An automated DICOM based archival system for patient studies

Abstract

The archiving and retrieval of patient studies in a nuclear medicine department is routine and performed for patient study review and comparisons, research and legalities. The storage requirements are modest at around 2–5 Gbytes per month. The process and review (P & R) workstations in nuclear medicine have the necessary software and hardware to perform this function. However, advances in storage media capacity (fixed and removable) coupled with the age of the department's P&R workstations often leads to the use of outdated, expensive and limited capacity storage media with no on-line access to the archived data. Our department's GE Genie P&R workstations archive to magnetic optical disks that are expensive (£100), limited capacity (630 Mbytes) and have a slow transfer rate. (The patients’ files are also stored in a propriety database preventing their transfer to another vendors system by removable media.) In order to overcome these problems an in-house archival system was developed. All programs were written in C, C++ with the use of free DICOM source code from the OFFIS group. Patient files are transferred automatically from our GE Millennium acquisition gamma cameras computers through DICOM to a P4 personnel computer (PC) operating under Microsoft Windows XP. The PC has a 120 Gbytes fixed disk hard drive. On receiving the patient study a DICOM file is stored on the hard drive and a database entry automatically created with appropriate fields to record patient demographics and acquisition parameters. The hard drive at present contains over 2 years of patients’ data (60 Gbytes) allowing for on-line access for patient retrieval through DICOM to the P&R workstations. The studies are also stored on CDRs for permanent storage backup. The removable media contain DICOM storage files that can be read by any vendor. This has resulted in an archive system that uses current and easily upgradeable components to keep abreast of current technologies. The system is automatic and allows for on-line access to our patient studies in a cost effective manner.