Display Screens for Medical Imaging

Browsing through the diminishing collection of paper magazine at the University of Canberra library on the weekend I came accross an article on the use of LCD screens for displaying medical images. This goes by the acronym PACS (picture archiving and communication systems). It is used to manage digitised old fashioned X-rays, as well as ultrasound, magnetic resonance and computed tomography. Having been subject to all these procedures recently, I found it of interest.

Because of the risk of missing something on an x-ray, there are specially made and calibrated (and therefore expensive) LCD screens. One interesting way to quickly check a monitor is to display text in subtly varying colours and ask the user to type it in. There is open source medical imaging software available.