Protecting patient privacy using Anonymize

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MIPAV's anonymize feature allows you to remove information from a selected subset of DICOM tags. The tags in this subset are those indicated in DICOM Supplement 55: Attribute Level Confidentiality. These tags include, but are not limited to, the patient's name, ID, birth date, sex, ethnic group, referring physician, age, size, weight, and occupation.

To anonymize the current DICOM image
1 Open a DICOM image.
2 Click Image > Attributes > View Header in the MIPAV window. The Info dialog box opens.
3 Click Anonymize. The Anonymize Sensitive Info dialog appears.
4 In the dialog box, select the tags you want to anonymize.
To select all of the tags, click Select all.
To remove all of the check marks from the check boxes, click Clear.
The tags that are dimmed (appear grayed) are not included in the DICOM image file.
5 Click OK. A confirmation message appears.
6 Click OK to confirm. The information in each specified tag is deleted from the image file. Although the information in these tags are cleared, the tags remain in the image file. Refer to Figure 22.

Figure 22. The Anonymize Sensitive Info dialog box and the confirmation message

DICOM AnonimizePatientInfo.jpg

Note: The lists of tags in the Info dialog box does not update right away. Also, the name of the displayed image on the title bar is not saved into the file.

To anonymize any image dataset

You can also use the Anonymize command to anonymize several image series at one time. Refer to Figure 23, Figure 24, Figure 25, and Figure 26.

Note: This function can recursively anonymize images in subdirectories of the root directory.
1 Select File > DICOM > Anonymize DICOM directory. The Choose Directory dialog box opens.
2 Select a starting or root directory, which is a starting point for the selection. You can then select the image subdirectories to anonymize.
3 Click Open. The Anonymize DICOM Directory dialog box opens.
4 In the Anonymize DICOM Directory dialog box, click File > New Directory. The Choose Directory dialog box opens. Refer to Figure 23-1.
5 Select one of the following:

  • Selected directory
  • Subdirectory
  • No directory name change

6 Then, click Browse beside Image destination directory. The Select Destination Directory dialog box opens. See Figure 23-2.
7 Select a destination directory. See also a note on MIPAV_Dicom Images.
8 Click Select. The directory you selected appears in the Image destination directory box. It also replaces the name in the Translation/Key file destination directory box.
9 Now you can decide where to store the translation/key file.
translation/key file -records the original names in the files and correlates them to the new anonymous names. The name of the key file is patient.key.doc.
By default, the translation/key file is kept in the same directory as the images; however, if this is undesirable, you may choose a new location for the file. If you decide to change the location, go to the next step. If you decide against changing the location, go to step 12.
</font> 10 Click Browse beside Translation/Key file destination directory if you want to select another destination for the translation/key file. The Select Destination Directory dialog box opens. See Figure 23-3.
11 Use the dialog box options to browse you disk to select a designated catalog. Then click Select. The new destination appears in the Translation/Key File destination directory box.
The name of the anonymized files depend on the anonymous name, which is set later in step 14.
12 Click Tag Options to display the Tag Options page. See Figure 23-4.
The directory selection process on the Directory page provides the images to anonymize and the location of where to put them when done. However, it does not select what to remove from the images or what information to call the images when done. This is the goal of the Tag Options page. It allows you to choose the tags to remove from the images being processed and it gives you the opportunity to give an easily remembered name to the destination images.
13 Select the DICOM tags you want to anonymize. To select all of the tags, click Select all. To remove all of the tags, click Clear. See Figure 23-5.
14 Type the anonymous name for the image files in Anonymous name.
By default, a preset random value appears in Anonymous name, but you can replace this value with a more familiar name.
15 Type a value in Sequence beginning. When more than one image source directory is chosen, the sequence beginning number affects the name of the image file. The first image set is given the sequence number; the next image is given a number one higher.
The first image set is titled d0884_0. The second image set was chosen to be anonymized at the same time, it would be saved d0884_1.
16 Click Directory to return to the Directory page.
17 Select the directories in the Image source directory table that you want to anonymize.
18 Click Run. MIPAV displays the Logging page, where it displays messages about each of the images being processed until they are all processed. To stop the process, click Stop. The log appears in the Log tab. See See Figure 23-6.
19 To close the Anonymize DICOM Directory window after all images are processed, click Close.
The number of image directories chosen affect precisely where the processed images are stored. When one directory is chosen as the source in all anonymized DICOM files are placed directly in the chosen destination directory. However, selecting more than one source directory in step 17, the anonymized DICOM files are placed into subdirectories of the Destination directory (refer to the following table).


If you select . . .
Then files are placed in . . .
Source directories
/images/a
/images/b
/destination/a
/destination/b
Destination directory
/destination


Figure 23. Anonymization of the DICOM directory

DICOM AnonimizeDirectory.jpg


Anonymize DICOM Directory dialog box options

The dialog includes three tabbed pages:

Directory page -Allows you to select which images to process and where to place the output. This page is the page that is displayed when this window opens.
Tag Options page -Allows you to select DICOM tags to remove from images and how to name anonymized images, which becomes a name tag.
Logging page -Displays the current progress of the anonymization.

Figure 24. Directory page in the Anonymize DICOM Directory window

DICOM AnonymizeDir.jpg

File
New directory-Allows you to select a new root directory to anonymize.
Renew list-Refreshes the file listing in Image source directory.
Dialog Entries
Clear Log Window-Removes all of the log messages from the Logging page.
Image source directory
Specifies the root directory to be anonymized.
Image destination directory
Specifies the root directory where the anonymized images should be stored.
Browse
Allows you to select a new image destination directory.
Translation/key file destination directory
Specifies the directory where the translation file is kept. The key file "patient.key.doc" is a text-formatted file that contains the name of the old file and its new name.
Browse
Allows you to select a new translation file directory.
Other options
Recursive anonymization
Processes images in the selected directory as well as any DICOM images in any subdirectories. Refer to the note on [MIPAV_DicomImages.html#1167903 page 124].
Anonymize filename
If checked, anonymizes not only the directory name, but also file names inside the directory.
Directory name anonymization
Selected directory-Anonymizes the name of only the selected directory on the top level.
Subdirectory-Anonymizes the name of only the subdirectories.
No directory name change-Does not change the name of the directories.
Run
Starts the process of anonymizing the images. Status messages appear on the Logging page.
Close
Closes this dialog box.
Stop
Stop the process of anonymizing the images.
Help
Displays online help for this dialog box.

Note: When the Recursive anonymization check box is selected, MIPAV processes images in the selected directory as well any DICOM images in any subdirectories. When this check box is clear, MIPAV only processes the images in the directory that is selected, regardless of any subdirectories.

Figure 25. Tag Options page in the Anonymize DICOM Directory window

DICOM AnonimizeTAgOptions.jpg

Check the fields to anonymize
Allows you to anonymize only the specific tags that you select. You can select only one tag or as many as needed.
Select all
Specifies that you want to anonymize all of the tags listed. When you select this button, MIPAV places a check mark in each of the check boxes.
Clear
Removes the check marks from all of the check boxes.
Anonymized names
Anonymous name specifies a first part of the name assigned to the image files. MIPAV uses a combination of this name and the sequence number specified in Sequence beginning.
Sequence beginning indicates the starting number for the series of image files. The default number is 0.
Run
Starts the process of anonymizing the images. Status messages appear on the Logging page.
Close
Closes this dialog box.
Stop
Stop the process of anonymizing the images.
Help
Displays online help for this dialog box.


Figure 26. The Logging page in the Anonymize DICOM Directory window listing processing messages and MIPAV removes tags

DICOM AnonimizeLogging.jpg

Next: Converting non-DICOM image files to DICOM format