The Pivotal Role of Diagnostic Medical Physics Practice in Driving Imaging Industry Standards. How a Local Effort May Petition a Successful Global Change
Presentations
TU-D930-IePD-F6-4 (Tuesday, 7/12/2022) 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
Exhibit Hall | Forum 6
Purpose: To advocate the significance of technical specifications of a key performance parameter (maximum luminance) of ultrasound scanner display to the equipment manufacturer and elicit an evaluation criteria.
Methods: As an in-house medical physics practice, a quality control program is implemented to evaluate the performance of clinically used ultrasound devices. As a part of ongoing ultrasound quality control, minimum and maximum luminance of the monitor is measured to track any year to year drift. In a few cases, our results demonstrated borderline performance of acquisition monitors when using the American College of Radiology criteria ₍non-ultrasound₎ for various tests. Given the author's past experience with luminance measurements on similar monitors from the same vendor and given the current results of maximum luminance measurements (in the neighborhood of 90 cd/m²), we requested service adjustments.While vendors do not necessarily abide to recommended ACR criteria, further follow-up with the manufacturer demonstrated that no Pass/Fail criteria exist either, which could have been referenced to initiate service intervention. To fill this gap, a series of communications ensued over a few months, starting with service representatives, their management & eventually the matter escalating to the Development Engineering group of the manufacturer.
Results: In a letter from the manufacturer's Quality & Regulatory team, Ultrasound Division, addressed to the author dated June of 2021, the manufacturer acknowledged that they do not stipulate a minimum specification for luminance of the monitor. Further, the manufacturer confirmed the creation of a Change Request to establish this luminance specification & that it is under consideration.
Conclusion: Catalytic contributions of the diagnostic medical physicist in ensuring delivery of optimum patient care through demonstrated leadership in quality and technology management. The quintessential role of the physicist as a bridge between clinical radiology and imaging industry.
Keywords
Ultrasonics, Quality Control, Diagnostic Radiology
Taxonomy
IM- Ultrasound : Display Technology & Evaluation
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