Integrating a Novel Eye Imaging System into Clinical Practice: An Open-Source DICOM Simulation Platform.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Health Informatics
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Standardized data exchange is crucial for integrating new imaging technologies into clinical workflows.
• The Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard is essential for medical image processing and transfer.
• A readily available simulation environment for DICOM development is currently lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an open-source DICOM platform for integrating a novel ocular photography system into a clinical setting.
• To address the need for a development-ready simulation environment for DICOM applications.

Main Methods:

• Selected and aligned open-source tools with the U-Eyecare Profile of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).
• Utilized Orthanc as a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) with modality worklist and OHIF-Viewer for image retrieval.
• Developed minimal interfaces for electronic health records and image modalities, integrating components with Docker-compose to simulate DICOM network protocols.

Main Results:

• Successfully created an integrated open-source DICOM platform.
• Established functional interfaces for electronic health records and image modalities.
• Simulated DICOM Message Service Element and DICOMWeb network protocols using Docker-compose.

Conclusions:

• The platform enabled the development and integration of a novel ocular imaging modality.
• The platform is suitable for teleophthalmology and processing eye images.
• This open-source DICOM platform can assist researchers in integrating imaging modalities into clinical environments, adhering to IHE profiles.