Vendor-neutral case input and window and level managemnet for a digital teaching file system

Although digital teaching files are important to radiology education, there is no current satisfactory solutions for export of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images from Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) in desktop publishing format. The Vendor-Neutral Digital Teaching File (VNDTF) offers radiology institutions an efficient tool for harvesting interesting cases from PACS without requiring modifications of the PACS configurations. Radiologists push studies from PACS to the VNDTF via the standard DICOM send and the VNDTF server automatically converts the DICOM images into the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) image format, a desktop publishing format. They can then select the key images and create the interesting case series. The VNDTF tested successfully against multiple unmodified commercial PACS. Using the VNDTF, radiologist with minimal disruption in clinical workflow. Window and level settings continue to present a major obstacle for the conversion of images. In addition, evaluation of the window and level values of the DICOM header demonstrates that they cannot be relied upon for generation of useful JPEG images for key image selection. Therefore, an algorithm was developed to automatically calculate appropriate window and level settings for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images. As images are received by the VNDTF server, their pixel data is read and a histogram of the grayscale vales is generated. A portion of the grayscale values is then used to calculate the most appropriate window and level settings for image conversion, allowing for the automated presentation of exported series in JPEG format. The algorithm was evaluated and found effective for appropriate window and level calculation for key image selection. In the creation if interesting radiological cases in a digital teaching file, it is necessary to adjust the window and level settings of an image to effectively display the educational focus. A Web-based applet presents and effective solution for real-time window and level adjustments without leaving the PACS workstation. Optimized images are created as user-defined parameters are based between the applet and sevelet on the VNDTF server.