Digital radiography gets ready for combat

The U.S. military has devised a way to deploy a prototype digital radiography device to the front lines to support field medical operations, according to a paper presented at the 2002 SCAR meeting.

Stripping commercially available DR equipment, Army technicians dressed an electronic detector and associated hardware in rugged aluminum fatigues in order to evaluate the equipment under extreme conditions, including a range of temperatures (80º to 100ºF) and humidity (50% to 75% relative humidity).

The DR prototype was transported to a military field hospital and tested on 20 patients. The prototype performed within manufacturer's specifications for uniformity, spatial resolution, and low contrast resolution in the hospital. More work is needed to decrease the system's size, weight, and cost. The current device weighs 250 pounds, too heavy for practical portability.

The military currently uses standard screen-film radiography in most field operations.

In the future, the portable DR system, which has already received FDA clearance, could be evaluated for other applications, including home healthcare, nursing home care, and institutional uses.