Every year, RSNA gives the imaging world a look at where radiology is headed. This year, the bigger story might be how we get there. From Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, RSNA 2026 brings nearly 40,000 radiologists, imaging scientists, IT leaders, and vendors to Chicago under the theme "At the Center of Care."

Radiology touches nearly every stage of the patient journey, and the program this year leans hard into what it takes to put new tools to work in real clinical settings. Here's a quick guide to the meeting, the trends to watch, and what Medicom is bringing to Chicago.

• Opening Session: On Sunday, Nov. 29, RSNA President Jeffrey S. Klein, MD, delivers the President’s Address on radiology's role in patient care and population health. Jonathan S. Lewin, MD, of Emory School of Medicine follows with "Seeing Beyond the Image: Leadership Lessons from the Reading Room to the Boardroom."
• New for 2026: The Innovation Park features a Startup Showcase, a new Innovation Theater, and a Solutions Gallery.
• AI Showcase: More than 100 companies will demo AI and machine-learning tools across a 52,000-square-foot area in the South Hall.

Big Trends Shaping This Year's Program

RSNA's program planning committee, chaired by Kate Hanneman, MD, MPH, points to a future where imaging is more quantitative, predictive, and connected across the clinical pathway. Here's what stands out.

• AI Moves From Models to Real-World Results: The conversation has shifted from building algorithms to proving they work in practice. As Dr. Hanneman put it, "Meaningful AI impact cannot be defined by model accuracy alone." Expect sessions on governance, post-deployment monitoring, generative and agentic AI, and lessons learned from LLM-drafted radiology reports.
• Multimodal and Foundation Models: AI that combines imaging with clinical data is getting a lot of attention. The catch is that these models are only as good as the data they can reach, and they still need rigorous testing for bias and safety.
• Getting More From a Single Exam: Photon-counting CT is moving past sharper images and lower dose into tissue characterization and quantitative imaging. Opportunistic imaging, which pulls extra clinical insight from exams already performed, is also on the agenda.
• Access and Care Without Walls: Sessions on low-field MRI and integrated care networks look at how to extend academic expertise into community, rural, and safety-net settings. The focus has moved from naming disparities to scaling solutions.
• Sustainability in Practice: Green teams, energy tracking, and "right study, right dose" strategies connect environmental impact with appropriateness and patient safety.
• Leadership and Workforce Well-Being: Noninterpretive sessions cover accountable leadership, psychological safety, and the communication skills radiologists rarely get formal training on.

Why These Trends Come Back to Data

Look closely at almost every trend on that list and you'll find the same dependency: the right images and reports have to be in the right place at the right time.

Multimodal AI needs complete patient history to do its job. Care networks that span academic and community sites need imaging to move between organizations without someone burning a disc. And "right study, right dose" starts with knowing what exams the patient already had performed elsewhere.

That's harder than it sounds. Our recent analysis of 124 organizations found that only 9.1% share even one exact name for the same exam. When institutions describe the same scan differently, relevant priors get missed, studies get repeated, and radiologists read without the full picture.

What Medicom Brings to RSNA 2026

Most imaging still moves because someone makes it move by calling an outside facility or hunting down the study while the radiologist waits. Our goal at RSNA is to show what happens when nobody has to chase the images.

Find us at booth 4165, South Hall, Level 3, for live demos all four exhibit days. Bring us a workflow that breaks at your organization and we'll show you where it lands with Medicom.

• Smart Search: Uses the scheduled exam to start the search across connected organizations, confirms the patient match, and delivers only the relevant priors into the PACS before the patient arrives. To date, Smart Search has delivered 1.55 million clinically relevant priors without a manual search or request.
• Checkpoint and Patient Match: Resolves patient identity at intake so outside studies land on the right record before they cause problems downstream.
• SMART on FHIR Apps: Puts imaging workflows inside the EHR so staff and clinicians don't have to log into a second system.
• Upload (for Patients) and Share (for Patients): Gives patients a secure, digital path to send and share imaging, which cuts down on discs at the front desk.

Catch Medicom at the Innovation Theater

Coffee and a Real Conversation

We're pouring some of our favorite Raleigh-based coffee at the booth, so stop by for a little caffeine boost. Want more time? Book a 20-minute working session with a Medicom expert in our private meeting space.