For more than 30 years, Barco has invested significantly in research and development specific to improving workflow and clinical outcomes for healthcare professionals. Barco researchers work closely with clinicians to obtain a deep understanding of the clinical challenges and workflow realities so that they can incorporate this knowledge while developing innovative ideas for tomorrow’s healthcare products.

Toward this goal, Barco has developed diagnostic display systems and technologies designed to empower radiologists to work more efficiently and diagnose more accurately to meet the demand of a growing workload in an era of unprecedented healthcare service delivery.

Barco research engineers will share the initial findings of ongoing research studies in the fields of digital pathology and color image interpretation. Tom Kimpe, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Barco Healthcare states “It is an honor for our team to present Barco’s research at the SPIE Medical Imaging event,” comments Kimpe. “We believe that the fruitful interaction and information exchange among researchers and clinicians is very important to ensuring that we not only develop state-of-the-art technology, but also bring solutions which truly make a difference in improving diagnostic accuracy and workflow performance.”

Streamlining workflow in digital pathology image reading
“An Observer for Quantifying Panning Artifacts in Digital Pathology.” February 13, 8:40 – 9:00 am.
“Panning Artifacts in Digital Pathology Images.” February 13, 5:30 – 7:00pm.

In digital pathology whole slide imaging (WSI), pathologists need to pan from one region of a very large image image to another. This panning introduces artifacts and presents challenges to the workflow. An ongoing research study by Barco utilizes its VCT (Virtual Clinical Trial) platform – a sophisticated, well-validated tool incorporating image acquisition, processing, reconstruction, display and the human visual and perceptual systems – to characterize visual tasks and the impact of visual artifacts while panning pathology images.

Improve color image interpretation with a Color Standard Display Function
“Interpretation of the Rainbow Color Scale for Quantitative Medical Imaging: Perceptually Linear Color Calibration (CSDF) versus DICOM GSDF.” February 13, 5:30 – 7:00 pm.

The current DICOM Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) ensures that grayscale radiology images are presented consistently on different devices. However, a growing number of modalities produce color images, featuring color scales (quantitative medical imaging), such as MRI and PET-CT. A new study presents ongoing research around defining a standard for color calibration (CSDF). The results indicate that the interpretation of colors in medical images improves significantly when a medical display is calibrated to CSDF (Color Standard Display Function) compared to DICOM GSDF.

For more information on these presentations, visit the SPIE Medical Imaging conference page.