Barco Technology Essential for Success of European Digital Breast Cancer Screening Program
ECR, VIENNA, AUSTRIA - BarcoView is pleased to announce that it has joined SCREEN, a European research program developing a Soft-Copy Reading Environment for digital mammography in breast cancer screening. BARCO’s invaluable imaging expertise will help solving typical issues such as image download speed, greyscale resolution and image dynamics, which have long been obstructing softcopy screening.
The main objective of the SCREEN project, a research and development project funded by the European Commission is to develop a Soft-Copy Reading Environment (SCREEN) that can replace film-based reading in screening mammography programs. The lack of an adequate softcopy reading environment is a major technological barrier hindering the transition from film-based to digital mammography in Europe’s breast cancer screening programs. Barco was asked to join SCREEN for its vast expertise in medical imaging. Its MeDis® display systems, bundling high-resolution greyscale displays, high-performance imaging boards and QA management software, address the imaging problems traditionally opposing digital mammography. Thanks to Barco’s imaging know-how and the expertise of other industrial and scientific partners, the SCREEN prototype will enable an experienced radiologist to screen one hundred cases an hour. Image loading speed is of vital importance, as more than 50 MegaByte of data has to be transferred per case. Therefore the high-resolution BarcoMed® imaging boards are equipped with Barco’s dedicated technology for ultra-fast image loading. The board’s unique architecture, with multiple real-time windowing/levelling tables, allows simultaneous handling of prior and current CC (craniocaudal) and MLO (mediolateral oblique) images, which is not possible on standard imaging products. The imaging boards also provide a proprietary 10-bit driving scheme, which allows the display of 1024 simultaneous greyscales, another must for safe mammogram interpretation. Barco’s high-bright greyscale displays offer screening radiologists the high luminance and contrast ratios at the highest possible resolution required for accurate diagnosis, while at the same time guaranteeing stable image quality over time and across displays. With the MediCal® Pro Softcopy QA software, which tracks the consistency of each individual display, the staff responsible for QA can manage total softcopy quality. Industry professionals are convinced that the integration of softcopy reading in European screening mammography will further improve healthcare quality and reduce costs.The other SCREEN project partners are:- MeVis, Centrum für Medizinische Diagnosesysteme und Visualisierung GmbH (Germany)
- UMC
- Katholieke Universiteit van Nijmegen (Netherlands)
- Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford
- MeVis Technology GmbH & Co.KG
