HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hackländer, T. Articles by Kleber, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hackländer, T. Articles by Kleber, K. Related Collections Informatics

Informatics in Radiology (infoRAD)

An Open Source Framework for Modification and Communication of DICOM Objects¹

¹ From the Department of Radiology, HELIOS Klinikum Wuppertal, Hospital of the University of Witten-Herdecke, Heusnerstrasse 40, 42283 Wuppertal, Germany (T.H.); and VISUS Technology Transfer, Bochum, Germany (J.M., K.K.). Presented as an infoRAD exhibit at the 2004 RSNA Annual Meeting. Received March 28, 2005; revision requested June 23 and received July 13; accepted July 18. All authors have no financial relationships to disclose. Address correspondence to T.H. (e-mail: thomas{at}hacklaender-online.de).

A configurable framework has been developed that can receive, modify, and export images in different picture archiving and communication system scenarios. The framework has three main components: a receiver for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) objects, a processing pipeline to apply one or more modifications to these objects, and one or more senders to send the processed objects to predefined addressees. The toolbox programming was implemented as an open source project in Java. The processing pipeline uses the concept of configurable plug-ins. One plug-in is user programmable by means of extensible stylesheet language files and allows conversion of DICOM objects to extensible markup language documents or other file types. Input and output channels are the DICOM Storage service, DICOM compact disks–read-only memory (CD-ROMs), and the local file system. The toolbox has been successfully applied to different clinical scenarios, including the correction of DICOM objects from non–Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) conform modalities, pseudonaming of DICOM images, and use of the IHE Portable Data for Imaging profile with import and export of CD-ROMs. The toolbox has proved reliability in the clinical routine. Because of the open programming interfaces, the functionality can easily be adapted to future applications.

© RSNA, 2005