Who is this article for?
If you are having trouble sending your patient's images in a group, or if you want to learn more about the DICOM information model, then this article is for you.
The screenshot below show's an example dashboard where a patient's images have been split into multiple cases instead of one single case. Read on to fix issues like this.
What is the DICOM format and how does it impact sending images?
"DICOM® — Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine — is the international standard for medical images and related information. It defines the formats for medical images that can be exchanged with the data and quality necessary for clinical use."
Read more on the DICOM standard website.
The aspect of the DICOM format that is relevant to this article is that for a patient's images to be grouped together as 1 case, they MUST be part of the same study. "Case" is synonymous with "study", but we prefer to use the former naming in Radimal.
If your patient's images are appearing in distinct rows on your dashboard, this means that the images we have received had different study IDs. To fix this, make sure you are taking the images as part of 1 study on your x-ray machine.
The DICOM information model is shown in a diagram below, as well as short definitions for the different entity types:
Study: a group of 1 or more series (what Radimal refers to as a case)
Series: a group of images/instances, generally equates to the position of a patient on the x-ray device
Instance: a single image
Still having trouble? Send us a message and we can help troubleshoot your issue.