Barco to Propose New DICOM Color Calibration Standard Next Week

Barco will share results of its research on color visualization of medical images, which they say indicates the need for a new calibration standard to ensure the color accuracy of medical displays. Tom Kimpe, PhD and vice president of technology and innovation for Barco Healthcare will present Barco’s findings in a paper entitled “Are Medical Displays Calibrated to GSDF or sRGB Sufficient for High Quality Visualization of Color Medical Images?” at RSNA 2014 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois on Dec. 1.

The use of color in medical images has increased significantly in the past few years, evolving from annotative text on grayscale images to clinically relevant information depicting fused, multi-modality or quantitative imaging. However, there is no official standard of how color medical images must be visualized such as the DICOM GSDF (Grayscale Standard Display Function) established for grayscale displays. Currently, color medical displays are calibrated to the GSDF or clinicians utilize consumer-level displays that approximate the sRGB standard.

To determine if these calibration standards were sufficient to ensure accurate color medical images, Dr. Kimpe investigated both technical characteristics of color displays as well as the influence of color on the perception of clinical color in medical images. In the study, measurement data of a large sample of medical color displays showed that significant color instabilities remained with both DICOM GSDF and sRGB.

Barco is here.