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) Appendix Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted 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 Gentili, A. Articles by Hughes, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gentili, A. Articles by Hughes, T. Related Collections Educaton Informatics

Informatics in Radiology

Use of the MIRC DICOM Service for Clinical Trials to Automatically Create Teaching File Cases from PACS¹

¹ From the Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego–Thornton Hospital and San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 9300 Campus Point Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037. Presented as an infoRAD exhibit at the 2005 RSNA Annual Meeting. Received June 5, 2006; revision requested July 13 and received August 16; accepted September 8. All authors have no financial relationships to disclose. Address correspondence to A.G. (e-mail: agentili{at}ucsd.edu).

The Medical Imaging Resource Center (MIRC) software of the Radiological Society of North America is used to share teaching files and clinical trial data. By using the MIRC service for clinical trials, teaching file cases can be automatically generated directly from picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). The advantage of using the clinical trials service over the authoring service is the need for minimal user intervention, because data already present in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) header can be automatically inserted into teaching file cases. When reading a case on the PACS workstation, the radiologist needs only to select the images for the teaching file case, write the diagnosis in the "Study Comments" box (usually used for "wet" readings), and send the case to the MIRC server directly from the workstation. The MIRC server automatically makes the images anonymous and fills in the modified teaching file template by using the data in the DICOM header (patient age, patient sex, clinical history, diagnosis, imaging modality, organ system), thus creating a simple teaching file. If desired, the teaching file case can be edited at a later time. By making minor modifications to the MIRC DICOM clinical trials service, it is possible to create teaching file cases with minimal effort. Supplemental material available at radiographics.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/full/27/1/269/DC1.

© RSNA, 2007