RSNA shows us what’s next. Someone still has to deliver it

The first time I went to RSNA, I made the mistake of researching the neighbourhood after I’d checked in to the apartment. One website had a murder map of Chicago and my apartment was a couple of blocks from too many bright red blocks… I didn’t walk anywhere that week.

This will be my third RSNA as Ellew Medtech Talent and Chicago feels different now, McCormick Place is full of old colleagues, clients, candidates and friends. I also now know where I like to stay!

After 17 years in imaging I still love the technology and want to see what’s new, what’s clever and what might change how radiology works. But none of it reaches a hospital or makes a difference to patients without the right people behind it, which is the part of the industry I now work in.

RSNA is where companies show where they’re going next: a new product, a new market, the next version of an AI tool. Then everyone flies home and the work carries on. Someone still has to sell it, install it, integrate it, train the people using it and pick up the phone when it doesn’t behave.

I don’t think this is a skills shortage story. What I see in the roles I’m asked to fill is how much one person is expected to understand at once.

Take a commercial role at an AI company selling into the NHS. That person has to be able to sell, know how a radiology department runs, where the product sits alongside PACS and RIS and how an NHS trust buys things. The more specialised the technology gets, the harder it is to separate knowing the sector from doing the job. That narrows the field pretty quickly and most of the people you need aren’t applying for jobs. They’re already doing well at an imaging vendor, an AI company, a teleradiology provider or maybe an NHS trust. Finding them means knowing the market and being able to have a credible conversation.

I don’t recruit into this sector from the outside, I’ve worked inside it. I was an NHS PACS manager, ran a PACS procurement and managed bids in teleradiology and PACS, I’ve been the customer and the supplier. I set up Ellew MedTech Talent in June 2024 to fill non-clinical roles in radiology MedTech and keep it deliberately low volume. Since then I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of brilliant companies.

RSNA runs from 29 November to 3 December. If you’ll be there and you’re thinking about your team or maybe your own next move, whether that’s now or for 2027, scan the QR code to set up a meeting or just give me a tap on the shoulder!

As for my accommodation… This year’s hotel is round the corner from Howl at the Moon, a bar I already know my way to.

This news story has been sponsored by the companies concerned and does not represent the views or opinions of RAD Magazine. Visit our dedicated RSNA conference page to find out more.