To run a medical practice means balancing being a doctor with being a business owner. One thing that all business owners want to do is amass as much information as possible before making major decisions. Adopting new technology, like digital radiography, is a key example of such a decision. This makes it important for medical professionals not just to blindly adopt a new technology, but understand what they have to gain. With this in mind, here’s a full comparison of the differences with digital radiography vs. computed radiography, and why digital is becoming the standard so quickly.

The easiest way to explain how computed radiography works is that the central component is a phosphor imaging plate. This is combined with a cassette-based system to create the medical images. A major reason we still see this adopted is the fact that they are relatively cheap to install, and have a lot of sizes for additional flexibility. However, they also require more maintenance, and aren’t the most efficient when it comes to speed

By comparison, we have digital radiography. Rather than relying on an analog or physical system, the central component here is a digital x-ray detector. This automatically captures the images you need before transferring them to a computer for viewing/storage. In addition, these are capable of use in a fixed or mobile setting, depending on what type you buy. When it comes to advantages, not only does digital radiography get images faster, but it also can provide higher quality images and expose your patients to less radiation. For busier medical settings such as large clinics, hospitals or medical imaging centers, it can pay for its upfront cost in efficiency very quickly.

As well, the bulk of medical settings are beginning to turn to digital radiography as their prime choice. This means that future radiography tech and innovations may only be compatible with digital equipment.

When it comes to digital radiography vs. computed radiography, it was never a matter of trying to have the two options run side by side. Digital radiography has always been the stronger option, both in terms of getting better-quality images to work with as well as being more efficient when it comes to implementing them into your office. As a result, every medical imaging center or practice should consider making the upgrade sooner rather than later.  JPI Healthcare Solutions is here to help facilitate the move.