PACS displays: how to select the right display technology.

The medical imaging display is a precision instrument with many features not found in commercial-grade displays. The more one understands what these features are and their corresponding clinical value, the better one can make a purchase decision. None of these displays maintain themselves for 5 years or more without some degree of automatic or manual performance testing. Routine calibration conformance checks are beginning to be mandated by the departments of health of many states. Most manufacturers provide mechanisms to perform these checks and keep track of their results, some more easily than others. A consistent display brightness of about 400 cd/m(2) and close conformance to the DICOM curve are the key components of a successful check. Displays are typically characterized by the number of pixels they contain, usually 2, 3, or 5 megapixels, but this is the least useful determinant of image quality. What matters most is the size of the pixels and the size of the whole display, which should be selected on the basis of the typical viewing distance. The farther one's eyes are from the display, the larger the pixels and the overall display size can be while still feeding the eye as much information as it can see. Care should be taken to use the appropriate display in a given setting for the clinical purpose at hand.