Plate Digitizer: What Is It and What Is It For?

Discover how you can digitize physical radiological plates to store them in the cloud. This is especially useful if you are considering migrating your practice to a PACS system.

Today, many technological advances have emerged that have improved and corrected small errors or complications in many aspects of the healthcare sector. 

Previously, in order to make diagnoses from the radiological images produced on plates, physicians had to view and analyze the image in analog form. Today, with all the advances available, diagnoses can be provided using nothing more than a computer and an internet connection through PACS systems.

What Devices Exist for Digitizing Physical Plates?

If your medical practice uses physical plates, but you are considering digitizing your system, there is an option that will allow you to back up studies digitally and in the cloud. One way to achieve this is with a plate digitizer.

A plate digitizer, also known as an X-ray digitizer, is a piece of equipment that converts your analog plate into a digital format in a matter of seconds so you can view and edit it on your computer.

Are Plate Digitizers Expensive?

X-ray digitizers can seem costly when purchasing the equipment. However, when thinking ahead, you will discover all the time and materials you can save over the equipment's service life.

The prices can vary, as with any product you might purchase. Prices also depend on the product's range and brand. A professional, medical-grade piece of equipment can cost between 10 and 14 thousand dollars. However, other manufacturers offer much more affordable options. Below, we discuss other alternatives for digitization.

Are They Easy to Obtain and Operate?

This equipment is not easy to find, in the sense that you will not find it in a shopping mall or store. You will most likely need to contact a manufacturer or supplier to request a quote and, if necessary, import the equipment.

Since these are digital, versatile, and not very complex devices, they will not be very complicated to use.

What Types of Radiological Plate Digitization Exist?

Digitization consists of transforming the original information from the analog or physical plate into a digital composition and format that will make it possible to view, process, and manipulate all the image data on a computer.

One type of plate digitizer develops the study without the need for conventional developers or darkrooms, which makes it possible to save a great deal of time and reduce development costs. 

On the other hand, when acquiring a PACS system, images are automatically converted into digital format using the DICOM protocol, the global standard for medical images. The most sophisticated and comprehensive PACS systems are compatible with all diagnostic modalities and perform this digitization step automatically.

Another advantage of being able to store all physical plates in a PACS system is that you can keep them in the cloud, as an extra layer of protection against data loss from theft, misplacement, or damage to computer equipment.

Radiographic plates can also be digitized using a CCD camera, which offers adjustment of the black-and-white and gray values of the image through an optical system.This camera, known as a charge-coupled device (its English acronym is CCD, charge-coupled device), uses an internal circuit for image digitization.

Finally, there are specialized medical scanners that operate with an optical system that measures the image point by point. In this way, a resolution superior to human vision is achieved.

How Are Images Archived in the PACS System?

The acronym PACS stands for Picture Archiving and Communication System. These are systems that enable the management of all medical information, improving the productivity of any medical organization.

Generally, the PACS archive consists of a short-term and long-term storage system.

• Short-term storage. This consists of a set of identical disks (RAID) that provide very fast access to image data.
• Long-term storage. This consists of magnetic tapes or optical discs. 

It works as follows: after 3 to 30 days, the image is moved from RAID to long-term storage. To access that information, it must be copied back to short-term storage.

Today, the cost of RAID storage has decreased thanks to cloud systems such as Eva PACS. This is because, being linked and stored in the cloud, they only use short-term storage (RAID), thereby eliminating the need to retrieve the long-term archive. This has also brought advantages in terms of security.

Why Were There Complications with Printed Plates in the Past?

In the past, there were various shortcomings when performing a radiology study in relation to image-based diagnoses. Such complications were associated with the following: 

• Difficulty comparing studies.
• Slowness in accessing all the patient's information.
• No database record or history was kept.
• Exams had to be repeated due to lost plates or errors in the original studies.

These were the main problems a physician could encounter when making a diagnosis, resulting in substandard patient care. 

Looking at today's advances, we find that with systems such as Eva PACS, there is not even a need for a special application, since the system can be accessed directly from a web browser. For this reason, with Eva PACS it is also possible to digitize all your physical plates and keep them in a very secure place using only your computer, saving you time and reducing costs.

References

• Information and Digitization: Centennial Congress of the Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría (Argentine Society of Pediatrics)
• Radiographic Digitization, Josep Alfred Piera i Pelliçer.
• Radiology Secrets, E. Scott Pretorius & Jeffrey A. Salomon.