Dicom Image Anonymization and Transfer to Create a Diagnostic Radiology Teaching File

The creation of a digital, Diagnostic Radiology, teaching file system is reliant upon a process for selecting, anonymizing, and exporting Digital Image and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images from a clinical Picture, Archive, and Communication System (PACS) to the teaching file. A local version of the Medical Imaging Resource Center Teaching File System (TFS) from the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) was deployed to create teaching files. Philips, Intellispace PACS, was the source of the DICOM images. The image capture, anonymization, and export processes to prepare images from PACS for the TFS were mediated by a web-based application, the Teaching File Transfer Tool (TFTT). Technical strategies for protecting the confidentiality of patient information when building a Diagnostic Radiology digital teaching file are presented. The educational benefits of these technologies have a significant impact upon future patient care.