Imaging Informatics Unplugged

Welcome to ‘Imaging Informatics Unplugged,’ the podcast where host Jason Nagels delves into the dynamic world of medical imaging informatics. From interoperability standards like DICOM, HL7, and FHIR to the latest AI innovations and enterprise imaging, Jason brings you insightful discussions and expert interviews illuminating the path toward seamless healthcare technology integration. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the field, join us as we explore the technologies and trends shaping the future of medical imaging.nagelsconsulting.com / learn.nagelsconsulting.com

Imaging Informatics Unplugged is a technology podcast hosted by Nagels Consulting, with 34 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Nagels Consulting hosts Imaging Informatics Unplugged, a technology show with 34 episodes published.

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  Episode #11

  Enterprise Imaging Interoperability: DICOM, FHIR, PACS and VNA Data Sharing | Michael Rosenberg

  Aug 19, 202655 minS2

  Michael Rosenberg has spent the last decade obsessed with a problem most of healthcare IT would rather not think about: how do you get a medical image from one institution to another, safely and without a human babysitting every step? An industrial and systems engineer by training, Michael cofounded Medicom Technologies in 2015 out of North Carolina State University, and as CEO he and his team built the company around what they call Enterprise Imaging Interoperability. Their software now runs across every VA medical center in the country along with some of the nation's leading IDNs and academic medical centers. In this conversation, Jason sits down with Michael to dig into why some of the most well-intentioned efforts in image sharing, the ACR's Ditch the Disc campaign among them, never fully solved the problem, and what it will actually take to get there.They start by grading the ACR's Ditch the Disc initiative: strong on messaging, short on the policy and mandates needed to change workflow. From there, Michael explains why three-point patient matching (name, date of birth, and one other identifier) is still common in DICOM image exchange, and why he considers it unsafe. He walks through Medicom's FHIR-based approach for pulling additional demographics from the EHR before a match is made, and why the study instance UID deserves treatment as a universal identifier across systems.Jason and Michael also dig into what a national scale rollout looks like, drawing on Medicom's work across the VA network, and how that compares to centralized models already in place in Canada and parts of Europe. From there they cover patient-driven image sharing, including a surprisingly high adoption rate for patient upload tools, the privacy risks buried in supposedly de-identified imaging data, and what happens when interoperability moves beyond radiology into pathology, cardiology, and oncology, where the workflows barely resemble each other. They close with a look at where imaging regulation is headed, including proposed ONC certification requirements that could finally make interoperability mandatory rather than optional.If PACS, DICOM, HL7, VNA, or enterprise imaging AI are part of your world, this one's worth the full listen.Jason also has a quick update from nagelsconsulting.com: the Imaging Informatics Primer course is a great starting point if you're new to the field, the CIIP Foundations material is built for anyone prepping for certification, and the hands-on DICOM Learning Lab gives you live, practical reps with the standard itself.Learn more at nagelsconsulting.com#ImagingInformatics #PACS #DICOM #HealthcareIT #RadiologyIT #EnterpriseImaging #VNA #HL7 #RadiologyAI #MedicalImaging #Interoperability #PatientMatching #FHIR #HealthIT #DitchTheDisk5. Chapter List (Timestamps)Note: chapter times are offset by 1:23 to account for the intro script

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  Episode #10

  ClearCanvas, Open-Source PACS, and the Future of Imaging Informatics | Norman Young

  Aug 5, 202639 minS2

  Norman Young has spent 25 years building software at the intersection of imaging and medicine, but the story behind his work starts with his own diagnosis. In 1992, as a third-year engineering student at the University of Toronto, Norman was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, an experience that reshaped the rest of his career. After working on eFilm, one of the first free PACS viewers, at University Health Network, he founded ClearCanvas in 2005, an open-source medical imaging platform still used by clinicians around the world. In 2021, the American College of Radiology recognized his work with their Global Humanitarian Award. Today Norman is building something new: CareChorus, a nonprofit aimed at helping patients and caregivers make sense of their own medical records.Jason and co-host Mohannad Hussain sit down with Norman to trace that whole arc. He explains why ClearCanvas went beyond free software into full open source, what it took to build a professional-grade PACS and RIS largely on his own before landing the hospital contract that got the company off the ground, and what it was like watching download counts climb from every continent, including, improbably, Antarctica. They also get into how AI coding tools like Claude Code and Codex are changing what a small team can ship, and why Norman still insists on reviewing every architectural decision even when the AI writes the first draft.The back half turns personal. Norman walks through the two stories, one about a friend's husband facing a serious diagnosis, the other about a colleague who passed away after struggling to get coordinated care, that led him to found CareChorus. He breaks down the four problems the platform is built to solve, from organizing scattered medical records to helping patients actually understand what their reports mean, and explains why he built it as a nonprofit with data that stays on the user's own device rather than in the cloud.If PACS, DICOM, open-source imaging informatics, or healthcare IT are part of your world, this conversation is worth the full listen.Jason also has an update from nagelsconsulting.com: the Imaging Informatics Primer course is a great starting point if you're new to the field, the CIIP Foundations material is built for anyone prepping for certification, and the hands-on DICOM Learning Lab gives you live, practical reps with the standard itself.Learn more at nagelsconsulting.com #ImagingInformatics #PACS #DICOM #HealthcareIT #RadiologyIT #OpenSource #EnterpriseImaging #HealthIT #MedicalImaging #PatientAdvocacy #AIinHealthcare #CIIP #DigitalHealth #HealthTech

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  Episode #9

  Task Shifting & Radiology IT: How Nunavut Closed Its Imaging Access Gap | Greg Toffner

  Jul 3, 202647 minS2

  What happens when a remote Arctic community with zero medical radiation technologists needs a chest x-ray — and the nearest one is a plane ride away? In this special crossover episode with SIIMCast, Jason and Mohannad sit down with Greg Toffner, a PhD researcher training local Inuit community members across 25 Nunavut communities to become Basic Radiological Technicians (BRTs). Greg breaks down the concept of task shifting, how it’s reshaping radiology IT access in one of the most geographically isolated regions on earth, and what six years of hands-on curriculum design, mobile x-ray equipment, and government policy work have taught him about building a sustainable imaging informatics workforce from the ground up.You’ll hear real numbers on health disparities in the North, how a 60-procedure competency framework turns a health center janitor into a trusted member of the care team, and where AI might eventually fit into enterprise imaging and radiology workflows in low-resource settings. It’s a conversation about access, dignity, and what imaging informatics looks like when PACS, DICOM, and specialist radiologists aren’t around the corner.If you’re building your own credential in imaging informatics, check out the CIIP Foundations Program at nagelsconsulting.com, and keep an eye out for our upcoming DICOM training program featuring hands-on, live imaging learning labs: Learn more at nagelsconsulting.comKey Topics Covered• What “task shifting” means and how it’s applied to solve radiology workforce shortages in remote Arctic communities• Life inside Nunavut’s 25 flying communities — the geography, climate, and health disparities driving the program (life expectancy, respiratory disease, and smoking rates)• How Greg’s team built a simplified radiology curriculum for learners with no formal healthcare background• The three-phase, hands-on training model — from image critique to a 60-procedure competency audit• Why government policy recognition, not just curriculum quality, is what makes a task-shifted role sustainable• Early findings from Greg’s PhD research: pride, community trust, and the ripple effects on local health outcomes• Where the program is headed next — expanded scope into lab work and ECGs, and where AI might fit inhealthcare IT, medical imaging, radiology technology, healthcare interoperability, PACS administration, DICOM standard, HL7 integration, radiology informatics, imaging workflows, vendor neutral archive, enterprise imaging, radiology AI, medical imaging data, PACS migration, rural health access

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  Episode #12

  AI Coding, DICOM Sync & the Future of PACS | Chris Hafey

  Jun 25, 202641 minS2

  What happens when a 25-year medical imaging veteran retires, then comes back with an AI coding assistant and rebuilds his entire mental model of how PACS gets built? Chris Hafey, founder of Merkalis and longtime fixture in the imaging informatics community, joins Imaging Informatics Unplugged to talk about coding with Claude and other LLMs, why he believes solo founders can now out-build 50-person dev teams, and what that means for PACS administration, Radiology IT, and Enterprise Imaging going forward. We dig into the real story behind his Monday-morning community meetups, the skill-degradation risk facing junior engineers as AI takes over more of the coding, and the Merkle-tree-based architecture Chris built to solve DICOM synchronization — a problem that's plagued Vendor Neutral Archives and Imaging Informatics teams trying to keep on-prem and cloud PACS in sync. Chris also explains why he thinks some legacy PACS vendors would be better off rebuilding from scratch than fighting decades of technical debt, and what AI in Radiology and HL7-connected systems need to actually trust the data they're syncing. If you work anywhere near PACS, DICOM, or healthcare IT and want an unfiltered, practical conversation instead of a vendor pitch, this one's for you.Jason also shares an update on the CIIP Foundations Program for imaging informatics professionals working toward their credential, plus a first look at the new DICOM training program featuring hands-on live imaging learning labs. Learn more at nagelsconsulting.com.Key Topics Covered• How Chris's Monday-morning imaging community meetup started during COVID, went on hiatus, and came back unfiltered• Going from hand-coding for a month to building a full DICOM web server with OHIF integration in about two hours of real thinking time using Claude• Why Chris believes a small domain-expert team using LLMs can now do what used to require a 50-person dev team and tens of millions in funding• The skill-degradation risk for junior and senior engineers as LLMs take over more of the actual coding• Why some legacy PACS vendors might be better off rebuilding from scratch than maintaining decades of technical debt• Applying a Git-like delta model to DICOM so PACS, VNAs, and AI pipelines can stay in sync without re-sending whole studiesTags• healthcare IT• medical imaging• radiology technology• healthcare interoperability• PACS administration• DICOM standard• HL7 integration• radiology informatics• imaging workflows• vendor neutral archive• enterprise imaging• radiology AI• AI coding assistants• PACS migration• healthcare data management

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  Episode #10

  Digital Pathology Display Standards: Why Medical Monitors Change Diagnostic Accuracy | Tom Kimpe

  Jun 4, 202645 minS2

  <p>If your digital pathology deployment has a brand-new whole-slide scanner, a solid IMS, and petabytes of storage — but your pathologists are reading on consumer monitors — you may have a serious problem you haven't budgeted for yet.In this episode of Imaging Informatics Unplugged, Jason sits down with Tom Kimpe, VP of Technology & Innovation for Healthcare at Barco, for a deep-dive webinar from Canada Health Infoway on the critical role the display plays in the digital pathology imaging chain. Tom unpacks why color gamut matters more in pathology than almost any other imaging domain, how color variability sneaks in at ever...

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