What is RSNA and why is it relevant to radiology workstations?

RSNA stands for the Radiological Society of North America. Its annual Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago is the world's largest radiology conference, bringing together approximately 25,000 radiologists, imaging physicists, PACS administrators, radiology IT professionals, and imaging directors. Radiology workstations are directly relevant to RSNA because reading room ergonomics and workstation design affect diagnostic accuracy — the American College of Radiology's Technical Standard specifies display positioning requirements, and research published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology documents that error rates increase in the later portions of extended reading sessions when physical fatigue impairs sustained attention.

What features does an AFC Industries PA radiology reading workstation include?

AFC Industries PA radiology reading room workstations include: height-adjustable desktop surface covering both seated (65–75cm) and standing (95–115cm) elbow heights for the full reader population; independently adjustable electronic monitor platform with vertical and horizontal travel, allowing display positioning independent of desk height; full-axis tilt that adjusts the entire workstation toward or away from the reader to maintain correct display-to-eye geometry across different working postures; and integrated cable management for multi-monitor diagnostic display setups. Specifications are matched to ACR Technical Standard display positioning requirements and ACR reading room design guidance.

Why does workstation design affect radiology diagnostic accuracy?

Workstation design affects diagnostic accuracy through two primary mechanisms. First, incorrect display positioning — monitor too low, incorrect distance, wrong angle — creates sustained neck flexion and eye strain that accumulate as physical fatigue across a reading session. Second, fixed-height workstations that do not allow position variation cause progressive spinal disc loading and muscular fatigue without recovery intervals. Research published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology documents that radiologist error rates increase in the later portions of extended reading sessions, with physical fatigue as a contributing mechanism. Height-adjustable workstations with independent monitor arm positioning address both mechanisms simultaneously.

June 01, 2020

AFC Industries PA at RSNA 2022: Radiology Reading Workstations at McCormick Place, Chicago

Q: Did AFC Industries PA exhibit at RSNA 2022?

Yes. AFC Industries PA exhibited at RSNA 2022 — the Radiological Society of North America's Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting — held November 27 to December 1, 2022 at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit featured AFC Industries PA's height-adjustable radiology reading room workstations, including electronic monitor platform adjustment (vertical and horizontal), full-axis workstation tilt, and desktop surface height adjustment covering both seated and standing positions for the full reader population height range.

Table of Contents

What Is RSNA and Why Do We Exhibit There?
From RSNA 2021 Virtual to RSNA 2022 In-Person
What AFC Industries PA Showed at RSNA 2022
Why Radiology Workstation Design Is a Clinical Performance Question
Meet AFC Industries PA at Future Events

QUICK ANSWER — AFC Industries PA, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of ergonomic radiology reading workstations and medical carts, exhibited at RSNA 2022 — the Radiological Society of North America’s Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting — held November 27–December 1, 2022 at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit showcased AFC Industries PA’s height-adjustable radiology reading room workstations, including electronic monitor platform positioning, multi-axis tilt functionality, and ergonomic desktop surface adjustment designed to reduce radiologist fatigue and support sustained diagnostic accuracy across multi-hour reading sessions.

RSNA is not a generalist healthcare conference. It is the world’s most concentrated gathering of radiologists, imaging physicists, PACS administrators, and radiology IT professionals — roughly 25,000 attendees filling McCormick Place for five days every year in late November. For a company whose radiology reading workstations are designed specifically for the sustained, high-attention demands of diagnostic imaging, there is no more relevant room to be in.

We’ve been in that room. RSNA 2022 was AFC Industries PA’s return to in-person exhibition after the 2021 virtual format, and it gave us the opportunity to put our reading room workstations in front of the people who use them: radiologists who know exactly what end-of-session neck tension feels like, radiology managers who understand the connection between physical fatigue and reading error rates, and imaging directors evaluating infrastructure investments for departments that are carrying heavier study volumes than their existing equipment was designed for.

Here is what we exhibited, why it matters clinically, and why we keep showing up at RSNA.

What Is RSNA and Why Does AFC Industries PA Exhibit There?

The Radiological Society of North America is the professional society representing the global radiology community. Its annual Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago is the world’s largest radiology conference, combining peer-reviewed scientific presentations with the largest radiology equipment and technology exhibition in the United States.

RSNA 2022 brought together radiologists, interventional radiologists, imaging physicists, radiology IT and PACS administrators, imaging department managers, biomedical engineers, and hospital procurement teams from across the United States and internationally. The exhibition floor at McCormick Place covered diagnostic imaging systems, AI-assisted reading tools, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), and — critically for AFC Industries PA — the reading room workstation infrastructure that all of those systems depend on to function correctly at the point of diagnosis.

AFC Industries PA exhibits at RSNA because the RSNA audience is precisely the population for whom our radiology reading room workstations were designed. A radiologist who reads for six hours a day at a fixed-height station knows what chronic neck tension and end-of-session fatigue feel like. An imaging director evaluating a reading room upgrade understands the connection between workstation configuration and the ACR display standards their department needs to maintain. We exhibit at RSNA because that’s where that conversation happens most efficiently.

Read more about who we are and what we build at the AFC Industries PA about us page.

From RSNA 2021 Virtual to RSNA 2022 In-Person: What Changed

RSNA 2021 ran as a virtual event — the second consecutive year in which the pandemic reshaped the conference format. AFC Industries PA participated in the virtual show and had the opportunity to connect with radiologists and imaging professionals through the digital platform. To everyone who stopped by the virtual booth that year: thank you. The conversations were genuine and the questions were useful.

RSNA 2022 was the return to McCormick Place. The difference between a virtual booth and a live exhibition is not merely sensory, though that matters too — nothing replaces the ability to sit at a workstation, operate the height adjustment mechanism, experience the monitor arm’s travel range, and understand what the tilt function feels like in the working position. For a product whose value is fundamentally ergonomic — where the benefit is in how it feels to use over an eight-hour reading session, not in a specification sheet — the return to live exhibition was the return to the most relevant demonstration format.

RSNA 2022 also marked a point in the post-pandemic radiology landscape where the sector’s challenges had become clearer: imaging volume backlogs from deferred screenings, radiologist workforce shortages, and reading room infrastructure that had been adequate for pre-pandemic workload but was under strain at current volumes. The workstation infrastructure question was not peripheral to those conversations. It was central to them.

For context on the broader radiology department recovery landscape, see our article on how radiology departments are recovering and adapting post-pandemic.

What AFC Industries PA Showed at RSNA 2022

The centerpiece of AFC Industries PA’s RSNA 2022 exhibit was our range of height-adjustable radiology reading room workstations — specifically the electronic configurations that give radiologists independent control over every dimension of their working position. Three features defined the exhibit:

RADIOLOGY READING WORKSTATION FEATURES EXHIBITED AT RSNA 2022

Height-adjustable desktop surface. The desktop surface adjusts electronically from seated to standing height, allowing radiologists to alternate between sitting and standing throughout a reading session. This position variation is the primary ergonomic intervention for reducing the cumulative spinal disc loading and muscular fatigue that drive the performance degradation documented in long reading sessions. The adjustment range covers the seated and standing elbow heights of the full reader population — not just an average that fits no one precisely.

Electronic monitor platform: up, down, in, and out. The monitor platform adjusts vertically and horizontally — independently of the desktop surface. This independence is what allows both surfaces to be simultaneously at the ergonomically correct position: keyboard at elbow height, monitors at eye level. On a standard single-surface workstation, raising the desktop to accommodate a taller reader raises the monitors with it, creating a display that is too high. On a monitor arm that adjusts separately, the display position is correct regardless of where the desk surface is set. This directly addresses the ACR’s Technical Standard requirement for display positioning relative to the reading clinician’s eye level.

Full-axis tilt. The entire workstation can tilt toward or away from the reader — a feature that allows the viewer to maintain the correct display-to-eye geometry whether sitting upright, slightly reclined, or in the mild forward lean that some radiologists adopt during intensive search tasks. The clinical relevance is straightforward: the correct display-to-eye relationship is not a single fixed geometry. It shifts with the reader’s working posture, and a workstation that can’t accommodate that shift requires the reader to compensate through posture changes that accumulate as fatigue.

The full AFC Industries PA medical cart and workstation range is available to browse. Use the product configurator to build a specification from your reading room’s requirements.

Why Radiology Workstation Design Is a Clinical Performance Question, Not a Furniture Decision

The conversations at RSNA are clinical and technical, not commercial. Radiologists at RSNA are not shopping for furniture. They are evaluating infrastructure that affects the quality of their diagnostic output across a full working day. The distinction matters for how AFC Industries PA approaches the RSNA exhibit and for why we invest in showing up year after year.

The research case for ergonomic radiology workstations is well-established. Research published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology has documented that radiologist error rates increase in the later portions of extended reading sessions — a pattern that reflects the interaction between accumulated physical fatigue and the sustained visual attention that diagnostic imaging requires. The American College of Radiology’s own reading room design guidance identifies workstation ergonomics as a factor in both reader performance and long-term musculoskeletal health. The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) publishes technical standards for PACS workstation performance that include the display positioning requirements AFC Industries PA’s monitor arm system is designed to meet.

What this means practically: a radiologist reading at a fixed-height workstation whose monitor is positioned for the average reader’s eye level — which means it’s wrong for every reader who is not average — is accumulating neck flexion load every hour. A reader who cannot alternate between sitting and standing is accumulating spinal disc pressure without relief across the session. By hour five of an eight-hour reading schedule, those accumulated loads are competing with the sustained attention the images require.

AFC Industries PA’s reading room workstations address these loads directly. The height-adjustable surface enables position alternation. The independent monitor arm ensures correct display geometry regardless of working height. The tilt function accommodates the postural variation that long sessions naturally produce. Together, they extend the period of reliable diagnostic attention available in a reading session.

For the full technical and clinical case for ergonomic radiology workstations, see our detailed guide on why radiology workstations matter for diagnostic accuracy and our article on height-adjustable workstations for digital imaging analysis.

Where to Find AFC Industries PA at Future Events

RSNA 2022 was part of a broader conference presence that AFC Industries PA has maintained across healthcare IT and radiology events. We exhibited at HIMSS 2021 in Las Vegas, HIMSS 2022 at McCormick Place, and have continued attending and exhibiting at healthcare conferences throughout 2023 and beyond. The conversations at these events — with radiologists who know exactly which aspect of their current workstation setup is causing the afternoon neck tension, with imaging directors building the business case for a reading room upgrade, with PACS administrators trying to close the gap between what their digital systems promise and what the physical infrastructure delivers — are the conversations that shape what we build.

If you attended RSNA 2022 and visited the AFC Industries PA booth, or if you’re researching ergonomic radiology workstations and want to understand how our configurations address your reading room’s specific requirements, we’re available to continue that conversation.

Contact the AFC Industries PA team to discuss your reading room’s specific requirements, browse the full product range, or use the product configurator to begin a workstation specification. AFC Industries PA is based in Berwick, Pennsylvania and serves radiology departments, imaging centers, and healthcare facilities across the Mid-Atlantic region.