Masahiro Yakami MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Koichi Ishizu MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Takeshi Kubo MD, Abstract Co-Author: Grant, Toshiba Corporation

Tomohisa Okada MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Kaori Togashi MD, Abstract Co-Author: Research funded, Nihon Medi-Physics Co, Ltd Research funded, Eisai Co, Ltd Research funded, Bayer AG Research funded, DAIICHI SANKYO Group Research funded, Covidien AG Research funded, Toshiba Corporation Research funded, Canon Inc Research funded, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation

This newly developed DICOM software tool is expected to facilitate radiological research by offering convenient all-in-one solution for privacy and incompatibility problem inherent to DICOM imaging format.

Medical images are currently transferable electronically in DICOM format. However, the original DICOM files can cause patient-confidentiality problems when used for research purpose - accidental disclosure of protected health information (PHI), constituting a breach of applicable privacy protection laws such as HIPAA. Also, DICOM files transferred sometimes cannot be opened due to variability in the implementation of the DICOM format and variations of DICOM read/write algorithms. Currently, there are a number of free DICOM conversion software applications available, but no offer efficient processing of multiple patients and scans data. Our free DICOM-to-DICOM converter offers an all-in-one solution to facilitate radiological research using batch-anonymized DICOM images.

This new DICOM tool was developed to be multi-functional, consisting of a DICOM file converter; a DICOM header reader; and a high-speed image viewer. This tool was designed to convert multiple DICOM files in one session using batch processing and can also black-out of letters embedded in images. Users can specify conversion options using an interactive GUI and/or script files. We tested the conversion efficiency and reliability of this tool, by performing header anonymization of 4381 DICOM files (2.14 GB), consisting 15 CT, MRI and US image sets of 5 patients. Successful conversion of files without any conversion errors was confirmed with total processing time of 413 sec, which compares favorably with the time needed to simply duplicate the same amount of data on Windows Explorer (445 sec).  

Advantages of this DICOM software tool include　(1) availability of all DICOM conversion functions needed for research purpose; (2) an intuitive and familiar user interface; (3) powerful script support for batch processing; (4) rapid batch-conversion and anonymization; and (5) no licensing fees. Use of this software reduces costs and time of DICOM image processing in the imaging research process.

Yakami, M, Ishizu, K, Kubo, T, Okada, T, Togashi, K, Development of an Integrated DICOM Conversion Tool for Anonymized Medical Image Transport for Radiological Research.  Radiological Society of North America 2008 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, February 18 - February 20, 2008 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2008/6007791.html