CaseMaker: An Open Source Desktop Mediator Between PACS and the RSNA Teaching File System Phillip Cheng, MD MS Assistant Clinical Professor of Radiology
Jan 20, 2016
CaseMaker: An Open Source Desktop Mediator Between PACS and the
RSNA Teaching File System
Phillip Cheng, MD MSAssistant Clinical Professor of Radiology
Objective
The purpose of this exhibit is to illustrate an open source desktop tool for facilitating transfer of case images from PACS to the current version of the RSNA Teaching File System.
Introduction
• Teaching files are an essential educational resource in academic radiology departments.
• Some PACS do not provide a centralized data store for teaching files. For such systems, ancillary teaching file systems provide networked database resources to receive images from PACS. – A notable example is the RSNA Teaching File System
(TFS), developed under the RSNA MIRC project.
Case Authoring for RSNA TFS
• RSNA TFS provides easy-to-use web-based authoring tools for creating cases.
• However, due to lack of direct integration with PACS, case authoring can be tedious and error-prone.
TFS Basic Author Service• Drag each image from PACS to desktop
• Switch to web browser and log into MIRC TFS
• Open authoring tool and manually add metadata
– Name, date, MRN, location
– (Tedious and subject to typographical error)
• Open file browser to add each image
– Three mouse clicks per image
– (No image preview)
• Submit
User Interface Barriers for TFS
The user interface gap between the PACS and the browser creates a “last mile” barrier for teaching file creation.
Introducing a Mediator
CaseMaker is a desktop application that serves as a mediator to reduce user interface friction for creating teaching cases from the PACS.
PACSRSNATFSMediator
(CaseMaker)
CaseMaker: A Desktop Mediator
• Open source, portable Windows desktop application
• Written in C#, requires .NET Framework 2.0
• Has special features to interact with Fuji Synapse PACS (but can be extended to support other PACS)
CaseMaker – Drag and Drop
Drag-and-drop of image from PACS triggers automatic population of demographic information.
Drag and Drop Mechanism
Dragging an image from Synapse PACS carries both bitmap and metadata…
S=1.2.392.200036.9116.2.6.1.48.12…P=2345678U=http://lacsynapse/synapsescripts/…A=R012345-1V=321.469
Medical record number
Accession number
Dragged bitmap
Metadata
Drag and Drop Mechanism
CaseMaker uses metadata from the drag-and-drop to search for matching DICOM file in Synapse cache, acquiring additional metadata to populate the form.
PACS DICOM Cache
(0010,0010) TEST^ANOTHER(0010,0040) F(0020,0010) 2345678(0030,0010) 19910101(0050,0008) R012345-1
…
S=1.2.392.200036.9116.2.6.1.48.12…P=2345678U=http://lacsynapse/synapsescripts/…A=R012345-1V=321.469
Managing multiple images
Multiple images can be dragged into window and reordered by drag- and-drop in the image gallery.
Case Annotations
Each image can have its own caption.
Text fields for history, findings, and diagnosis. Other lesser-used text fields appear on a separate “Extra” tab.
Checkboxes based on ABR exam categories.
Case File Format
Cases are saved as a single .zip file containing a case XML file and associated image PNG files.
The XML file is stored according to the RSNA MIRCDocument Schema.
Case Preview
The preview feature transforms the case XML file using the MIRC teaching file style sheet (MIRCDocument.xsl).
Case Submission to RSNA TFS
Submission to MIRC server requires input of username and password, once per CaseMaker session. After the first case, later submissions require only 1 mouse click.
Case Submission to RSNA TFS
Case file is submitted to the TFS Zip Service without further user intervention.
At USC, more than 500 cases have been submitted to a TFS server using CaseMaker.
TFS Authoring Simplified
TFS Basic Author Service• Drag each image from PACS to desktop
• Switch to web browser and log into MIRC TFS
• Open authoring tool and manually add metadata
– Including name, date, MRN, location
– (Tedious and subject to typographical error)
• Open file browser to add each image
– Three mouse clicks per image
– (No image preview)
• Submit
CaseMaker + TFS• Drag each image to CaseMaker• Fill in case description
– (Name, date, MRN, location already populated)
• Submit
Source Code Availability
• CaseMaker source code is available under the Apache 2.0 open source license.
• CaseMaker works with unmodified RSNA TFS server. However, we use a patch that automatically applies the username’s preferred author name to the submitted case.
• All source available at Github:http://github.com/pmcheng
Summary
CaseMaker, an open source desktop mediator application, facilitates frictionless transfer of PACS teaching file cases to the RSNA Teaching File System.
http://hsc.usc.edu/~phillimc/casemaker