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Importing Studies from the Hospital PACS

Instead of uploading files, you can pull CT and MR studies straight from the hospital PACS over the clinic network. The study arrives as a new radiological event, exactly as if it had been uploaded.

Availability. PACS import requires the PACS module on your account (an administrator grants it). The list of PACS servers is set up by an administrator: if none is configured, the import window says No PACS server is configured. Ask your administrator to register a PACS node in Settings.

Two Ways In

  • For the current patient — open the Upload Data panel for the patient (see Creating a Patient and Event) and, in the Import from hospital PACS section, click Search PACS for patient. Whatever you import goes into that patient.
  • For a new patient — in the Projects and Patients window, next to the + of a database, click the 🏥 button (tooltip Import study from clinical PACS). The import goes into that database: the patient is looked up by name and created if it does not exist yet.

The Import from clinical PACS window opens.

  1. PACS server: pick the server to query (the first one is preselected). Each entry shows its name, AE title, host and port.
  2. Search patient / study: type a surname/name or a patient ID. When you came from a patient, the field is already filled in with the patient’s name.
    • Text with no spaces that contains a digit is searched as an exact patient ID.
    • Anything else is searched as part of the patient name.
  3. Refine if needed:
    • CT and MR only (on by default)
    • Period: Last 30 days, Last 12 months (default) or All archives
  4. Click Search.

Below the search a line reminds you where the import will go: Import bound to patient … or Import into database ….

Step 2: Pick the Studies

The results table lists one study per row: Patient, Patient ID, Date, Study (modality and description) and Content (number of series and images). Results come ten per page.

  • Click the arrow at the end of a row to see the study’s series before importing.
  • Tick the studies you want, or use the checkbox in the header to select all the studies on the page.

Step 3: Import

Click Import N studies into LeaRes. The studies are queued one after the other, a notification Import started for … confirms each, and the window closes by itself: the download continues in the background.

While it runs:

  • a notification reports the progress (Downloading CT from PACS: …%)
  • the patient shows Import in progress…, then Building 3D volume…
  • at the end, PACS import completed successfully!

The study is then a CT acquisition in a new event of the patient. The viewer does not open by itself: load the study from the patient preview as for any other acquisition.

Imported with a warning. Some PACS keep objects in a study that are not images (presentation states, key object notes). If they cannot be transferred, the images are imported anyway and an amber notification says how many objects were left out.

Keep the page open until the completion notification: an import cannot be cancelled once started, and a very long one is stopped after 30 minutes.

When Something Goes Wrong

  • The PACS server is unreachable. Check the connection from Settings. — the server did not answer; ask your administrator to check it (see below).
  • No study found on the selected PACS. — widen the Period or clear CT and MR only.
  • The study has no patient name: import it from the patient page instead. — in the per-database import the patient is found by name; open the patient first and use Search PACS for patient.

For Administrators: Configuring the PACS Servers

Open Settings → Data Management → PACS Servers and click Manage PACS servers.

  • + Add PACS server and fill in:
    • Name — letters, digits, _ and - (cannot be changed later)
    • AET — the PACS AE title, up to 16 characters
    • Host and Port (default 104)
    • Retrieve method — Automatic (C-GET, then C-MOVE) (default), C-GET only or C-MOVE only. C-MOVE must also be enabled on the LeaRes server by the IT.
  • Test connection checks that the server answers (✓ Reachable / ✕ Unreachable).
  • Edit and the bin button change or delete a server.

The list is shared by the whole installation. The connection is plain DICOM over the clinic network (no TLS).

Data handling. Studies are imported as they are stored in the PACS, identifying data included: no anonymization is applied on import. They are subject to the same rules as any other patient data — see Intended Use and Safety.