Importance and Effects of Altered Workplace Ergonomics in Modern Radiology Suites

Digital Mammography Image Quality: Image Display

This paper on digital mammography image display is 1 of 3 papers written as part of an intersociety effort to establish image quality standards for digital mammography. The information included in this paper is intended to support the development of an American College of Radiology (ACR) guideline on image quality for digital mammography. The topics of the other 2 papers are digital mammography image acquisition and digital mammography image storage, transmission, and retrieval. The societies represented in compiling this document were the Radiological Society of North America, the ACR, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology. These papers describe in detail what is known to improve image quality for digital mammography and make recommendations about how digital mammography should be performed to optimize the visualization of breast cancers using this imaging tool. Through the publication of these papers, the ACR is seeking input from industry, radiologists, and other interested parties on their contents so that the final ACR guideline for digital mammography will represent the consensus of the broader community interested in these topics.

Design and Ergonomic Considerations for the Filmless Environment

Planning and executing the redesign of a traditional institutional radiology reading room to conform to the radically different requirements of digital imaging are reviewed, with examples drawn from the authors' experience and from the growing body of literature on this subject. Included are best-practice recommendations and real-life examples on initial design and planning, stakeholder involvement, identifying and hiring consultants, architectural planning, the designation of a radiology point person, rethinking room and workstation design, the selection of ergonomic furniture and fittings, identifying optimal environmental elements, fine tuning and lessons learned, and going digital.

The influence of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors on observer performance for the detection of nodular lesions on chest radiographs

PURPOSE

To access the influence of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors on the detectability of nodular lesions depicted on chest radiographs by comparing them with a high-resolution cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Ten radiologists interpreted 247 soft-copy images on LCD monitors with pixel arrays of 1,024x1,280, 1,200x1,600, 1,536x2,048 and 2,048x2,560, and a CRT monitor with a pixel array of 2,048x2,560, and were asked to indicate their individual confidence levels regarding the presence of a nodule. These images were chest radiographs with and without a lung nodule from the "Standard Digital Image Database" created by the Japanese Society of Radiological Technology. The luminance distributions of all monitors were adjusted to the same, and the ambient illumination was 200 lux. Observer performance was analyzed in terms of the receiver-operating characteristics.

RESULTS

No significant statistical differences in nodule detection performance were found among the four LCD monitors and the CRT monitor.

CONCLUSION

The nodule detection performance on the LCD monitors with a spatial resolution higher than a matrix size of 1,024x1,280 was found to be equivalent to that on the high-resolution CRT monitor.

Ten filmless years and ten lessons: A 10th-anniversary retrospective from the Baltimore VA Medical Center

The authors review a decade's experience in the nation's first filmless radiology department and outline the challenges and rewards of the transition. They summarize their experience with 10 cautionary and informative lessons on making the process more successful, more efficient, and less stressful. A number of possible avenues of new research and assessment on the effects of filmless operation on radiologists, imaging staff, referring clinicians, and patients are highlighted.