And for our next act? The evolution of digital radiography

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Digital radiography has come a long way in a relatively short time.  What a simple statement, but a big change in the way that we perform general radiographic imaging!

Not so long ago, if you wanted to use a DR detector in a general radiographic setting, your only choice was to purchase a whole room full of new imaging equipment.  The advent of cassette-size wireless DR detectors opened the door for upgrading your existing rooms to utilize the productivity of DR, in a cost effective manner.

Next came the ability to upgrade your existing portable imaging equipment to take advantage of these new DR detectors.  Now, even new DR rooms, with automated and integrated equipment use these wireless, cassette-size detectors. The best part is that the same detector can be shared between all three: upgraded rooms, upgraded portables and new rooms!

So what’s next for general radiography? Where do we go from here?

Well, one area where precious little improvement has occurred over the past 30 years is portable imaging. Just adding a DR detector to the same old square box and the same old workflow is a lot like having ice cream with no cone to hold it in.

Typically, the sickest patients in our hospitals get the worst images and even those images are difficult to obtain. The time has come to take portable imaging quality and ease of use, up to the same level as the integrated DR rooms in your department.  Having a cart that has a place for all of your tools, along with the horsepower and technology to create “room quality” images is the next frontier.

Who knows, the future may be closer than you think… where is your facility taking DR?

 – Jimmy Ogle | Worldwide Product Line Manager – Digital Radiography

 Editor’s Note: Hear more from Jimmy on how wireless detectors are changing how facilities view x-ray imaging in our Wireless DR eBook.