Annual Report from the RSNA Radiology Informatics Committee for 2009

Over the past year, the Radiology Informatics Committee (RIC) of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) achieved some significant milestones toward its goals of promoting education and research in critical emerging technologies and in digital imaging and healthcare information systems, as well as advancing the quality and efficiency of patient care through innovations in technology. In 2009, the RIC benefited from the perfect storm of heightened national interest in healthcare quality, cost, and access combined with the federal promotion and funding of HIT (healthcare information technology) as one of the key solutions to improving the current healthcare system. This year’s RIC activities in promoting HIT standards culminated with the RSNA being selected as the recipient of a $4.7 million National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) contract to build a secure, patient-centric medical imaging sharing network that is based on opensource principles and open-standards architecture. Under the 2-year contract, RSNA will oversee creation of a Web-based network for sharing images and reports at geographically dispersed sites. Patients will control access to their information through personal health record (PHR) accounts. This annual report contains detailed summaries about informatics education offered at the 2009 RSNA Annual Meeting, as well as reports from the four RIC subcommittees: Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE®) Subcommittee, Medical Imaging Resource Center (MIRC®) Subcommittee, Reporting Subcommittee, and the RadLex® Steering Committee. The activities of these subcommittees span patient care; establishment of national HIT standards for secure sharing of patient information, particularly as they relate to imaging, reporting, and communication; support for education and research; and education of the radiology community about informatics issues. Although the NIBIB contract award was clearly the most prominent achievement of 2009, it most certainly was not the only highlight of the year. The Reporting Subcommittee made use of RadLex and other technologies to improve diagnostic reporting. RadLex grew dramatically in breadth and impact, and MIRC similarly grew and expanded its impact on clinical trials. The RIC continues to present an exciting refresher course program and workshops at the RSNA Annual Meeting. Other new efforts included creating working groups to address security and quality issues in radiology.