Color livens up medical display market

Following up on advances at the 2005 RSNA meeting, display vendors will come to McCormick Place in 2006 armed with a range of new high-brightness color LCDs. With color taking on an increasingly larger role in imaging today, vendors are responding with models that can tackle both color and grayscale imaging modalities.

Some experts feel that continued development of high-brightness color displays represents the beginning of the end for the grayscale monitor -- but clearly that day has not arrived yet. Booth visitors will find plenty of monochrome offerings to choose from on the show floor.

In line with growing market interest in full-field digital mammography (FFDM), display vendors are increasingly turning their attention to the modality. Many companies will showcase 5-megapixel monochrome LCDs that have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for reading mammography exams.

In other trends, some firms are showing wide-screen models on the show floor at McCormick Place. And in addition to hardware, display developers are continuing to invest their research dollars in a range of calibration and monitoring software packages designed to ensure image consistency while easing maintenance and administrative burdens.