Film to X-rays?

erikred_at_csua asks: "A friend has his film X-rays on loan from the lab but needs to transfer them to digital format so he can take them for a second opinion. What's a reliable (and inexpensive) method of doing this without sacrificing image quality (and thereby rendering the exercise worthless)? Would the old lamp and scanner trick work here, or would there be too many flaws to make it worthwhile? Where could one find a list of places that would do this on the cheap? Since this is to document the progress of arthritis in his back, the level of detail must remain high."

Comments

DICOM is your friend

[Yonder Way]

Most radiology practices have been moving to digital imaging, and have access to scanners that will convert your X-rays into a DICOM image. There are tools out there for converting DICOM to JPEG. And yes these are diagnostic-quality images. I've set up some facilities that don't even go to film anymore unless the patient asks specifically for a film copy. All diagnosis is done on screen.

There are still some stone age practitioners who refuse to move into the digital age. Before getting radiology work done, you might call around to see if the practice is on a "PACS" system. And furthermore, will they give you the images in DICOM format?

One of the hospitals I set up sent every patient home with a CD-R that had a royalty-free DICOM image viewer and the full study of their X-Rays, CT scan, MRI, etc. This way they could pop the CD into a Windows computer and see everything the doctor sees (sort of... some of the advanced image manipulation isn't there) and take the CD to their primary care practitioner for followup.

Typical

[OldManAndTheC]

It's sad that patients have to jump through hoops to get their medical records. In contrast, when I needed some tests done recently, I drove down to Mexico and got X-rays and a CT scan for about half what I would have paid in the U.S. (and I'm talking cash over the barrel, no insurance). The doctor handed me the X-rays in a folder - I still have them. And the CT scan results were burned to a CD with a handy little viewer app, so I can cruise through my abdominal cavity a la "Fantastic Voyage" whenever I please. Sure beats pleading with the lab to see the results that you PAID for.