Dear Imaging Informatics Insider,
Welcome to the first issue of the Imaging Informatics Insider, which consolidates our former PACS and Healthcare Informatics Communities into a new Imaging Informatics Community for all the news about this burgeoning field. We've made this change to provide our readers with a single source for all our coverage and analysis of news and trends in imaging informatics, and we hope you enjoy the new format.
Our feature article for this inaugural edition focuses on machine learning, one of the hottest and most controversial topics in medical imaging today. Depending on whom you talk to, machine learning will either spell doom for radiologists or be a critical tool to improve their value.
However, it's time now to cut through the artificial intelligence (AI) hyperbole and focus on the many benefits the technology can provide to radiology, according to industry analyst Simon Harris. In a contribution for AuntMinnieEurope.com, he explains how software applications based on machine learning are poised to take on many of a radiologist's tedious and time-consuming tasks, freeing up more time for them to spend on value-added activities. Click here to learn more.
Indeed, researchers around the world have been hard at work exploring a wide range of applications for machine learning. For example, a group recently reported that deep-learning technology could be very useful for identifying cases that contain critical imaging findings, potentially expediting the interpretation of these exams and the communication of results. Click here for all the details.
In another article, Stephen Holloway recently discussed the likely impact of Brexit on medical imaging and healthcare IT. Click here to learn how one of Europe's largest radiology markets faces a very challenging outlook for the foreseeable future.
Bioprinting and AI will be the key focus at this week's Emerging Technologies in Medicine 2017 conference in Essen, Germany. Drs. Michael Forsting and Jochen Werner of Essen University Hospital discussed the importance of these hot topics in a recent interview.
A Finnish digital product studio has developed a virtual reality method that enables parents to meet their unborn children using 3D and 4D ultrasound. AuntMinnieEurope.com staff writer Frances Rylands-Monk has our coverage, which you can access by clicking here.
The U.K. Royal College of Radiologists has released updated guidelines for the provision of teleradiology. The new guidelines focus on four standards, including the need for teleradiology to be part of an integrated radiology service and subject to the same governance framework. Click here for more information on this and the other three standards.
If you have any tips or suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in the Imaging Informatics Community, please feel free to drop me a line.
![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=100&q=70&w=100)
![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
