Purchasing a monitor, need advice

[Ligament]

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Hi All,

I'm a pain medicine physician. My group is purchasing me a high end monitor (or two) to interface with our radiology department PACS. They are giving me some choice regarding which monitor I want. I don't know anything about PACS monitors and need some advice.

Here is what I look at on a daily basis:

90% spine MRI, 7% spine/pelvis/extremity xray, 3% spine CT is my usual mix.

I primarily look at the spine 95% of the time, Joints the other 5%.

Never look at vasculature, never look at brain. Never look at the brain. Do not look at the abdomen. No ultrasound. Of course no mammo. Never look at angiography unless I am reviewing a DSA cine loop from my fluoroscope...but I would have already seen that on my c-arm monitors. Do not think I need color.

So what is the best type of monitor for me to get for these issues?

Alternately, if you could recommend some good online resources or journal articles I'd appreciate it. Thanks! 🙂

 

[Docxter]

The high end specs needed for your monitor will come from the need to look at x-rays. You do not need a high end monitor for MRI or CT. Even for the x-rays, you are looking at high intrinsic contrast structures (bones) rather than soft tissues and probably not making primary diagnoses like a radiologist. A lower grade professional monitor should be fine for you. For example take a look at the NEC 90 series, especially the ones that end in UXi. Anything more than that would be overkill.

 

[Ligament]

The high end specs needed for your monitor will come from the need to look at x-rays. You do not need a high end monitor for MRI or CT. Even for the x-rays, you are looking at high intrinsic contrast structures (bones) rather than soft tissues and probably not making primary diagnoses like a radiologist. A lower grade professional monitor should be fine for you. For example take a look at the NEC 90 series, especially the ones that end in UXi. Anything more than that would be overkill.

Thanks for the info Docxter!

 

[f_w]

As long as you use it for 'clinical review', you don't need an FDA approved monitor.

However, when looking at plain-films, there is just no substitute for a medical grade monochrome 3MP or 5MP monitor. Compared with most colour monitors, they have better resolution (DPI), higher contrast ratio (10bit) and higher uniformity.

If you mostly look at CT or MRI, get the highest resolution highest luminance workstation monitor you can get your hands on. Also, set up the room you work in in a way that allows you to reduce ambient lighting.

 

[Ligament]

As long as you use it for 'clinical review', you don't need an FDA approved monitor.

However, when looking at plain-films, there is just no substitute for a medical grade monochrome 3MP or 5MP monitor. Compared with most colour monitors, they have better resolution (DPI), higher contrast ratio (10bit) and higher uniformity.

If you mostly look at CT or MRI, get the highest resolution highest luminance workstation monitor you can get your hands on. Also, set up the room you work in in a way that allows you to reduce ambient lighting.

thanks f_w, so since I look mostly at MR, should I go with the 5MP monochrome? Any specific models or makes to look at?

 

[f_w]

thanks f_w, so since I look mostly at MR, should I go with the 5MP monochrome? Any specific models or makes to look at?

No.

A 5MP monochrome is what you need to read mammograms and is helpful if you want to find those subtle changes of early fibrosis on a CXR (doesn't sound like your mission). Those monitors go for anywhere between 8k and 14k a pop.

If you mostly look at MRs, get a good commercial workstation monitor (e.g. the dells mentioned above). When comparing those monitors, get the one with the highest luminance and the highest contrast ratio available. Resolution is not as important when looking at 'small grid' type images (an MRI only has an intrinsic resolution of 256x256 or maybe 256x512, you could probably display that on a standard VGA monitor 😉 )

 

[Ligament]

Thanks very much! But, where is Dell mentioned above? Don't see any reference to Dell...?

No.

A 5MP monochrome is what you need to read mammograms and is helpful if you want to find those subtle changes of early fibrosis on a CXR (doesn't sound like your mission). Those monitors go for anywhere between 8k and 14k a pop.

If you mostly look at MRs, get a good commercial workstation monitor (e.g. the dells mentioned above). When comparing those monitors, get the one with the highest luminance and the highest contrast ratio available. Resolution is not as important when looking at 'small grid' type images (an MRI only has an intrinsic resolution of 256x256 or maybe 256x512, you could probably display that on a standard VGA monitor 😉 )

 

[f_w]

Thanks very much! But, where is Dell mentioned above? Don't see any reference to Dell...?

Sorry, my bad, NEC was mentioned above.

Any of the higher end manufacturers will give you good workstation monitors. I allways liked Eizo. If you don't need the FDA certification you can also get something like a Planar for a fraction of what the same monitor will go through the medical distribution system.