Digital (R)Evolution in Radiology: Bridging the Future of Health Care, 2nd ed

American Journal of Neuroradiology

W. Hruby, ed. New York: Springer Wien; 2006, 379 pages, numerous illustrations, $199.

Five years after the publication of the first edition (reviewed AJNR 2001;22:1631), Professor Hruby has updated his book on the impact that digital information has had in radiology. The rapid deployment and improvement of many technologies mandates that radiologists have basic knowledge related to image formation, transmission, display, reporting, and storage. This book assists in this regard, despite the fact that a number of chapters are, for the most part, unchanged from the prior edition. There are some new twists however—such as an introductory chapter that is philosophic in nature, positing that perhaps new technologies (not just imaging) are changing the way we approach life and our human nature, and another chapter on how this accelerated switch to nonpaper digital information affects hospital administration now and even more so in the future. Even looking at the cover of the book, one gets a sense of where the author will take the reader; from a picture of a clunky-looking display station (cover of the first edition) to a more provocative cover that conveys the sense of data streaming over space throughout the world. Even the way the book starts off (first sentence, first page), “When I was a child a millimeter was really tiny,” gives one a notion of what is to follow.

The book retains its multiauthor format and its division into 4 basic sections: “Basics of Digital Radiology,” “Planning Digital Radiology: Practical Approaches,” “Applications Using New Digital Technologies,” and “Current Development and Economic Issues.” The length of the book has expanded from 343 to 379 pages, and much of this new material is in an area where a reader would expect such an expansion—for instance, in positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning, the indications, equipment, and imaging have resulted in a 7-page lengthening of the chapter. In any future edition, the authors/editors must pay attention to the illustrations because in the PET chapter, as an example, the axial image display of PET/CT is almost microscopic in nature. New material in “Perfusion/Spectroscopy in MR and Digital Mammography” are among the areas addressed.

More than the clinical material (much of which is available elsewhere, though perhaps not under 1 cover), it is the integration of this material into the digital workplace that causes this book to have value. In addition, many terms and concepts, often arcane to the practicing radiologist, are defined. The index is particularly helpful in that regard—just glancing through the items, one can quickly identify terms that would be worthwhile reviewing or learning.

For any radiologist involved in administrative duties or in modernizing a department, hospital, or practice (doesn’t that mean us all?), this book is recommended.