How to anonymise a DICOM file

How to anonymise a DICOM file

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How to anonymise a DICOM file

We have been asked a few times how to anonymise a DICOM file so that the image data can be safely shared without revealing any personally identifiable, patient information. In addition to medical image data, DICOM files also contain patient specific data such as their name, gender, date of birth, clinician and institution. Since it is often helpful to share such medical image files amongst clinicians, researchers and students for educational purposes, it is necessary for the personal information to be redacted from the files.

The process to anonymise a DICOM file is quite straightforward, using software freely available on the internet. In this tutorial we will show you one piece of software which you can use in your workflow and give a brief introduction to use it and explain the function it performs.

Step 1: Download the software

anaymise a dicom | Medimodel

The software we are going to use to anonymise a DICOM in this tutorial is called DICOMCleaner. DICOMCleaner can be downloaded here.

The first step to anonymise a DICOM is to download and run DICOMCleaner. We suggest downloading the version which is bundled with the Java runtime environment. Follow the instructions at the DICOMCleaner website to perform this step.

Download DICOMCleaner

Step 2: Anonymise the DICOM file

anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
Once you have downloaded and unzipped DICOMCleaner run DicomCleaner.bat and allow any permissions Windows requests. Windows may say the file is unsafe but you need to select "Run anyway".
anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
Once you have installed DICOMCleaner and have it running you need to click the import button and navigate to the folder containing your DICOM file, select the parent folder and click “Open”
anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
Next navigate to the folder containing the DICOM images, select it and click open. Remember to select the folder not the DICOM images themselves or the process won't work.
anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
A console window will pop up when the import begins, you can close this once the import completes.
anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
Once imported your DICOM database will appear in the "Original" column. You need to select it before proceeding. The options below give you control over how much data you want to remove or randomise from the DICOM file. We recommend copying our settings here since the default settings still leave a lot of personal information behind. Then press "Clean" to start removing the data.
anaymise a dicom | Medimodel
Once cleaning is complete, your new DICOM database will appear in the "Cleaned" column. You can then export this anonymous data to a new DICOM by highlighting it in the "Cleaned" column and clicking export .

Summary

The steps to anonymise a DICOM file are very simple. Download DICOMCleaner and follow the 6 steps above you can easily anonymise a DICOM and freely share it with colleagues or publish. The software is very flexible and allows you to remove as much or as little data as you want but be careful to check the default settings before you hit clean as we found unless you change them it will leave the details of the clinician, institution, DOB and gender of the patient.

Medimodel is the Medical Imaging Research department of Ignitec Technology Centre. Our mission is to help make surgery safer by putting physical models of patient anatomy in the hands of surgeons. Call us on +44 (0) 117 325 8171 or email [email protected] if you would like to discuss your case with us.

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