RSNA 2014

The halls at McCormick place in Chicago were once again packed with RSNA attendees. Preliminary figures pegged the total number at 56,030, up 5 percent from 2013. This was bolstered by more than 2,000 additional professional registrations compared with the prior year.

N. Reed Dunnick, MD, RSNA 2014 president, is pictured here officially opening the technical exhibit hall with the help of some industry partners.

There was a slight dip of 2 percent in exhibitor attendance, but you wouldn’t know it walking on the show floor. A total of 636 technical exhibits occupied more than 426,000 square feet of floor space at the 2014 meeting.

RSNA 2014 had a number of special exhibits to mark the start of the society’s 100th anniversary celebration. Here, attendees learn about the work RSNA has done over the years in the Centennial Showcase exhibit.

“Today’s standard of medical care literally would not have been possible without the discoveries and contributions of radiologists over the past 100 years,” said Dunnick in the opening session. Attendees got to see some of this history firsthand, like this EMI CT unit from the Mayo Clinic which captured the first clinical scans in the U.S. in 1973.

Another unique exhibit at this year’s RSNA was a gallery of works from Dutch artist Arie van 't Riet, PhD. Trained as a medical physicist, van ’t Riet creates haunting dioramas using x-rays, live animals and a splash of vivid colors.

While many of the special exhibits celebrated RSNA’s past, there were also nods to the future. Dunnick hailed the work of the RSNA Research & Education Foundation, which distributed $3.6 million in grants to 94 investigators in 2014, helping to secure resources for the next generation of researchers.