Dalai's XIIth Law
Some years ago, I created Dalai ' s Laws of PACS, a distillation of my observations of PACS over time. I managed to insult most everyone involved in imaging, including vendors, IT, radiologists, hospital administrators, and probably His Holiness, the Dalai Lama Himself. Ah, those were the days.Perhaps my favorite among the Laws was number XII:Which is graphically illustrated by this photo meant to remind us of some radiologists we know:This Law was inspired by interactions with one of my former partners, now bosses, who happens to be a superb interventional rad. However, not long before I codified the Laws, he called me fr...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - December 26, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
RSNA 2017: 2016 Redux...Centaurs Will Make Radiology Great Ag-AI-n!
In readinglast year ' s RSNA report, I was struck with just how little has changed.Here I am this year, 2017, and here ' s how I looked at RSNA 2016:A little grayer, perhaps a pound or two more. But otherwise same ol ' Dalai. And same ol ' RSNA. I even manned the RAD-AID booth again:Yes, I tied the bow-tie all by myself.This is a model housed at the Bayer booth of the airship RAD-AID hopes to use to bring imaging to underserved areas; I think the official rendering is much more impressive, and maybe even a little, well,buxom:I ' m still lobbying for a seat on the first flight. Did I saybuxom? I meanthandsome!I did attend t...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - December 17, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
AI WILL Displace Radiologists...
....in about 100 years!Sorry, couldn ' t resist! (Source: Dalai's PACS Blog)
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - November 15, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Traveling At The Edge Of Life Expectancy
Allow me to deviate a bit from the worlds of Imaging and PACS...I ' m straying way out of my wheelhouse on this one.This starts off with a happy occasion, a Mediterranean cruise. Mrs. Dalai and I recently joined some friends for a two-week trip through various European cities and towns. We had a great time and enjoyed some beautiful sights and wonderful food. I won ' t bore you with every little detail, but suffice it to say the ship was very comfortable, and the destinations were spectacular.Mrs. Dalai and I have travelled extensively over the years, often by sea. Until recently, we were generally the youngest people on t...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - November 11, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Interventional SPAM
I ' ve been out of the country for several weeks, which is the usual explanation for by lack of posting. I was on a pleasure trip, or I would have posted from off. There will be an article about that later.Blogs are easy targets for spammers, if you didn ' t know. That " Comment " field is a magnet to the unscrupulous who somehow think that bloggers will gleefully allow advertisements to appear on their site. Wrong, buffalo-breath. All but the least experienced bloggers maintain control over their comments and never, ever, EVER allow this trash to reach their readers. Most of this seems to come from a concept called "...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - November 8, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
No One Gets To See The Wizard!
No doubt you ’ve heard of the “Peter Principle”; it’s been around for quite a while. Dr. Laurence J. Peter is a former professor who published a satirical book based around his theory that " In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence, " and that " In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties. " Or, basically: We do a job well, we ' re promoted. We do that job well, we ' re promoted again. Eventually, we rise to a position that we can no longer do well -- our level of incompetence. There, we either stagnate, revert back to a lower p...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - September 28, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Giving Back: RAD-AID
Question: What do airships, 747 ’s, William Shatner, Radiology, and giving back have in common?Answer: RAD-AID International!Let me explain …A few years ago, I decided to bail out of the rat-race of private practice. My original goal was to retire altogether, but it seemed more reasonable to ease out slowly, maintain health insurance and some shred of income, and have something to do, at least periodically. And so I started out working 26 weeks per year, and now I ’m down to 22 weeks. Which leaves 30 weeks that need to be filled. I had originally thought I would ramp up my writing, but somehow that hasn’t happened;...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - September 18, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Lions and Sentinel Nodes! Oh My!
Eid Mubarak!It seems surreal that two weeks have passed so quickly. As today is the holiday of Eid Al-Adha, the hospital has very little activity, and I ' m taking the day to pack, catch up on correspondence, and perhaps pay one last visit to Slipway for lunch.This was on Page 16 of the local English-language newspaper a few days ago. A coincidence with my arrival in country? I wonder...I haven ' t posted since heading out to Ngorongoro Crater, so let me briefly fill you in on that incredible experience. I ' ll place some photos here, but they can all be found at THIS LINK for your leisurely perusal. I left ...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - September 1, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Flavors of DVI
I just completed (a rather long) Day 4 at Aga Khan Hospital, here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (in case you didn ' t know where I was). As usual, time flies when you ' re having fun, and I really am enjoying my time here.Today was a day of many hats. In the morning, I played " real doctor " and attended an OB Gyn lecture series beamed over from the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi:The full title was " Female Sexual Dysfunction and its Effects upon Fertility " and it was quite well done. While the lecture will have little impact upon my medical practice, I ' m trying to get the staff used to me hanging around, and I ha...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - August 24, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Patient ID
Hello from the Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania!Just wanted to let you know that I ' m here and on the job. I ' ve met so far with the head of Radiology (who is also the Chief of Staff of the Hospital), the head of IT, the Nuclear Medicine technologist/physicist, and briefly with the Regional CEO and the COO of the hospital. Everyone has gone out of their way to make me feel welcome here, and their warmth, and their pride in this amazing place is incredible.I am quite taken with the facility as it stands, but the additions, and plans for the future, will certainly propel AKH well into the forefront of patient car...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - August 21, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
I Bless The Rains Down In Africa...
You just can ' t be in Africa without thinking of Toto ' s song by the same name, and I can ' t resist offering both the original and a very moving chorale version:OK.Now that we have that accomplished, let me sayJambo to everyone from here in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania. I got in last night, and to adjust to the time zone (7 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time), I ' ve done my usual brief walk-about. (I have to admit that it actuallydid rain today, and I was ratherdisappointed by the rain, as it made me decide not to take a boat-ride to the nearby island of Zanzibar. Oh, well.)Dar is a large city, the capi...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - August 20, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Life Imitates Art: Apple Listens to Doctor Dalai
I ' m sure this is all my doing. Remember my April Fool ' s Day post a couple of years ago about the " NEW Apple EMR " ?Well, it seems Apple has taken the hint. FromHealthcare IT News:Rumors are at a fever pitch that Apple has big plans for healthcare, including putting a medical record on the iPhone, possibly acquiring its way into the EHR market.From its leap into healthcare in 2014 with its HealthKit application programming interface in September 2014 to the June 19 revelation of Apple ’s work with the tiny start-up Health Gorilla, Apple has made a series of moves in healthcare that clearly indicate the company has pl...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - August 2, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...Must Be The Russians' Fault, But The AI STILL Isn't Taking Your Job
Forgive me, loyal readers (both of you), for I have sinned. My last post was in May, months ago, and I ' ve not posted since. This is unacceptable, and I humbly accept my penance of getting my writing back on track.But there are reasons for my sloth. No, the Nuance Ransomware foolishness is not at fault. Idon ' t use Nuance, and Ido apply security patches the moment they are released. Unlike Nuance. (I guess if you can convince the healthcare world that Speech Recognition actuallyworks, you must feel invincible.) As you know, I ' m going on another Rad-Aid trip to Tanzania in a few weeks. My task there is to aid the growth...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - July 31, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
PACS and the Grim Reaper
No, it ' s not what you think, so don ' t bring out your dead. You ' ll get the joke later on.I ' ve maintained this blog for over 12 years, believe it or not. Despite my years of whining about PACS, I still love the concept, and to varying degrees, many of the products out there. Some I can praise, some I complain bitterly about, and some I have left alone because of the more and more complex nature of the hats I ' m wearing in my old age.It is no exaggeration to say thatPACS has changed everything about what we do in Radiology. My First Law of PACS distills this to its essence:I. PACS IS the Radiology DepartmentThis...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - May 16, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
#PutUnitedOutOfBusiness
United Airlines just crossed a line. Please read thisarticle from USA Today, and watch the disturbing video clips:LOUISVILLE — A video posted on Facebook late Sunday evening shows a passenger on a United Airlines flight being forcibly removed from the plane before takeoff at O’Hare International Airport.The video, posted by Audra D. Bridges at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, is taken from an aisle seat on a commercial airplane that appears to be preparing to take flight. The 31-second clip shows three men wearing radio equipment and security jackets speaking with a man seated on the plane. After a few seconds, one of the men grabs t...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - April 10, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
