looking to buy a monitor

[lawrencewellsbourne]

reading MRI's from home
looking to build a work station
currently using a lenovo thinkpad,
I plan on using the thinkpad to write reports but i need a second screen to read the images

Any suggestions ?
thanks in advance

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[DrOngoGablogian]

I have no idea if there’s anything specific you need for your intended purpose. But just a general monitor suggestion based on (gaming) experience, Benq has never let me down. I have had nothing but issues with the big brands like Samsung and LG, but Benq delivers.

I can’t see you being disappointed with something like this:

Amazon product

It’s big, it’s sharp, the color accuracy will be on point, and it’s Benq so it won’t leave you hanging one day when you really need it to work.

 

[Cognovi]

In general you want a monitor that is big and high resolution so you have enough real estate to pull up multiple sequences or prior studies at the same time. A 32 inch 4K monitor should do the trick, which is what my department got us to read from home. A bright monitor is ideal, >350 cd/m^2, but it's not critical for MRI. Mine is rated at 300 cd/m^2 typical.

Note that this is different from what you want from a gaming monitor. The popular Benq gaming monitors are moderate size (24"), moderate resolution (1080p), and high refresh rate (144Hz). Refresh rate and color accuracy don't matter for radiology.

 

[DrOngoGablogian]

Brand basically just speaks for reliability though—that’s the biggest thing to keep in mind. All the advertised specs for any panel are mainly BS. You’ll have to look to objective tests to get an idea where a panel’s performance actually is. There is also a good chance on any two similar monitors that the panels are actually sourced from the same manufacturer (LG/Samsung mostly). So in other words you’re buying the same 34” VA or IPS panel—the difference is the binning, the build, and the niceties. The brightest kid on the block is the newish razer, but based on everything cognovi said I doubt the other specs would cut it for your needs.

Maybe you’d be interested in one of the newish 49” 1440p panels. They are glorious to behold.

 

[maxxor]

It's helpful to look at both the ACR–AAPM–SIIM Technical Standard for Electronic Practice of Medical Imaging and an FDA 510K application for a 4k Dell Monitor (example is UP3216Q, but they have submitted other Dell monitors) that was approved when packaged with PerfectLum by Qubyx (page 5.2).

The key points are that the monitor needs to have
Brightness at least 300 cd/m2
Pixel pitch of at least 0.2 x 0.2

Their 510ks use a NEC MultiSync MD322C8 monitor as the comparison. You can compare the technical specifications of a given monitor to that one to see if it will be substantially comparable. Many of the Dell 4K ultrasharp line are comparable.

NEC MultiSync MD322C8
Brightness: 350 cd/m^2
Pixel Pitch: 0.182 x 0.182
Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K)
Contrast ratio: 1000:1

UP3216Q
Brightness: 300 cd/m^2
Pixel Pitch: 0.182 x 0.182
Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K)
Contrast ratio: 1000:1

For reference, a common diagnostic 3MP monitor that we use is
Totoku ccl356i2
Brightness: 800 cd/m^2 (factory set to 410 and 300; I believe we use 300)
Pixel Pitch: 0.211 x 0.211
Resolution: 1536 x 2048 (3MP/QXGA)
Contrast ratio: 750:1


A 3MP monitor is defined by having 1536x2048 pixels. 2 of them in portrait is 3072x2048 pixels.
A 4K monitor is defined colloquially by having "4K" horizontal pixels. The most common 4K resolution is 3840x2160.
Therefore, a 4K monitor at 32" will be comparable display quality to 2 x 3MP monitors when set as a virtual split, which you can do in software if your PACS is new enough or in hardware by using a virtual side-by-side picture in picture mode built into the monitor (requires 2 display inputs).

A 3MP monitor is defined by having 1536x2048 pixels, which is roughly 3 million when multiplied together. 2 of them in portrait is 3072x2048 pixels, or 6 million pixels when multiplied.

If you do the same multiplication for the 4K monitor, you'll get 8 megapixel. A 4K monitor at 32" will have more pixels than 2 x 3MP monitors.

 

[lawrencewellsbourne]

Thank you to everyone,

I have decided on the 4k Dell monitor

 

[Cognovi]

It's helpful to look at both the ACR–AAPM–SIIM Technical Standard for Electronic Practice of Medical Imaging and an FDA 510K application for a 4k Dell Monitor (example is UP3216Q, but they have submitted other Dell monitors) that was approved when packaged with PerfectLum by Qubyx (page 5.2).

It's interesting that the FDA application has several typos.
"Explaining the difference in brightness characteristics, it shoud be noted that according to AAPM guidelines, the major acceptable criteria for primary/ secondary displays is maximum luminance of greater than 170/100 cd/m2. The DELL UP3216Q has brightness of 300cd/ m2 which is ehough for the display to be medical."

The ACR-AAPM-SIIM standard states "The L’max of diagnostic monitors used for interpretation should be at least 350 cd/m2"

Where are these other numbers (100, 170, 300) coming from?

 

[maxxor]

It's interesting that the FDA application has several typos.
"Explaining the difference in brightness characteristics, it shoud be noted that according to AAPM guidelines, the major acceptable criteria for primary/ secondary displays is maximum luminance of greater than 170/100 cd/m2. The DELL UP3216Q has brightness of 300cd/ m2 which is ehough for the display to be medical."

The ACR-AAPM-SIIM standard states "The L’max of diagnostic monitors used for interpretation should be at least 350 cd/m2"

Where are these other numbers (100, 170, 300) coming from?

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