Tips and Tricks on Basic Programming Tools for Radiologists to Handle DICOM Data

TEACHING POINTS

• In the era of artificial intelligence, it is beneficial for radiologists to learn some basic programming tools to organise and curate DICOM data.
• There are numerous user-friendly simple tools available, that can be used in their clinical and research practice.
• DCM4CHE and DCMTK are open-source tools that can be used for the following:
  • a. Extracting images from PACS systems, using filters like study date, modalityetc.
  • b. Data sorting, Data modification and analysis.
  • c. Converting Dicom (DCM) images to Jpeg or Pdf.
  • d. Transferring Data to PACS or any other viewer.
• Python is one of the easier programming languages which a radiologist, without much programming background, can learn and start using for manipulating DICOM data. Some python modules to use radiology are:
  • a. Pydicom
  • b. Matplotlib
  • c. Pynetdicom3
  • d. tqdm

TABLE OF CONTENTS/OUTLINE

• Why a radiologist should learn Basic programming tools.
• About DCM Toolkit & how to install
• Multiple Functions of DCM Toolkit & how to use them.
• What is Python? How to Install Python.
• What is pip? How to install python modules using pip.
• Use of Python to modify Dicom’s Metadata.