Welcome to the Second annual Digital Radiography Showdown and DICOM validation.

Purpose: {sidebar id=1}

1. Obtain radiographs from digital vendors in a controlled situation so veterinarians can compare images from different vendors. The goal is not to declare a "winner." Rather, this will be used as an educational event. Veterinarians will have access to these images as well as a comments on image quality from several board certified radiologists
   
   
2. Provide veterinarians with a list of software features from each of these systems to assist them in comparing systems.

Location: The Veterinary Imaging Center of San Diego (www.vicsd.com)

Date: The event will take place between May 1, 2007 and August 15^th 2007. Each week during the months of May, June, July, and August a vendor will be showing their equipment.

Participants: This event is open to any vendor. The following vendors will be attending in 2007:

• All Pro
• Agfa
  
• Eklin
• Fuji
  
• FOVEA
• IcrCo
• Idexx
• Sedecal
  
• Sound Technologies
  
• Vetel
  
• VJ Technologies

Specifics:

• Testing Matrix: This year veterinarians will be provided with a list of items tested during the SHOWDOWN. The testing matrix will soon be available for download. The testing matrix is a "consumer reports" type of comparison chart highlighting some of the software items offered by the vendors.
  
  

• Equipment Selection: Vendors will be able to bring any digital imaging equipment and software to the SHOWDOWN provided that the equipment is the SAME equipment that is sold on the veterinary market and the software version brought to the SHOWDOWN will be released for clinical use within 6 months of the SHOWDOWN. Vendors will be asked to sign a statement declaring that the equipment is the same equipment available to the veterinary market and the software is at least a beta within 6 months of release.
  
  
• Prior Image Use: Vendors will be allowed to use images from a previous years SHOWDOWN if they attend the 2007 SHOWDOWN and they did not substantially alter their equipment since 2006.
  
  
• Setup: Vendors will be allowed two days to setup their equipment, obtain radiographs, and breakdown and prepare the x-ray machine for the next vendor. Vendors will not be provided with test subjects. Test subjects will be available for a small fee.
  
  

• Schedule: The SHOWDOWN schedule can be found here click this link.
  
  

• X-ray Machine: VICSD will provide an x-ray machine for the event. The machine is a Sedecal Standard Vet unit. Specifics about the machine can be found here . Vendors are asked to leave the x-ray machine in the same condition as they found it. I.e. the bucky tray must be replaced.
  
  

• Technical Staff: VICSD will NOT provide technical staff to assist with image acquisition. Vendors must bring their own technical support staff.
  
  

• Image Acquisition
  • It cannot be overstated that the goal of this event is to simulate a real world test.
  • Repeats for exposure: Vendors will be allowed one repeat per body part to adjust for exposure. In other words For a 3 view thorax evaluation, you will be allowed to obtain a survey radiograph and then adjust for exposure if things don't turn out properly. You will then be allowed to obtain three more radiographs. This may seem unnecessary and draconian. However, as stated previously, this event is intended to simulate a real world test NOT to see who can obtain the best radiograph if given 38 tries. In much of the veterinary advertising literature and sales pitches it states in no uncertain terms that digital radiography will "eliminate repeats." We will be putting that to the test.
  • Repeats for position: if the animal is uncooperative, there will be unlimited repeats for positioning problems. However, your technical staff must know how to position an animal properly. Repeats for minor position changes will be allowed at the discretion of the judge who will be an ACVR certified radiologist. VENDORS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO REPEAT RADIOGRAPH IN ORDER TO OPTIMALLY CENTER THE PATIENT ON THEIR IMAGING PLATE OR CASSETTE
    
    
    
• Workstation Setup and DICOM header information: Vendors must include the following in the appropriate DICOM fields at the time of image acquisition
  • Patient Name: (0010,0010): format: Manufacturer^Species-Body Part. For example: Eklin^large Dog-Thorax
  • Manufacturer Name (0008,0070): The vendors name must appear in this field
  • Patient ID (0010,0020): The patient ID for each animal must be unique.
  • Acquisition Date (0008,0022): The date that the images was acquired must appear in this field
  • Institution Name (0008,0080): The institution name will be SHOWDOWN 2007
    
    
    
• Animals and Projections Required: Each vendor will be radiographing three animals during this event. There will be a large dog, a small dog, and a cat. Each vendor will be asked to obtain the following projections:
  • Large dog thorax
  • Large dog abdomen which includes the stifle ventral to the abdomen
  • whole body small dog
  • whole body small cat
  • cat paw
  • small dog elbow
    
    
    
• Line Pair Phantom: Vendors will be asked to image a line pair phantom according to the following procedure:
  • the large focal spot on the x-ray machine will be used
  • the kv will be set to 100
  • The line pair phantom will be imaged at the center and the periphery of the image field.
    
  • the mA will be of the vendors discretion but a small piece of porous tape placed next to the phantom will need to be present and visible in the image. In other words, use as high an mA as you like as long as we can still see the tape.
    
    
    
• Exposure settings:
  
  • All of the techniques vendors use to obtain an image will be recorded.
  • The exposure rate will be measured with an ion chamber in the center of the imaging field.
    
    
• System Usability and Efficiency Evaluation: Several tests of software useability and system efficiency will be recorded. These are:
  • See spreadsheet for now:
    
    
    
• Image Storage: Several tests of the system ability to store images locally and remotely (i.e. backup) will be evaluated
  • See spreadsheet for now
    
    
    
• Teleradiology: Several software functions that provide useful support for teleradiology applications will be evaluated.
  • See spreadsheet for now.
    
    
    
• Removable Media Evaluation: Several tests of the removable media (CD, DVD) will be evaluated. These are.
  • See spreadsheet for now.
    
    
    
• Modality Worklist support: Still up in the air.

Image Usage After the Event

All images obtained during the event will become the sole property of Animal Insides and will be made permanently available (without fee) to all veterinarians via the internet; and by CD via the mail.

The images will be copyrighted to Animal Insides and reproductions of these images for vendor promotional materials including print advertisements, and electronic media (such as powerpoint presentations and websites) is strictly prohibited.

Failure to comply with these requirements will be considered a copyright violation and result in legal action against the vendor.

DICOM Validation

Before leaving VICSD, vendors images will be sent to a remote DICOM test server. Validation will include assessment of:

• The DICOM protocol used against the DICOM standard for C-store
• Image content against the chosen SOP class. NOTE: Vendors will be allowed to use any DICOM SOP class for their images
• Image content, headers, and c-store protocol against the vendors conformance statement
• Support for Veterinary DICOM Attributes

To participate in this segment of the event, vendors will have to have a public DICOM conformance statement that is available for download on their website.

The DICOM validation will be "scored" as PASS, BORDERLINE, or FAIL as follows:

• FAIL
  • Any DICOM communications protocol violations, such as (but not limited to), incorrect data item lengths, incorrect use of presentation contexts and transfer syntaxes, or other faults in the areas of DICOM Defined by Parts 8 or 5, except minor errors in individual data elements.
  • Absent type 2 elements or bland Type 1 elements in any of the "General" modules (general patient, study, series, or image modules), as they could prevent an DCP from indexing the data properly (e.g. if Instance UID were missing).
    
    
• BORDERLINE:
  • Minor formatting errors but only if limited to within the scope of individual elements (e.g. a name without ^ characters, or a UID with leading zeros, but a sequence formatting error would be a FAIL
  • Absent type 2 elements or blank Type 1 elements in SOP class-specific fields (e.g. laterality on a plain film)
    
    
• PASS: All OK

The logic is that a FAIL has errors which would cause a "good" SCP to get "out of sync" or otherwise not be able to cope with an image, whereas borderline would normally allow images to be HANDLED OK, but perhaps cause problems when some of the data elements came to be used.

The results of the DICOM validation will be made publicly available on this website. However, the results will not be included with the images obtained in the first half of the test. Veterinarians, will only be informed that a vendor did or did not participate in the DICOM validation part of the event.

{sidebar id=2 align=left}{sidebar id=3}