DICOM Index Tracker

Completed Projects

Background

Accessing dosage amounts from medical records used to be performed manually, causing difficulty in collecting information from digital imaging procedures into a central repository. The need to track dosages has grown because of efforts within the medical community to lower radiation doses administered to patients. The DICOM Index Tracker (DIT) tracks all the information available in the images contained in a patient’s imaging studies (including dose, scanner utilization and other information), automatically compiling it into an accessible format.

Approach

DIT is DICOM-compliant and, therefore, standardized for international comparisons. Automatic alerts currently in use include email, cell phone text messaging, and internal pager text messaging. This system extends the utility of DICOM for standardizing the capturing and computing of radiation dose, as well as other quality measures.

Impact

DIT enables a comprehensive view of patients’ radiation exposures over time. Believed to be one of the first of its kind, the new computerized tracking system can replace time-consuming manual tracking processes used in many medical centers.

Figure 1: DIT architecture.

Publications

  1. Wang S, Pavlicek W, Roberts CC, Langer SG, Zhang M, Hu M, Morin RL, Schueler BA, Wellnitz CV, Wu T. An automated DICOM database capable of arbitrary data mining (including radiation dose indicators) for quality monitoring. J Digit Imaging. 2011 Apr;24(2):223-33. doi: 10.1007/s10278-010-9329-y.
  2. Hu M, Pavlicek W, Liu PT, Zhang M, Langer SG, Wang S, Place V, Miranda R, Wu T. Informatics in radiology: Efficiency metrics for imaging device productivity. Radiographics. 2011 Mar-Apr;31(2):603-16. doi: 10.1148/rg.312105714. Epub 2011.
  3. Knodadadegan, Y., Zhang, M., Pavlicek, W., Paden, R.G., Chong, B., Huettl, E., Schueler, B., Fetterly, K., Langer, S., Wu, T., “Validation and Initial Clinical Use of Automatic Peak Skin Dose Localization with Fluoroscopic and Interventional Procedures”, Journal of Radiology, vol. 266, pp. 246-255, 2013.
  4. *Khodadadegen, Y., Zhang, M., Pavlicek P., Robert, P., Chong, B., Schueler, B., Fetterly, K., Langer, S., Wu, T., “Automatic Monitoring of Localized Skin Dose with Fluoroscopic and Interventional Procedures”, Journal of Digital Imaging, vol. 24, no.4, pp. 626-639, 2011.

Source: Mayo Foundation