Thinkpad for a radiologist

[deadlyvj]

I was wondering about the experience of thinkpad T42 in teleradiology. I'm looking at the hi resolution notebooks 1600X1200 and up. How comfortable is it for carrying around and also its comatibility with pacs.

[K. Eng]

The 15" T42 is surprisingly light for a notebook of that screen size. Unless you are used to 1.1 kilogram ultralight notebooks, the 15" T42 should be just fine.

As for compatibility with pacs, you may want to elaborate on what pacs is. I am guessing you are talking about a software package, in which case you would want to make sure the software is Windows XP compatible.

[deadlyvj]

Sorry I took a few things for granted. PACS is a software for viewing images. PACS helps us to remotely access images for interpretation. There are usually anywhere b/w 200-1000(or more) images per study. Therefore a fast system with good resolution is a must. A system with screen resolution of 1600X1200 and above would be required with atleast 1 gig ram. PACS is compatible with windows.

[kev009]

A T42p/T43p fit the build. You'll probably benefit from a 7k60 hard disk and the improved video/screen on the 'p' series. Memory is easily enough added on later. Infact buy it with as little as you can from IBM and buy it third party to save a lot of money. TPs come preloaded with XP Pro. CPU probably won't be too relevant, and little gained from the fastest. The rest depends which wireless card you want, if you need a finger print scanner or if you want bluetooth.

[Champ]

you'd lose a chunck of cash but the t43p are exactly what you're looking for. Prof graphic card with 128mb, you can install 2gb ram, and a 7200rpm HD should have you set. Not to mentoin gigibit ethernet etc.

[BillMorrow]

Sorry I took a few things for granted. PACS is a software for viewing images. PACS helps us to remotely access images for interpretation. There are usually anywhere b/w 200-1000(or more) images per study. Therefore a fast system with good resolution is a must. A system with screen resolution of 1600X1200 and above would be required with atleast 1 gig ram. PACS is compatible with windows.

1200x1600 is the max resolution available on a thinkpad..
the video is very very fast..

the question(s) you should answer are what is the max resolution of each image..??
(out of curiosity, are these the result of a series of x-rays, a CAT scan or an MRI..??)
how will you be loading the images on the thinkpad for reviewing..?
(wireless, ethernet?)
will you be examining each film of an MRI (or whatever) in small detail (i.e. a small portion) or the entire film..?

what are you using now to review these films..?

[dperron]

Isn't a 2048x1536 screen available for business applications?

FRU # 92P6684

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ht=92p6684

[deadlyvj]

The images on our flat screen monitors are 5 megapixel resolution. But I think 3 MP monitors would work fine. These would be CAT scans, MRI, CXRs .... the thing is that most of these or allmost all of these are black/white images. So a screen with good grey scaling would be beneficial. I'm interested in the 2300X1900 screen. Could some one provide me with more information? Most of the studies would be though cable speed internet access. Downloading those images through wireless would take a long time but not entirely impossible. But at the same time I would like something light and portable for presentaions, conferences and travel.
Thanks all

[dperron]

I think this is only available for the R50p and R51. But this could probably made to fit into a T42p....

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... 53129#qxga

[dperron]

Anyone knows what "Supported by CTO" means?

Thanks

[n3il]

Configure To Order - (usually) Large Enterprise Customer (buying lots of identical/v similar machines) options to add to/swap from a machine's original configuration in order that they can tweak it to better suit their need/rollout.

[beeblebrox]

The images on our flat screen monitors are 5 megapixel resolution. But I think 3 MP monitors would work fine. These would be CAT scans, MRI, CXRs .... the thing is that most of these or allmost all of these are black/white images. So a screen with good grey scaling would be beneficial. I'm interested in the 2300X1900 screen. Could some one provide me with more information? Most of the studies would be though cable speed internet access. Downloading those images through wireless would take a long time but not entirely impossible. But at the same time I would like something light and portable for presentaions, conferences and travel.
Thanks all

Hi deadlyvj,
the QXGA screen is CTO (configured to order only), has 3 mega-pixels. A friend of mine is radiologist at the" Kantons-Hospital" in Aarau/Switzerland.
He bought it through the hospital purchase department.
IBM built it completely for them, it came fully functional out of the box.
Their department also uses these ultra-high resolution IBM LCD screens (20" with something like 12-16 Mega-pixel, TL221 or so, forgot the name). But they only work on the desktop computers.

[deadlyvj]

Thanks every one for their input. I went around and got a little more information on the image resolution by talking to the physicist.
CT/MRI - 256 X 256 / 512 X 512 pixel resolution. A minimum of 1024 X 768 would work for the most part of these 2 types of studies. X rays on the other hand would need 3-5 megapixel resolution.

beeblebrox - Can you tell me a little more information on the QXGA note book. Is it heavy and what kinds of studies does your friend read on it?

[beeblebrox]

Thanks every one for their input. I went around and got a little more information on the image resolution by talking to the physicist.
CT/MRI - 256 X 256 / 512 X 512 pixel resolution. A minimum of 1024 X 768 would work for the most part of these 2 types of studies. X rays on the other hand would need 3-5 megapixel resolution.

beeblebrox - Can you tell me a little more information on the QXGA note book. Is it heavy and what kinds of studies does your friend read on it?

I REALLY doubt that 256x256 or 512pixels^2 are sufficient. Impossible!!
If you look at the Siemens or GE MRI systems they have minimum 1280x1024 and way up higher. The X-ray graphs are usually not compressed, so thinka about 10Mybtes and way up! In Med you are not allowed to use lossy algorithms due to distortion and false interpretation of data.

If you use the Thinkpad, then the QXGA is the way to go. You need to call IBM direct or the next Thinkpad center.
For the QXGA see the thread
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... light=qxga

You also might check for ultra-high resolution 21" IBM displays. They go at $2500 on eBay, but you need a desktop with 2 large graphics cards to run them.

[deadlyvj]

Hi,
Yeah the image resolution for CT is 512 X 512 with 8 bits of grey scaling per pixel. Do a search on google for image resolution for CT. BTW my search did give me a lot of insite on the image resolution, display QA which suggested that a second display monitor standardized for image display would be the way to go.
Laptop displays loose 10% of the intensity every year, more over the pixel intensities may not be homogeneous thougout the screen and last but not least the grey scaling is not 100% accurate and is not on the same scale as the diagnostic display monitors in the hospital.
All of these make laptop good for priliminary reads only. But a laptop with 1024 X 768 and higher would be sufficient for this.

[beeblebrox]

Hi,
Yeah the image resolution for CT is 512 X 512 with 8 bits of grey scaling per pixel. Do a search on google for image resolution for CT. BTW my search did give me a lot of insite on the image resolution, display QA which suggested that a second display monitor standardized for image display would be the way to go.
Laptop displays loose 10% of the intensity every year, more over the pixel intensities may not be homogeneous thougout the screen and last but not least the grey scaling is not 100% accurate and is not on the same scale as the diagnostic display monitors in the hospital.
All of these make laptop good for priliminary reads only. But a laptop with 1024 X 768 and higher would be sufficient for this.

No offense here, but by coincidence I happened to work on business and technology for CT, MRI and cardiovascular systems for some time, in Boston, London, Pittsburg, New York.
Know the Siemens Med, GE, Prucka stuff quite well.

I happen to have a CT of my own head and arm here at 4096x4096 pixels (Siemens system).
The displays on standalone monitors are very different to notebooks. They have up to 4 cathode tubes for lighting and usually Inplane-switching TFTs. Notebooks usually have just one light at the bottom. Grey scaling for cardiology systems are relative to each other, enhanced usually by software and filtered to the maximum spectrum. You will want a TFT color temperature sensor as well for calibration (e.g. EIZO Pro screens have that)
If you want to replicate the x-ray light viewer with a display you want to get one of the ID-Tech High-Res displays or the Dell UltraSharp (as they are used in Boston Umass Hospital).
The T42p QXGA has the very same displays, only 1 tube.
You might want to configure your own with a display (www.lcd4less.com) and have ultra-high-res and high-bright TFT built in. Doesn't make sense, hospitals have no money for that.
Check out the IBM T221 (http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/intellistation/t221/),
this is what you probably need.
Hope I could help...

[beeblebrox]

BTW:

http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/healthc ... 75105.html

this is a review of the IBM T221 display from the radiology dept. at Harvard Medical School.
Maybe this might be interesting to you... ?

[beeblebrox]

And another one for radiologists:

http://www.hoise.com/vmw/04/articles/vm ... -04-8.html

[deadlyvj]

Just to save you from a embarrassment , the following links will give the basics of imaging -

http://ric.uthscsa.edu/personalpages/la ... _chap3.pdf

radiology.med.sc.edu/6digimg.html

4096 X 4096 is referred here -

www.kodak.com/global/en/service/faqs/faq4502.shtml

I will not go into the details its all explained there.

And finally the American college of Radiology does recommend what is mentioned here for CT image interpretation.

[cormac]

Although this topic has not been submitted to for more than two months, I'll comment on deadlyvj's original question.

I am a radiologist and use a T42p since September 04 for evaluation of PACS applications, VRT postprocessing, presentations, etc.

I do not work with teleradiology very often on this machine but I have evaluated a large number of studies on its PACS. I am also involved in evaluating and selecting the monitors for the PACS workstations of the department I work at. The 15' 1600x1200 FlexView is in my opinion good enough for most image reads, and as BillMorrow pointed out, the video is fast.
Thus, windowing, smooth zooming and stack navigation (I assume you use a "stack" layout for CT/MR/NM) are no difficulty at all for this machine. Real-time VRT is a challenge, though, which was expected. New VRT algorithms can change this in the near future.
MPR runs smoothly which is nice.
>>Resolution: although normal X-ray images (CR,DR) have many MP's, a 2MP monitor like this is good enough but you will have to zoom the images, sometimes. The ergonomic situation is better, of course, with a 5MP monitor. That is the main discussion, really, not the risk of missing a minute finding in every other image. Many 5MP monitors have been bought at great expense, where a 2MP or 3MP monitor or even 1MP (CT,MR mainly) would have been just as appropriate.
>>Grayscale: In short - the good-enough approach is that the flexview is like a medium-to-high-grade standalone TFT - it gives great colours and nice viewing angle and truly gray "colour". Since the graphics drivers does not support the DICOM grayscale standard display function, the greyscale curve does not follow the DICOM standard. In practice, however, almost all image reads work fine anyway. It would be nice if the DICOM grayscale "curve" was supported, but you would still not be able to calibrate the monitor and its luminance is too low.
>>Carrying around: no problem at all. Sturdy build, feels light.

I hope this is of any help.
Good luck!