Snowy
It's going to be a messy time getting around Chicago this morning.
Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Snowy part 2
The snow continued for a good chunk of the day and left everything nicely covered. I expect the roads and sidewalks to be slushy and icy tomorrow morning
RSNA Day 1
Although today is technically the third day of RSNA, it's really the first full day I've been able to spend at sessions and cruising the technical exhibits.
The theme for my RSNA is radiation dosimetry and molecular imaging, which is the focus of most of the sessions I've signed up for. There's a lot of interest in reducing and optimizing radiation dose patients receive during imaging procedures.
Discovered a few interesting things wandering around the exhibit hall today.
Neurologica has a new portable high resolution gamma camera that they're looking to start marketing sometime 2009 Q1. Based on the same mobile platform that their Ceretom CT scanner is built on, the rep at the booth told me that it consists of 24 NaI modules arranged in a ring. The brain images they were showing off were pretty impressive looking. The field of view along the z-direction wasn't all that large though (looked like about 10 cm or so), so imaging an entire brain would probably require moving the scanner to 2 or 3 bed positions.
Gammex has a software product that automates the analysis of the ACR CT accreditation phantom. Looks pretty easy to use and should take a lot of work out of analyzing the phantom.
On a somewhat more whimsical note, the MedicalTies booth had a wide selection of anatomical and imaging related ties and scarves for sale. Although I normally dislike wearing ties, I may have to pick one of these up.
A trip to Publisher's Row had me walking away with two books and my wallet $215 lighter. Ouch. They should be worth additions to my bookshelf though.
RSNA Day 2
Today was a day for all things angiography and CT. Started off with a refresher course session on radiation dose optimization and management in interventional radiology. Nothing new there, but some interesting points from the radiologist's perspective.
A couple of science sessions on CT and a final refresher course on advanced CT topics including cardiac CT and dual energy CT that were very interesting and informative filled the rest of the day.
On the exhibit floor, I saw Philips' newest SPECT/CT scanner, the Brightview XCT. It's the first SPECT/CT scanner I've seen that incorporates a flat panel detector for the CT portion. The detector also folds away against the gantry when not in use. From the images they showed off, it looked like a chest/abdomen/pelvis CT could be done with about 4 bed positions. It was hard to tell how diagnostic the CT images could be, but they looked pretty decent.
Medrad's Intego mobile PET injector is now FDA cleared and was being shown off in their booth. It's a pretty cool device that takes care of metering out doses from a vial of bulk F-18 FDG, injecting it into the patient and flushing the line. For a busy PET/CT operation, it should go a long way to reducing radiation exposure to the techs. At close to 350 kg, it's a pretty hefty cart to push around though.
Saw a few companies with interesting test tools that would be nice to have for a routine QC program. Wish I had seen them last year when I had money to shop for equipment.
RSNA Day 3
Another full day of sessions today starting with a very interesting session on advanced ultrasound imaging with talks about 3D and 4D ultrasound. Ultrasound imaging has been making leaps and bounds lately and it's interesting to see how quickly it's developing into a fully volumetric imaging modality.
The rest of the day was spent in the Molecular Imaging sessions, mujch of which ended up flying over my head. Well, maybe not that much, but I did learn just how much Molecular Imaging really covers. It's a much broader and expansive specialty than I originally thought.
There are a lot of companies in the exhibit areas offering software that will take images from all your modalities, apply post-processing and filtering to the images to make them look better. All the recent attention on reducing radiation dose has given them a marketing angle: as a dose savings tool. Use their software to post-process images acquired at a lower dose to get images that look like they were taken at a higher dose.
RSNA pet peeve: People who stop in the middle of the Grand Concourse or the walkway between Lakeside and the Grand Concourse.
Tracking ur movez
I'm in ur meetingz tracking ur movez
This year the name badges have RFID tags in them. These receivers are placed in the session rooms and in the poster area to track when people go in and come out. I guess the main purpose is to catch people who try to sneak in CE credits by dropping a form or voucher into the box and not actually staying for the session.
RSNA Day 4
Today was the last full day for me at RSNA. Very informative sessions on ACR PET/SPECT accreditation and radiation dose management today. Dose management has become a very big topic for radiologists and physicists alike, but there still needs to be a lot of education done for radiologists, physicists, technologists and referring physicians. There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce radiation dose from modalities, but that will only go so far. Ultimately it will have to come down to changing the way referring clinicians order exams and radiologists taking a bigger role in protocoling and deciding what exams are really necessary.
Went back to the Siemens booth to get a closer look at their Zeego robotic angio unit. What do you get when you combine a robotic arm with an x-ray unit? Very cool, and very slick.
The great big flat panel display was also pretty sweet too. It's still pending FDA 510(k) clearance so it's not available with the Zeego in the US yet.
RSNA moment: I stopped by the GE booth to check out the Infinia SPECT/CT scanner. One of the Japanese GE reps came by and started yammering away at me in Japanese for a good 5 minutes before I could tell him I didn't speak Japanese.
RSNA freebie
The technical exhibits closed at 2PM today. Just before closing, I was walking past the AFIP booth. The AFIP booth dude called out to me and said "Hey doc, I got a present for you" and plunked down a copy of the 2008-2009 edition of Radiologic Pathology (2 volumes) and told me to take it. I guess he didn't want to haul it back to wherever he was headed. So now I'm coming back with a telephone sized 2 volume set of books crammed in my suitcase. A little more than I was expecting to come back with. Turned out to be a $150 freebie. Wow.
It's not exactly something that's all that useful to me, so I'll probably donate it to the department library or something.
RSNA Day 5
Today's the last day of RSNA, and I'll be wrapping it up with a final refresher course on emerging PET applications and a session on radiation safety in CT. Then it'll be time to find my way to the airport and head home. A recap of today's sessions will have to wait until tomorrow, unless I can score some free wifi at the airport while I'm waiting for my flight.
RSNA was a pretty good show this year with vendors showing off lots of interesting new devices. There was a much more international flavour on the exhibit floor this year than in previous years I've been to RSNA. Germany, Korea and China all had multi-vendor trade booths set up which I thought was interesting.
A lot of great sessions on radiation dose optimization and management, so I have a lot of things rolling around in my head and a few ideas to work out.
RSNA moment: East meets west cuisine. Part of the breakfast the hotel sets out is biscuits and gravy. Yesterday morning while I was grabbing some breakfast, the Asian guy in front of me dished out a small bowl of sausage gravy, grabbed some toast and sat down. I doubt he knew about biscuits and gravy, but he seemed to like the gravy enough to go back and get a second bigger bowl of it.
A dose of winter
As refreshing as this dose of winter has been (I must admit to the temptation of staying), I'll be glad to get back home.
For my non-metric friends, 12°C = 53°F, -12°C = 10°F
RSNA Before and After
The RSNA technical exhibit area in McCormick South during RSNA
The RSNA technical exhibit area in McCormick South after RSNA
Merry Christmas from the dogs
Nala just did not like the great big scary looking Santa Paws at Dolittles at all, so getting her to pose for this picture was challenging. This was the best picture once I got her settled down a bit. I tried to push her a little closer, but she kept inching away and this was as close as she'd get.
Rabies vaccine: Annual or every 3 years?
Pet owners all know that a rabies vaccine for their pet(s) is mandatory. As in people the subject of vaccination can be a bit controversial, but the controversy isn't over whether to vaccinate or not, it's over how often to vaccinate.
I just learned that SC state law doesn't specifically require annual rabies vaccinations (thanks to the people behind the Rabies Challenge Fund for the tip). It's left up to the vet to determine the appropriate vaccination frequency.
From SC Code Title 47 Chapter 5 (Rabies Control Act) (emphasis mine),
SECTION 47-5-60. Inoculation of pets; certificates and tags.
A pet owner must have his pet inoculated against rabies at a frequency to provide continuous protection of the pet from rabies using a vaccine approved by the department and licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture. Evidence of rabies inoculation is a certificate signed by a licensed veterinarian. The rabies vaccination certificate forms may be provided by the licensed veterinarian or by the department or its designee. The veterinarian may stamp or write his name and address on the certificate. The certificate must include information recommended by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians. The licensed veterinarian administering the vaccine shall provide one copy of the certificate to the owner of the pet and must retain one copy in his files for not less than three years. With the issuance of the certificate, the licensed veterinarian shall furnish a serially numbered metal license tag bearing the same number and year as the certificate with the name and telephone number of the veterinarian, veterinary hospital, or practice. The metal license tag at all times must be attached to a collar or harness worn by the pet for which the certificate and tag have been issued. Annually before February first, the veterinarian shall report to the department the number of animals inoculated against rabies during the preceding year. The department, in conjunction with licensed veterinarians, shall promote annual rabies clinics. The fee for rabies inoculation at these clinics may not exceed three dollars, including the cost of the vaccine, and this charge must be paid by the pet owner. Fees collected by veterinarians at these clinics are their compensation.
For most vets, I'm sure that "at a frequency to provide continuous protection of the pet" means annually because that's the protocol they grew up with. There seems to be a growing amount of evidence showing that current rabies vaccines can provide protection up to 3 years, and efforts are under way to test rabies vaccine protection out to 5 and 7 years.
For the state's official stance, contact the SC State Veterinarian (I think DHEC is probably the best place to start). The email I received from the Rabies Challenge Fund lists Dr. Stephanie Cox as the State Veterinarian, although I was unable to confirm this. The searches I performed listed Dr. John A. Caver from Clemson as the State Vet, although that appointment was made in 2005 and I have no idea if that information still current.
When your pet is due for the next rabies shot, check with your vet to see if a 3 year vaccination protocol is appropriate. Your vet may want to perform blood tests to check antibody levels to ensure an adequate level of protection.
Holiday meetup?
Hey, Lowcountry bloggers/tweeters/friendfeeders, anybody interested in a holiday meetup next week at Bowen's Island Restaurant?I was thinking maybe Wednesday or Thursday. Last year's meetup there was a lot of fun with many oysters consumed.
Wednesday - 2
Thursday - 0
On the move
Learned today that I'm being kicked out of the office I've been in for the past 9 years and moving to another slightly smaller office next door. Have to get all my crap moved over by the end of the month. A guy can collect a lot of crap over 9 years, so part of the move will involve a lot of downsizing. There's a bunch of junk I can probably get rid of so downsizing should be pretty easy. Still, moving is a pain in the butt, even if all I'm doing is going next door.
I envision spending the next few months accidentally walking into my old office area before I get into the habit of remembering where my office actually is.
Holiday meetup at Bowen's Island Restaurant
The masses (all four of them) have chosen Wednesday for a holiday meetup. I'll give them a call and make sure they're not closed for some special event that evening and if they're not let's all meet there around 6ish (come earlier if you want to catch the sunset)
Oh, and as I recall, they don't take credit cards there. Cash only.
Oysters!
Update: Confirmed that Bowen's Island Restaurant is open tomorrow so see you then! Jared: give us a nice clear forecast for tomorrow evening so I can get some good sunset photos!
In case you've never been, here's a Google Map to the restaurant. It's pretty easy to get there. Just head down Folly Road towards Folly Beach and hang a right onto Bowen's Island Road (you should see a large slightly faded billboard). When you think you've gone too far and missed it, keep on going a little bit further and you'll be there
Holiday meetup fun
Today's holiday meetup at Bowen's Island Restaurant turned out to be a lot of fun with a few new tweeters joining us.
As usual oysters were plentiful. We finished off about 3 or 4 piles like this
Last men standing (although they started after we did)
The aftermath
Jared also put on a Blackberry clinic, because just about everybody seemed to have one.
Jared two-fisted Blackberry-ing
See the rest of my photos here
Views from Bowen's Island
Three shot panorama view of the dock at Bowen's Island Restaurant
Across the creek from the restaurant
Venus among the clouds
Gamma camera innards
One of the new Siemens Symbia gamma cameras developed problems serious enough to require the entire head to be replaced. Naturally I took the opportunity to get in and take some pictures of the innards.
This is the head assembly with the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) wrapped in sleeves of mu-metal. The mu-metal shields the PMTs from stray magnetic fields.
Looking down at a couple of the PMTs. To fill in the empty space at the edges, smaller PMTs are usually used.
Clear optical coupling gel helps ensure maximum light transmission between the crystal and the PMTs.
Everything is enclosed inside a lead box so that the only radiation detected comes from the front, where the patient is.
All of the signals from the PMTs are carried via these ribbon cables to the boards that process them and send them off to the acquisition computer.
Review: ingenuiTEA
I'm not a huge tea drinker. I used to be years ago. Now that I have one of these ingenuiTEA cups (courtesy of my brother), getting back into the tea habit will be made that much easier.
Using it is super easy.
- Add tea leaves
- Add hot water
- Steep
- Put ingenuiTEA over cup
Profit!Drink!
ingenuiTEA holds 16 oz of water, so you can make 2 or 3 small cups of tea to share with others, or one big cup to enjoy all by yourself.
Pro: If you like loose teas (which I prefer), it makes brewing single cups really easy. The strainer part is fine enough that you don't end up with tea leaves in your cup (unless you like that sort of thing). It's also fun watching the tea drain out. Also comes with a little dish to catch drips. Microwave and dishwasher safe too!
Con: Because ingenuiTEA sits on top of the cup, you can't really see how full your cup is getting (unless it's clear) so you'll kind of have to guess from how much has drained out. You'll have to be quick because ingenuiTEA drains pretty quickly. Of course if your cup is bigger than the amount of water you've put in, this isn't a problem.
Freakishly warm
Definitely could be worse. I could be back home.
That would be 75°F and -13°F for my non-metric friends.
From the Baker's Dog
Some goodies for the dogs arrived today from The Baker's Dog
Cookies! Half pound packages of the lamb & rice and peanut butter & honey. Those are the custom labels on the cookie packages that The Baker's Dog can do. It's pretty cool. Upload whatever picture you want and they'll put it on the package label for you
One sure way to get a Lab's attention is with food. See how they're totally focused on me? Pff, yeah, right, gimme the cookie already.
Lowcountry dog park tour: Hazel Parker revisited
On the first visit to the Hazel Parker dog park, I discovered it was still being worked on. Today (being the first day of vacation), I decided to head back over there and see what progress had been made.
The dog park is open now, and doesn't really look much different than when I was there last, aside from having operational dog-lock gates. They aren't latched though, but that may just be a temporary thing. Several benches strategically located underneath the trees provide a spot for people to sit and relax, and over in the corner is a water fountain.
Although the park is fairly long, it would still be pretty easy to throw a ball too far and out of the dog park, especially with the aid of a Chuck-it. The park would be very well suited for smaller dogs and dogs that aren't that much into running around. People with more active dogs would probably find more satisfaction (as would their dogs) heading to one of the larger dog parks like the one at Hampton Park or James Island County Park.
2008 Year end synopsis
I tend not to dwell too much on the past, but I felt like going through my blog entries for the past year and decided to try and summarize the past year from my blog's perspective.
January: Acceptance tested 20+ x-ray units in less than two weeks at MUSC's Ashley River Tower prior to opening. Became an uncle again. Signed up to volunteer with Wild Heir Labrador Rescue. LCB blogger meetup with "tweeters" showing up for the first time.
February: Got my first foster dog. Made it to SEWE for the first time. Finally ditched the 17" CRT monitor for a 22" LCD for my computer.
March: My first foster got adopted. Desk decluttering project.
April: Went to Seattle to visit sister and brother for the first time in 5 years. Decided to dump cable for a month (ended up lasting about 3 months). Got foster dog #2. Got to handle new birds at the SC Aquarium.
May: Visited a tea plantation without having to leave the country. Saw Kids in the Hall live for the first time.
June: Celebrated a year of Linux on my desktop at work and 5 years of blogging. Joined up with fellow Linux users.
July: Nala was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour and successfully treated. Touched by FSM. Apple store opened. Started my Lowcountry Dog Park Tour project.
August: Foster dog #2 adopted. Door spiders.
September: CSCLUG's first event, demo day. Had a visitor arrive. Got foster dog #3. Blog and photo gallery got a new home.
October: 4 dogs, 1 house. The Great Rain of 2008.
November: My take on the election. Went to Chicago for RSNA.
December: Deep dish pizza. Nuff said. Broken gamma camera. Oysters and good company. Doesn't get much better. Is it really December?
Lowcountry dog park tour: Bark Park at Riverfront Park
To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with the dog park at Riverfront Park in North Charleston, especially considering how nice and spacious the rest of the park is. The Bark Park almost seemed like an afterthought in comparison. It's like someone took an area of the park that wasn't much good for anything else and said "Let's make a dog park out of it". However, I suppose it's better than nothing.
The Bark Park is quite a small fenced in area. There's a dog-lock style gate, but whoever put together the gates and latches didn't do it very well and I don't think they measured things out all that accurately either for the outer gate. As a result it would be pretty easy for dogs to push their way past both gates and get loose if the inner gate isn't closed properly.
Unlike all the other dog parks we've visited so far, there is no water fountain installed in the park. Instead, there are a couple of watering stations provided that are starting to look a little green with algae growth. They also collect whatever happens to fall from the trees. IMO the lack of water fountain is quite a significant oversight. Hopefully they're just temporary and a permanent water fountain is in the works. In the meantime, I'd recommend bringing your own water and bowl for your dogs.
There are benches along the side for people to sit on, and trees provide plenty of shade. They also drop lots of pecans for dogs to crunch on (probably not a good thing for dogs to do).
One very nice feature the dog park has are the agility type jumps and tunnel. Since there's not a whole lot of room for dogs to run, these provide a fun way for dog owners to engage and interact with their dogs.
Panorama view of the park from the entrance gate
Panorama view of the park from the other end
See the rest of my pictures from the day here.
Here's a Google Map for Riverfront Park. Riverfront Park is located in North Charleston on the site of the former Naval Yard.
The Baker's Dog: Doggie noms
The dogs have thoroughly enjoyed their treats from The Baker's Dog, especially the Lamb and Rice ones. The lamb and rice cookies are small hard cookies that the dogs seem to really like. First they crunch crunch crunch, then sniff around for any crumbs they might have dropped and lick them up. Then they look at me hoping for another one.
Nala was a little sceptical about the PB and Honey treats at first. When I first gave one to her, she took it, then dropped it out of her mouth as if to say "what the heck is this?". She usually does this any time I give her something new though and eventually decided it was good to eat. The other dogs didn't hesitate at all before downing them. I'm not sure they even chewed.
While The Baker's Dog probably won't replace The Good Dog Bakery as my dog treat source, mostly because they're just down the road from me (and they also sell some pretty rocking treats that the dogs love), Baker's Dog will definitely be on my list for regular purchases. Paul Reynolds has done a great job setting up the online store and making the online purchase experience fun and easy, especially with the custom labels. In fact he made it almost too much fun and I ended up sending out gifts to a few dog owning friends before I made myself stop.
Sending out bags of treats with a picture of your own pet(s) couldn't be simpler. Create an account for yourself at the store and add the treat of your choice to the shopping cart. Adding a photo is as easy as uploading the photo and selecting the region that will be printed on the label. There's a one time fee of $4.99 for each photo, and after that you can use it on as many bags as you like and as often as you like. You can even share the photo with others (they won't have to pay the fee) so they can use it for their purchases.
Two paws up (any more and the dogs would fall down) for The Baker's Dog. Go visit them, online or in person if you happen to be in the Myrtle Beach area.
The Baker's Dog: Taste Testing
The dogs received a present courtesy of Paul Reynolds at The Baker's Dog today: a sample of Paul's new doggie Oreo-type cookies for taste testing and a mixed gift bag of dog biscuits.
Note: the dogs would like to say that the mixed gift bag had absolutely no influence on how well they enjoyed the doggie oreos (I suppose I should call them sandwich cookies or something to avoid trademark infringement). They happily enjoyed all of the treats equally.
The new sandwich cookies are pretty substantial: two of the lamb and rice cookies dipped in carob with a solid yogurty type filling between them. They look pretty tasty, and I have to admit I was tempted to nibble on one because they looked so good. I'm not sure how many calories each one would come out to, but these probably aren't something you want to give your dog lots of or you're likely to end up with a very chubby dog. They'll definitely appeal to dog owners looking for a tasty wheat/corn free treat (me being one of them) to reward their dog with.
On to the taste testing. Simba and Barkley aren't exactly the most discriminating eaters, so they gobbled down their cookies right away and came looking for more. Simba did pause a little bit to lick the carob coating before eating his though. Nala is much more discriminating and had to sniff and lick her cookie a few times before eating it.
Nala's a pretty messy eater and ends up dropping crumbs all over the place, which Simba is always more than happy to help clean up.
Nala making sure to get all the crumbs she dropped.
Final verdict: based on how fast the doggie sandwich cookies disappeared, two paws up. Barkley is still sniffing around looking for any crumbs that might have been missed. Paul, the dogs will be very disappointed if these don't become a regular item.