Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Squeezing digital images with lossy compression may be a great way to save on bandwidth and archiving costs in your PACS network. But is it wise to use images for clinical diagnostic purposes if data loss has occurred during compression?
It's a conundrum that's been vexing the PACS world for years, with valid arguments on both sides of the issue. Now a research initiative in Canada is hoping to come to a conclusion on lossy image compression that could be adopted as the standard in the country, according to an article by staff writer Erik L. Ridley that we're featuring in our PACS Digital Community.
The researchers put together a package of images from various imaging modalities and compressed them at different ratios and with different techniques. They then had over 100 readers across Canada review the images and make note of their impressions.
On the whole, the readers found that the lossy-compressed images compared well to the original images, particularly when lower compression ratios were used, with no visible loss of information. According to the researchers, the results show that lossy compression can be used throughout PACS networks in Canada.
Get the rest of the story by clicking here, or by visiting our PACS Digital Community at pacs.auntminnie.com.
