The Benefits of Medical Grade Displays in Healthcare

With rapid advances in technology, the medical industry continues to grow at breathtaking speeds. Hospitals are now handling a larger volume and wider variety of image data than ever before. Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for medical imaging that has been adopted for use by most hospitals and it is likely that this will spread into doctors’ and dentists’ offices in the very near future.

Consumer grade monitors are what you’d typically find in a television screen or standard computer monitor. The quality of these images is not suitable for medical display purposes. The healthcare industry therefore employs Medical Grade Monitors for not only Diagnostic and Surgical procedures but Clinical readings and Healthcare Research and Study as well. Furthermore, these Medically approved monitors are also being used for Pathology, Dentistry and Mammography among various other Healthcare applications.

Medical grade monitors have a number of advantages over the standard consumer grade ones.

Display Resolution

Resolution offered by standard consumer displays are limited and not always suitable for diagnostic imaging. Medical grade monitors offer higher resolution clarity and allow the image to be displayed in portrait or landscape mode as the need be. Most Diagnostic imaging applications such as Computed Radiology (CR), Computed Tomography (CT), Digital Radiology (DR), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans images of 3 Megapixels and above. Not having a suitably high-resolution monitor to show these images would mean loss of crucial data.

Higher Resolution results in improved Image quality which further allows the medical practitioner to see much more detail without the need for panning or zooming.

Viewing Angle

Viewing angle is not always critical when it comes to consumer displays. Most of the time the viewer is positioned more or less directly in front of the monitor.

Medical grade monitors use state-of-the-art viewing technology to ensure the display is virtually the same from any angle. This is of utmost importance during surgery where members of the operating team are moving around, or may be spread out, during the procedure.

Luminance Range

Luminance is often mistakenly referred to as brightness. Luminance is an absolute measure of light emitted. Brightness is a level of subjective perception by the human eye and is not measurable. The concept of brightness is relative to the ambient conditions. For instance, an image with the same luminance will appear brighter in a darkened room than in a room bathed in sunlight.

The luminance of a display is measured in candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Consumer displays produce a maximum of 300 cd/m2, whereas Medical grade display monitors achieve luminance levels in excess of 1000 cd/m2. This is close to conventional film quality. The increased image quality can facilitate more accurate diagnostic reading.

Contrast Ratio

Apart from luminance, contrast is of great importance in diagnostic reading. Medical grade displays have on average a contrast ratio of only 300:1, whereas the contrast achieved by Medical grade display monitors can be substantially higher, up to 1000:1.

The smaller an object in an image, the greater the contrast needed to make it stand out. High contrast ratios are therefore vital for accurate diagnostics and for accuracy during monitor-assisted surgery.

Minimally Invasive Surgery

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is becoming more prevalent because of the many benefits to the patient. These include a shorter hospital stay, less post-operative pain and discomfort, less injury to surrounding tissue and less scarring.

More and more surgical procedures are being performed endoscopically to accommodate the ethos of MIS. The image quality provided by Medical grade monitors is of vital importance during this procedure. Consequently, the surgical team has come to rely on these monitors for critical decision making in the operating room.

These Medical grade display monitors are designed to meet the high performance demands of a surgical environment. Reliance on these monitors will continue to grow and will count among the most critically important equipment that the surgical team will use.

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