Blanking "burned in" meta-data in DICOM files

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Heath Pardoe

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Aug 1, 2018, 12:48:06 PM8/1/18
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Hi all,

Occasionally we get DICOM files that have metadata burned into the image ie. it's like a screenshot of the displayed image with annotations displayed that has been converted back to a DICOM file. In order to remove PHI we need to delete this information. Does Horos have this functionality? The rectangular ROI tool appears to be ideal for this but I couldn't figure out how to draw a filled rectangle, is this possible & does anyone know if it deals with the problem I've described?

Thanks
Heath

Chris Croswhite

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Aug 1, 2018, 1:05:37 PM8/1/18
to Heath Pardoe, Horos Project
So my understanding of ROI is that it's an annotation on the original DICOm image (e.g. layer).   So even if you create a blanked out ROI to try and obfuscated that data, all someone needs to do is turn off ROI layer and you see the data again (In Horos you can do this).  What you need to do is 'burn-in' the original image replacing the and out it back into the DICOM (e.g. reconstruct).  There are lots of tools that can extract the image and then you can modify it blanking the area of data and then replace the original.  I don't think Horos has the ability built in do this, but could be wrong.

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Soren Christensen

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Aug 1, 2018, 1:17:43 PM8/1/18
to Chris Croswhite, Heath Pardoe, Horos Project
Hi Heath!
 Draw an ROI and chose change pixel data. Then you can modify the underlying pixeldata.
Correct that ROI itself wont do the trick Chris.
Soren

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 10:04 AM, Chris Croswhite <chris.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
So my understanding of ROI is that it's an annotation on the original DICOm image (e.g. layer).   So even if you create a blanked out ROI to try and obfuscated that data, all someone needs to do is turn off ROI layer and you see the data again (In Horos you can do this).  What you need to do is 'burn-in' the original image replacing the and out it back into the DICOM (e.g. reconstruct).  There are lots of tools that can extract the image and then you can modify it blanking the area of data and then replace the original.  I don't think Horos has the ability built in do this, but could be wrong.
On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 9:48 AM Heath Pardoe <hpa...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

Occasionally we get DICOM files that have metadata burned into the image ie. it's like a screenshot of the displayed image with annotations displayed that has been converted back to a DICOM file. In order to remove PHI we need to delete this information. Does Horos have this functionality? The rectangular ROI tool appears to be ideal for this but I couldn't figure out how to draw a filled rectangle, is this possible & does anyone know if it deals with the problem I've described?

Thanks
Heath

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Chris Croswhite

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Aug 1, 2018, 1:21:48 PM8/1/18
to Soren Christensen, Heath Pardoe, Horos Project
Soren, 
Thanks for the trick WRT changing pixel data, good to know.

Cheers!

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 10:17 AM Soren Christensen <sor...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Heath!
 Draw an ROI and chose change pixel data. Then you can modify the underlying pixeldata.
Correct that ROI itself wont do the trick Chris.
Soren
On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 10:04 AM, Chris Croswhite <chris.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
So my understanding of ROI is that it's an annotation on the original DICOm image (e.g. layer).   So even if you create a blanked out ROI to try and obfuscated that data, all someone needs to do is turn off ROI layer and you see the data again (In Horos you can do this).  What you need to do is 'burn-in' the original image replacing the and out it back into the DICOM (e.g. reconstruct).  There are lots of tools that can extract the image and then you can modify it blanking the area of data and then replace the original.  I don't think Horos has the ability built in do this, but could be wrong.
On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 9:48 AM Heath Pardoe <hpa...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

Occasionally we get DICOM files that have metadata burned into the image ie. it's like a screenshot of the displayed image with annotations displayed that has been converted back to a DICOM file. In order to remove PHI we need to delete this information. Does Horos have this functionality? The rectangular ROI tool appears to be ideal for this but I couldn't figure out how to draw a filled rectangle, is this possible & does anyone know if it deals with the problem I've described?

Thanks
Heath

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Tiago Brizolara

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Aug 2, 2018, 8:28:11 AM8/2/18
to Soren Christensen, Chris Croswhite, Heath Pardoe, Horos Project
Hi all,

Looks like it’s not the case but… If it happens that these annotations are not burned-in but are DICOM overlays, they can be turned off via the menu 2D Viewer -> Display DICOM Overlays… if we are lucky then we don’t need to change the pixel data.

Tiago

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howardm

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Aug 3, 2018, 8:27:08 PM8/3/18
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Hi,

Just use the Shutter Tool.


Go to the section "cropping selected images to remove extraneous anatomy, objects and identifying information" in the guidance document.

Cheers,

Howard


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