DICOM header 0008, 1010 (Station Name) being overwritten by scanned documentation

Kris Copeland

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Jun 26, 2015, 1:41:26 PM6/26/15

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Hi, we have run into an issue across all modalities where the station name displayed on PACS is being overwritten when we scan documentation in. This is an issue as 90% of our exams done have scanned documentation.

If there is no paperwork scanned, the station name will show up properly.

example, DRSICALSHC02

If there is paperwork scanned in it instead will show up as MIXEDCR. (or mixed MR, RF, etc.)

Does anyone else have this issue? If so what solution(s)did you use or try?

My thought...

Is there a DICOM tag that isn't being used that I can get every vendor to populate with the station name so the paper scanners won't overwrite it?

I called the IHE and the recommended that I post my question here.

Thank you

David Clunie

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Jun 26, 2015, 3:11:28 PM6/26/15

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Hi Kris

Station Name (0008,1010) is an Equipment level attribute, so any
receiving system (like a PACS) should not assume that it is the
same for an entire Study (if that's what your PACS is doing),
since images in different Series in the same Study may be created
on different equipment.

If you scan and send the documents to the PACS first, before acquiring
the images on the modality and sending them to the PACS, does the station
name of the modality get displayed instead?

What PACS do you have?

Where, and at what level in your browser or display is this information
being shown?

I suspect it would be easier to configure your document scanning
system to not send Station Name at all, rather than get every modality
to change!

Note that Station Name (0008,1010) is optional (Type 3), so not
sending it at all is legal.

If you can't get the document scanning software vendor to configure
it off, then you could route all output from the document scanning
software through some kind of routing or filtering software that
removed the offending attribute and then sent it on to PACS.

Messing with attributes like this can get you into trouble ("tag
morphing considered harmful"), but sometimes if operational needs
are incompatible with dysfunctional systems ...

What have your field engineers for the PACS, document scanners and
modalities said when asked about this?

David

robertv...@gmail.com

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Jun 27, 2015, 6:13:20 AM6/27/15

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AGFA Impax does what Kris is describing.

Regards,
Robert

Kris Copeland

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Jun 29, 2015, 2:51:08 PM6/29/15

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It is indeed AGFA Impax that we use.

"If you scan and send the documents to the PACS first, before acquiring
the images on the modality and sending them to the PACS, does the station
name of the modality get displayed instead?"

It overwrites it either way.

"Where, and at what level in your browser or display is this information
being shown?"

Sorry not 100% sure what you are asking. We use source manager to map the dicom tag on Impax and we chose to have it displayed in the bottom right hand corner under the operator initials.

"I suspect it would be easier to configure your document scanning
system to not send Station Name at all, rather than get every modality
to change!"

I tried to configure the documemnt scanners but had no luck with that route. If I take out the station name and leave it blank, it gets rejected from the source manager and I can't send in the paperwork at all. The PACS team says a station name needs to be there. This also counts for the other software removing the DICOM tag.

"What have your field engineers for the PACS, document scanners and
modalities said when asked about this?"

That if it was possible they would have found a solution years ago.

Thank you for taking the time to read this David, if you have any other ideas let me know.

David, did you ever find a solution when working with this AGFA system?

Kris Copeland

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Jun 29, 2015, 2:52:55 PM6/29/15

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Sorry, Robert, did you find a solution while working with this AGFA Impax?

robertv...@gmail.com

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Jun 30, 2015, 1:49:17 PM6/30/15

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On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 8:52:55 PM UTC+2, Kris Copeland wrote:
> Sorry, Robert, did you find a solution while working with this AGFA Impax?

No solution.
We just accepted that with the current AGFA solution this works this way.
Maybe AGFA Agility will do things different.

Kris Copeland

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Jul 8, 2015, 5:24:53 PM7/8/15

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I set the document scanning system to not send a station name but that did not work. AGFA IMPAX decided it should use the AET of the paper scanner if there was no station name. I can not leave the AET blank too as it gets auto rejected.