RSNA Attendance Leaps Back Up After Pandemic-Influenced Low Last Year
On Monday morning, Nov. 28, officials of the Oak Brook, Ill.-based Radiological Society of North America announced attendance figures for RSNA 2022, the organization’s annual meeting, which is currently taking place at Chicago’s vast McCormick Place.
RSNA officials confirmed that total advance registration this year was 34,385, a 61.4-percent increase over the 21,300 registered on this equivalent day in the conference in 2021. Among the 34,385, 19,485 were registered as professionals. Last year, COVID-19 was still impacting attendance, while the 2020 conference had had to be made entirely virtual because of the pandemic. The attendance figure for RSNA 2019, the last year before the pandemic hit, was 47,011 (with 21,837 professional registrants); in 2018, that number had been 48,615 (with 21,837 professional registrants), while in 2018, the figure had been 48,615, and in 2017, total attendance had been 48,445.
Meanwhile, the number of vendor companies was up considerably as well. This year, 647 vendors are exhibiting at McCormick Place, a 13.3-percent increase over the 571 vendors that exhibited last year. Back in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, 789 vendors had exhibited, while in 2018, 693 had exhibited.
In a sign of the times, RSNA President Bruce G. Haffty, M.D., focused a major part of his President’s Address at the Arie Crown Theater on Sunday, on concept of the patient experience. According to the RSNA Daily Bulletin, Haffty said on Sunday that, “To the patient, imaging can remove uncertainty, decrease anxiety, and give hope. Through the panoramic lens of the patient, imaging is a powerful and meaningful source of knowledge and comfort that we can all relate to.” Further, he added, “To realize the significance of the value of imaging, or any medical procedure, we need to recognize the enormous shift of our healthcare system from procedure-oriented care toward value-based care. Value is subjective, dependent on perspective and can be different—from the perspective of the physician, the insurance company, society, or the patient.”
