Specialties

Overview monitors

Review monitors are used to visualize examinations from various modalities for physicians in hospital wards or clinics when descriptions of these examinations by radiologists on diagnostic/description monitors are already available. In these cases, single-monitor stations are used. Below are the requirements for review monitors for a given type of examination for:

1. general radiology (x-ray review monitor):

Matching the radiology monitor to the DICOM GSDF gray curve function.

2 - Mammography:

minimum resolution of the display area: 2048×2048 pixels;
DICOM GSDF gray curve function matching.

3. tomography and angiography:

Medical monitors matched to the DICOM GSDF gray curve function.

The above requirements are included in Ordinance of the Ministry of Health of January 2023. However, they do not specify the requirements for screen (image) parameters for brightness after calibration in accordance with DICOM Part 14. Therefore, is the selection of a review monitor for medical facilities simple?

What kind of review monitor (PC) to choose?

When answering the question of which medical monitor to buy, let's pay attention to the parameters described

In the 2017 Ordinance of the Minister of Health, the parameters described are more detailed.

In the Ordinance, the description of the parameters refers to:

Minimum screen brightness after calibration,
Minimum contrast and minimum working diagonal.

It is worth noting that the parameters for review monitors described in 2017 are still an informal guideline for most ongoing projects. Monitors for medical specialties are expected to meet certain conditions, which we list below.

For general radiology monitor o:

resolution min. 1 MP,
brightness min. 200 cd/m2,
100:1 contrast ratio.

2 For mammography min 1 monitor with parameters not inferior to the descriptive monitor for mammography:

resolution min. 5 MP,
brightness min. 500 cd/m2,
Contrast ratio min. 500:1.

3. For tomography and angiography, a color overview monitor:

with a resolution of min. 1 MP,
With a brightness of min. 100 cd/m2,
With a contrast ratio of 100:1.

What kind of review monitor (PC) to choose?

We point out that review monitors are no longer subject to such stringent requirements as descriptive monitors, both in terms of brightness and natural contrast, as well as DICOM curve mapping errors and backlight uniformity. Nevertheless, periodic calibration and control of their parameters is also required. Thus, sequentially: