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has nearly as much draw as the robotic systems "taking off like wildfire" at larger facilities do, and is a smaller step up for budget-bound
surgery centers. "If I were starting a surgery center, I'd start it with
HD," she says.
Q
Are the images better on
a medical-grade monitor?
A picture is worth a thousand words, but some of the mar-
keting terms used to describe HD monitors can be downright confusing, if not misleading. If you're planning to invest in the technology, be
sure to do your research and the math.
Know the distinction between HD (a designation of higher image
resolution) and HDTV (a broadcast standard that's not likely to
apply to your surgical uses). Be aware that "full HD" is not a technical specification. Instead, compare monitors' display capabilities by
the number of horizontal and vertical pixels.
The term "megapixels" refers to the total number of pixels in the display, not its resolution, says Nate Pinkney, a senior project engineer in the
Health Devices Group at the ECRI Institute, a non-profit healthcare
research organization in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. A screen that displays
2,000 horizontal pixels by 2,000 vertical pixels (for a total of 4 million pixels, or 4 megapixels) may have 4 times the number of pixels that a 1,000by-1,000 (1 megapixel) display does, but it doesn't have 4 times the resolution, says Mr. Pinkney.
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