome Q2 is a 1,200x1,600-pixel gray scale flat-panel monitor that consists of high-level brightness, high-contrast ratios, wide-viewing angles, and a gray scale range of 766 shades.

Attendees visiting Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa) will experience 10 venues of care and health system operations to get a feel for how the company has enhanced the patient experience, enabled informed clinical decision-making, and improved workflow.

The company’s Soarian Health Information Management system provides instant access to patient medical records and streamlines chart completion workflow to enable more timely and informed care.

Siemens and Draeger Medical (Telford, Pa) will be highlighting their joint venture, INVISION ChartAssist, at the Siemens booth. Designed to integrate clinical results, reports, medical images, and critical care information, INVISION ChartAssist collects data from bedside devices, creating an electronic patient flow sheet and integrating it into the electronic health record.

Spacelabs’ Ultraview 1700 features bed-to-bed communication and remote control recording.

The Ultraview 1700 from Spacelabs (Issaquah, Wash) is a modular patient monitor for all levels of acuity. The system’s WinDNA technology allows clinicians to access radiology labs, patient records, and the hospital information system without having to leave the patient’s bedside. Advanced cardiac monitoring options include 12-lead ECG, 4 Inv BPs, and CO.

Stentor (Brisbane, Calif) will demonstrate v.3.2 of its iSite line of products. The line includes the iSite Enterprise, iSite Radiology, and iVault. The iSite Enterprise is a Web-based image distribution system that provides clinicians and referring physicians with access to instant diagnostic-quality images from anywhere in the facility. iSite Radiology is the industry’s first reading station that separates diagnostic presentation and navigation contexts. This separation dedicates diagnostic monitors for image display and interpretation, which increases image quality and overall reading efficiency.

And Stentor’s iVault image archive system eliminates the bottlenecks of prefetching, routing, forwarding, off-line media management, and ad-hoc querying. With an integrated RIS workflow, iVault provides a single view of images and information to all facility users.

Want to switch gears from observing to learning? The University of Healthcare (Los Angeles) will host educational sessions focused on management systems pertinent to running an e-learning enterprise. The organization’s CD and Web courses include bioterrorism, radiation, OSHA medical radiation safety, and basic safety training. The university also will offer courses on customer care, anatomy/physiology, compliance, and HIPAA.

With the phenomenal amount of information being presented at HIMSS 2004, rest assured that Medical Imaging will be there, too, gaining insider details for the imaging industry. Stop by and see us at Booth 1056. And be sure to check out our post-HIMSS issues to gain insightful knowledge inspired by the companies, products, and services being showcased at this year’s conference.

Lori Sichtermann is associate editor of Medical Imaging.