Top 10 is Just the Beginning

Welcome to the inaugural editorial issue of Health Imaging & IT magazine.

Last month we broke new ground with the healthcare imaging and IT industry's most comprehensive Resource Guide yet. And this month, we're debuting our monthly magazine dedicated to healthcare professionals in radiology, cardiology and information technology.

At Health Imaging & IT magazine, we're striving to become your print and online information center for managing clinical images throughout the healthcare enterprise. Month after month, Health Imaging & IT will define excellence in digital imaging and information management, and provide practical insight into obtaining those goals for facilities large and small, urban and rural.

Starting with our first issue, we've tackled one of the most challenging editorial projects imaginable - selecting the Top 10 Hospitals in innovation in health imaging and IT. The results proved that most healthcare providers are making great strides and overcoming major hurdles in the quest to be 100 percent digital. Few hospitals have attained the Holy Grail of becoming 'fully digital,' but most of the major obstacles are being surmounted and facilities are also defining 'how' digital they need to be. Through the results also emerged a sub-category of this year's survey, the Top 5 Specialty Facilities, filled with world-class facilities that stand out among the rest.

From Boston's Massachusetts General to Thibodaux Regional - a 150-bed facility in Louisiana - each facility in our Top 10 Hospitals is approaching the challenge with a vastly different strategy, portfolio of technologies and list of priorities. What these hospitals share is a common enthusiasm for their digital journey. It is facilities such as these, as well as hundreds more, we will introduce you to over the coming months and years. We will learn what works (and what doesn't) in digital imaging today - with tight budgets, short staffing and time never enough - the real world.

Throughout our Top 10 survey, we confirmed that the journey to a fully digital department is several decades in the making, and during this time I know many new challenges will arise that we have not yet imagined. Along the way, we'll look at the challenges of integrating products and technology, and we will delve into core and emerging imaging technologies, such as MRI, multi-slice CT, ultrasound, cath labs and PET-CT. We'll also examine the difficulties of delivering images throughout the hospital - whether to the OR, ER, critical care or to referring physicians.

Our survey also allowed us a greater appreciation for the role of various technologies, such as computed radiography as an enabler to bring the tens of thousands of traditional radiographic units into the digital age. The key to succeeding means maximizing technologies simple and complex in the mix of digital image and patient information management today.

I want to express my sincere appreciation to the hundreds of people who helped us prepare our Top 10 list, and congratulate our well-deserved winners. And I want to thank you for 'getting to know us' through our first issue. We look forward to sharing the digital journey with you.

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