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FAQ
What are my image capture options?
Teleradiology
There are a number of ways to acquire digital images of radiographs — Digital Radiography (DR), Computed Radiography (CR), film scanners, flatbed scanners, Radiograph Digital Converters (RDC) and digital cameras. Film scanners, CR and DR systems meet the American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR) recommendations for digital images. Flatbed scanners and digital cameras produce images that many specialists accept as diagnostic-quality. With the dramatic improvement in resolution, digital cameras now provide an opportunity for easy entry into telemedicine at a reasonable price.
Listed below are equipment recommendations for digital cameras, flatbed scanners, film scanners and Radiograph Digital Converters. We have hands-on experience with all these technologies, as well as many others not listed.
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Digital Cameras
Prices for digital cameras offering high-quality image resolution have fallen dramatically over the past few years. It has never been less expensive to produce high-quality digital images of your X-rays. Any digital camera with an effective resolution of 3MP or greater should be satisfactory. If you currently own a digital camera, please call us at 877.727.6800 and we will be happy to evaluate the camera for use in a telemedicine application.
Digital cameras should have the following minimal specifications:
• 3.0+ Effective Megapixels
• White load balance
• USB connectivity (allows direct image download from camera to computer)
• Memory card storage (4MB – 128MB)
• Brightness or EV compensation (ideal -2.0 to +2.0)
• Aspherical glass lens
• Optical Zoom
In addition, we highly recommend a digital copy stand and high-frequency illuminator. The copy stand eliminates blur from camera shaking and accommodates a perpendicular camera position. It also allows centering of the image, especially with close-up shots, to provide emphasis on suspected lesions. The high-frequency illuminator prevents "flicker lines" typically seen when using standard AC viewboxes/illuminators used for radiograph viewing. AC fluorescent bulbs flicker at the alternating current rate — 60Hz, or 60 times per second. When the exposure rate is faster than the flicker rate, alternating lines of increased and decreased density are produced within the image, interfering with evaluation.
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Flatbed Scanners
As an alternative to a digital camera, you might consider a flatbed scanner for digitization of your X-ray images. Flatbed scanners are essentially color document scanners that have a transmissive scanning feature to accommodate black-and-white transparencies. The advantage of flatbed scanners is that they remove operator error from the image acquisition process, and they capture images of good diagnostic quality. A disadvantage is that most flatbed scanners do not have large scanning beds, because they are designed for documents no larger than legal size. As a result, only a few can capture a 10x12 radiograph.
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Film Scanners
Film scanners have always been the best way to reproduce original film. Film scanners are designed specifically for digitizing radiographs. They can accommodate the largest film dimensions, and they produce high-resolution images. Laser and CCD technologies dominate the market for film scanners. CCD technology has now evolved and is closing the gap in optical density ranges that until recently was dominated by laser technology. Film scanners can represent a significant investment for your practice. We recommend that you contact a DarkHorse representative at 877.727.6800 to discuss film scanner options before making such an expensive and important purchase.
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Radiograph Digital Converter
This is a new product on the market. It is a low-cost, quality alternative to the scanners mentioned above. The Radiograph Digital Converter (RDC) unit from MAST Technology costs under $2,500. This scanner, along with DTIMS/Ultracapture software from DarkHorse, makes digitizing your films and telemedicine easier and more affordable. For more information on the MAST RDC, please call DarkHorse at 877.727.6800. |
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