D.I.Y Dicom Server!

J. O’Brien

Department of Physics and Nuclear Medicine,

City Hospital, Birmingham

Sandwell and West Birmingham HospitalsNHS Trust

Introduction

• Conducting a multi-centre trial

• Needed to share/send patient images via email

• Other centres did not have Philips cameras (tut tut!)

• So share images using Interfile

• But….. Interfile images were cobbled! (another story!)

• Have a go at sending images in Dicom format instead

• How do we do that?

• And what is Dicom?

What is Dicom???

• Digital Imaging & Communications in Medicine

• Standard image file format created by NEMA

A Hypothetical Dicom File

Patient info (name, DOB, sex)

Image info (number of images)

Study info (scan date, institution)

The Header(Lots of text that describes the image)

The Image

What is Dicom???

• Aims to aid the distribution and viewing of medical images (e.g. CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasound)

• Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine

• Standard image file format created by NEMA

So How do I convert Odyssey Images to Dicom?

Read the Manual!

Asking Philips Engineers

Ask around!

• Cannot simply create a Dicom file

• Have to send Dicom images to a Dicom Server…..

• What’s a Dicom Server…..???

What’s a Dicom Server ?

• It’s a networked PC running a ‘program’ that will accept Dicom images.

Install a Dicom Server Program on my PC

Getting a Dicom Server Program

• Try Google!

Getting a Dicom Server Program

• Try Google!

Conquest Dicom Server

Conquest Dicom Server

• Co-Written by Marcel Van Herk

• Features…

• Complete DICOM Interface. Including SCP’s for run-time programmable storage IOD’s, and SCP for DICOM Queries and Retrieves. …….Keh ????

• Easy installation • Good performance • £ Free • One program does it all (server & viewer)

Download Conquest

Installing Conquest on PC

• Easy Installation

• Extract Files to the PC hard drive C:\dicomserver

• Run the program called

ConquestDICOMServer.exe

Installing Conquest on PC

• Select Database

Installing Conquest on PC• Enter an Application Entity Title & Port Number

(In English, give the program a name and number!)

• That’s it! Your PC is now a Dicom server, ready to receive images from the Odyssey

Setting up the Odyssey

• Enter the IP address of the PC in the hosts file

• In a unix shell type … cd /etc [enter]

nedit hosts [enter]

Don’t be scared!

Setting up the Odyssey

• Tell the Odyssey’s Dicom program about Conquest

• In a unix shell type … configure [enter]

Setting up the Odyssey

• Enter details of Conquest Server!

• Help!

Setting up the Odyssey

• Enter details of Conquest Server!

• Help!

• Enter number of program

• Enter name of program

• Enter the IP address or ‘name’

• Enter workbench text

• That’s it!

Summary

Installed Conquest Dicom Server

Name: conquestsrv1

Number: 5678

IP address: 192.168.4.147

Told the Odyssey about the Conquest Dicom Server

Name: conquestsrv1

Number: 5678

What PC it sit on (IP address)

It works!

Odyssey

My PC

Can we do anything else?

• Yes!

send

retrieve

• If we can retrieve (pull) data back to the Odyssey, could we use the Dicom server as an Archive??

To Retrieve Data

• Program Conquest with Odyssey Information

• Program Odyssey to Import

To Retrieve Data

• On the Odyssey, Get the images from Conquest

Comparison

• Compare image, counts, pixel size, etc, etc

Pre Dicom Post Dicom

• No Difference

Further Work

• Do other types of images retrieve OK?

• Do we need more than one server on a PC?

• Can we put the Dicom Server in a remote ‘off site’ position e.g in the IT department?

• Can we set Odyssey to automatically archive data?

• Is there better server software available?

Conclusions

• Setup a FREE Dicom server in our department

• It works!

• Have the ability to convert Patient images to Dicom, enabling us to share data with other centres.

• Given the department another option for backing-up/archiving of data, which is handy for long term storage