Uploading DICOM Patient Files

The Astroid Planning App stores a list of DICOM files (only CT Image Set and Structure Set files are supported at this time) that are available and ready for Import. There are several approaches that can be used to upload DICOM files into this list.

For clinical users, a DICOM receiver is generally installed, allowing for direct exporting from contouring software or other planning systems for use within Astroid. In such cases, this DICOM receiver service will be pre-configured to upload the incoming files directly to Thinknode and will also create the records necessary for the DICOM files to be populated into the Astroid Planning App list of available Imports.

DICOM files can also be uploaded directly from the Astroid Planning App. The steps below describe the process in detail.

1. Open the Launcher and choose the appropriate realm and application to work in
2. Choose the Imports block and click the blue Browse button in the Upload Files sub-block
3. Navigate to the directory where the DICOM image and structure set files are stored and click Ok
   1. All DICOM files found in the selected directory will populate in the list field
4. If the file list appears correct, click the blue Upload button in the bottom right corner to start the Upload
   1. This may take a couple of minutes to complete
5. Once the file(s) finished uploading they will appear in the list of available files, click back on the Search Files sub-block to return to the list of available files

Note: This section requires the user to be familiar with python and the existing .decimal python libraries.

Importing a new patient into the Planning App requires taking a local DICOM directory and posting each of the files through the Dicom App utilizing Thinknode. Each DICOM patient is posted to the Thinknode ISS and an entry is then added to the thinknode RKS that allows the Planning App to see that a new patient has been added. The steps below explain how to upload patient DICOM files using the open source python Astroid Script Library.

1. From the .decimal GitHub repository open and edit the post_dicom_patient_rks.py python file.
2. Ensure the thinknode.cfg file is set appropriately for your user, account, and realm.
3. Edit the following line to point to the directory in which the DICOM patient files are located (note: all DICOM files in this directory will be uploaded):

   # Post patient data into ISS 
   obj_list_id = dicom.make_dicom_object_from_dir(iam, 'F:/Datasets/demo-patient/prostate') 

4. Run the script and allow the patient to upload to thinknode ISS. After the DICOM patient files are uploaded to ISS, an RKS entry will be created for the Planning App to recognize it as a DICOM file that is available for import.