XNAT Gateway, can we think about updating this ?

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DrRadiohead

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Apr 18, 2025, 11:50:54 AM4/18/25
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Dear XNAT community,

Happy Easter / Holidays to everyone!

I have been thinking about XNAT Gateway lately and if we as a community can think about updating this software which could potentially reduce reliance on the external dicom routers.

Anyone who is interested or have worked on this before please reach out.



Warm Regards,
Akshay

Timothy Olsen

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Apr 18, 2025, 12:51:02 PM4/18/25
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We were just talking about building this functionality into XNAT itself.  It's not trivial, and lots to overcome, but it would be pretty epic to have in XNAT.

We have a client (a large cancer research facility) who is bringing it up.  They may be willing to sponsor some of the work.  

We are starting to work through some of the ramifications here: https://radiologics.atlassian.net/browse/XNAT-8370

Tim



Timothy R Olsen 

Founder, President



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Timothy Olsen

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Apr 18, 2025, 1:01:12 PM4/18/25
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And yes we should be able to track down the old Gateway code.  It was developed by Misha Milchenko back at the lab (WASHU). Its probably somewhere in the NRG code repos.

I'll ask about it, and get back to you.
Tim

Timothy R Olsen 

Founder, President


Timothy Olsen

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Apr 18, 2025, 1:27:50 PM4/18/25
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We think this might be the most recent repo.


If someone wants to kick the tires on it and share their findings with the community, that would be great.

Tim

Timothy R Olsen 

Founder, President


DrRadiohead

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Apr 18, 2025, 3:41:55 PM4/18/25
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Dear Tim,

Thank you so much for replying. Glad to see I am not only one thinking about this on Easter holidays!
I agree with you that this is not a trivial work, but ability to connect with XNAT outside the intra-net would be really epic; otherwise we are stuck with local XNAT and then trying to push images manually outside the hospital.

I think I have discussed with you Karnak gateway developed by osirix foundation (ref: https://github.com/OsiriX-Foundation/karnak ). We were trying to link that with XNAT but for reason we couldn't get it working (I will try to find out extactly what went wrong).
Maybe we can use some ideas from Karnak, especially the pseudo-annonymisation feature.

Would be great to hear from community what gateways community use connect intra-net with XNAT outside the hospital premise especially for multicentric studies.

Regards,
Akshay

Nicolas Roduit

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Apr 26, 2025, 12:11:53 PM4/26/25
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I am responsible for the development of Karnak. As I am not very familiar with XNAT, I am not certain I fully understand the different workflows and use cases it supports.

Karnak has been designed to bridge the gap between clinical and research environments, with a strong focus on security, confidentiality, and data integrity. In Karnak (see diagram at bottom of page):

  •  Gateway sources can be restricted based on AE Title and hostname relative to a forward node, including:
    • DICOM clients (consoles, workstations, etc.)
    • Systems (PACS, VNA, etc.)
  • Destinations can be either DICOM or DICOMWeb-compatible, including:
    • DICOM workstations, research PACS
    • Platforms such as Shanoir and Kheops (using DICOMWeb when operating outside hospital networks)

Aside from a few specific features developed to support data grouping in Kheops, Karnak primarily manages interoperability through standard DICOM and DICOMWeb protocols.

In considering potential integration with XNAT, could you clarify:

  • Does XNAT natively include a DICOM and/or DICOMWeb receiver?
  • If so, what are the requirements for integration?
  • Is any additional XNAT-specific metadata expected during transmission?

For your information, Karnak allows research project information to be inserted directly into DICOM files, and it is also possible to add private tags according to the de-identification profile in use.

DrRadiohead

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Apr 26, 2025, 6:27:10 PM4/26/25
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Dear Nicolas,

Thank you so much for replying.

Even though Tim and others more qualified in answering this, I will give it a try
  • Does XNAT natively include a DICOM and/or DICOMWeb receiver?
I think so, you an find more details about it here: https://wiki.xnat.org/xnat-tools/xnat-gateway-server-user-manual
XNAT includes built-in support for receiving DICOM data, acting as a DICOM SCP (Service Class Provider) receiver. This allows XNAT to receive DICOM data directly from sources like scanners or PACS systems.

I do not think XNAT has DICOMweb ref: https://groups.google.com/g/xnat_discussion/c/AlekRIK19SY
However, XNAT-OHIF viewer above 3.7.0 does mention that it is compatible with DICOMweb ref: https://wiki.xnat.org/xnat-ohif-viewer/release-notes
However I do not see mention of STOW-RS
  • If so, what are the requirements for integration?
I was thinking to use Karnak as an alternative to Kheops to connect with hospital intranet using Karnak as a gateway. Reference image attached below.

  • Is any additional XNAT-specific metadata expected during transmission?
I don't think so. But other people might able to shed more light on time.

Warm Regards,
Akshay

Karnak XNAT integration.jpg
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