Thirty-two-bit fat clients have hit the wall: consequences for TRIP

In its 2003 Annual meeting, the Society of Computer Applications in Radiology launched the Transforming the Radiologist Interpretation Process (TRIP) initiative. As described at the time, TRIP is intended to assist radiologists with the tsunami of exploding data sets that they are increasingly expected to interpret. TRIP initially focused on three high level strategic objectives: 1. Improving efficiency of interpretation of large data sets, 2. Improving the timeliness and effectiveness of communication, and 3. Decreasing medical errors. However, there is a fundamental consideration that must presage the above concerns. Namely, will the computer architectures used even be capable of swallowing the data torrent that is pointed at them?