Investigation of Practical Method for Quality Assurance and Control of Medical Displays

Quality assurance (QA) guidelines for medical display systems in Japan, JESRA X-0093, were published in August 2005 and have been used in many medical fields to maintain image quality on medical displays. This report offers detailed explanations of terms and testing methodologies in the guidelines, taking into account users with little knowledge of display technology. The management grade classifications, luminance meters, test patterns, and evaluation methods for executing the QA are supplementally described based on the technical background of related things. In addition, the validity of the evaluation methods and judgment criteria for uniformity and contrast response tests were examined in some experiments. The experimental results of the contrast response indicated that some cases presented inadequate display contrast even if the contrast responses were set within ±15% of the standard acceptable range for grade 1. The luminance responses of displays used in two computed tomography systems (CTs) and one magnetic resonance imaging system (MRI) were also measured, and the results indicated that their responses with conventional gamma responses were problematic for comparing images with those of medical displays.