Smára Kristinssyni var boðið að flytja Forsell opnunarfyrirlesturinn á 55. Norræna röntgenlæknaþinginu í Reykjavík í júní 2002. Fyrirlesturinn kallaði hann Nordic Radiology and The Dream Society.
Abstract
The forces of slow, abusive and obsolete health care management and the fast pace of modern information technology have been the two major impacting forces within radiology in the Nordic countries for the last 2 decades. Now the third force is emerging. With the long term sustained economic growth in big parts of the world a new perception of values in our societies is calling for different approach in all service delivery. This trend has been termed “The dream society “ by some Nordic futurists. Clear signs are already seen in areas like alternative medicine, and “natural drugs” where people buy products or a service with a “story”. This is in stark contrast to the Nordic public health care tradition, where the health care system always knows what is best for their customers. In The Dream Society the knowledge patient will be the customer, rather than the referring physician. In the near future medical imaging knowledge products together with new noninvasive image acquisition methods will open up big new medical imaging markets. At the same time many individuals within the profession will feel threatened as automation of both radiological production and knowledge tasks will reshape the working environment faster than most people like. The transformation Nordic radiology needs, to be able to serve the coming dream society can not happen within the current Nordic national health care management paradigm. Pluralistic radiological organizations in a free market, utilizing modern management knowledge and the latest technology are necessary to support the dynamic forces needed to utilize the waste possibilities of the dream society If the radiologic society does not respond in a timely manner to this emerging challenge a big part of the medical imaging will be dissolved into other medial subspecialties.