RSNA—Then and now

It was 40 years ago this year—on Nov. 30, 1975, to be precise—that RSNA put Chicago’s Palmer House Hilton in its rearview and moved its scientific assembly and annual meeting to much larger McCormick Place.

With three exceptions (Atlanta in ’79, Dallas in ’80 and Washington in ’84), radiology’s big dance has been there ever since.

Chicago had been the organization’s locale of choice since much earlier in the century. The Windy City won the day after Midwestern members of RSNA’s earlier iteration, the American Roentgen Ray Society, complained about always having to travel to the Eastern seaboard. Chicago wasn’t so far away from either coast that regional societies would do their own thing closer to home and deprioritize the national scene.

In the early ’30s, the last week of November became the preferred time window for the event. Secretary-treasurer Donald Smythe Childs, MD, found he could leverage offseason scheduling to secure the best convention rates for RSNA and its members.

That was then. This is now. Why the little history lesson? Because upon returning from RSNA last week, I found myself thinking, as in previous years:

I can certainly see the logic behind mountainous McCormick for a powwow this sprawling. I can see this time of year, too. But why Chicago this time of year? (Granted, the air was relatively mild this year. But still.)

So I turned to RSNA’s website and found the answer in RSNA’s fascinating history online. Watch out if you start reading, especially if you’re at work. This is surprisingly hard stuff to put down.

(About that first meeting at McCormick 40 years ago: “Society leaders were relieved. A convention center had worked as a medical meeting site.”)

Whether or not your share my enthusiasm for history and/or my dislike of cold weather, you will surely be edified by our coverage of RSNA 2015.

Here are a few clickworthy items:

• GE’s Immelt talks analytics and the future of innovation
• Attorney tells rads what to do—and what not to do—after messing up
• RSNA announces Image Share Validation Program
• Researchers analyze five hearts that are more than 400 years old
• Medicaid expansion increased breast screening rates among low-income women
• Prez Arenson challenges rads to ‘boldly go’ into an innovative future

To browse our full list of linked headlines from RSNA, including many involving new clinical research, click here.

To share your observations of this year’s RSNA, or to suggest ways we might improve our coverage next year—or if you’d like to commiserate about wintering in the northern U.S.—email me.

And by the way, I’m a lifelong Northerner. You’d think I’d have adjusted by now.

–Dave Pearson, senior writer