The latest advances in cardiovascular imaging are usually shown first at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, the largest radiology show in the world, held the last week of November in Chicago. After spending five days walking three expo halls filled with more than 600 product vendors, the following is my editor’s choice for the most innovative new cardiovascular imaging technology.

Increasingly software applications are providing many of the major advancements in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) rather than hardware. In recent years, this has translated into software that enables physicians to do more in less time, extract more diagnostic information from imaging exams and provide more accurate quantification. While a hospital may not spend millions to upgrade its MRI system, it frequently takes advantage of the lower cost option of other vendors’ software to assess and manipulate those images.

The top step I took to the 2012 RSNA exhibit halls at the McCormick Center in Chicago bore the RSNA theme “Patients First”. Above my head, a circular banner asserted the same. While it was not so apparent in the past, putting patients first is nothing new. When has radiology ever put them second?