Bring Medical Imaging to Life: How to Set Up Your Own DICOMweb-PACS Server in Minutes!

Setting up a DICOMweb-enabled PACS server can significantly enhance your medical imaging workflow.

In this guide, we'll explore the essentials of DICOM, PACS, and DICOMweb, and provide a step-by-step tutorial on installing the dicomweb-pacs server on your system.

Understanding the Basics

1- DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine):

A global standard for handling, storing, and transmitting medical imaging information, ensuring interoperability between different imaging devices and systems.

2- PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System):

A medical imaging technology used for storing, retrieving, presenting, and sharing images produced by various medical hardware modalities, such as X-ray, MRI, and CT scans.

3- DICOMweb:

A set of RESTful web services based on the DICOM standard, facilitating web-based access to medical images and related information.

Introducing dicomweb-pacs

The dicomweb-pacs project is a Node.js-based tool designed to easily deploy a PACS server with DICOMweb capabilities.

It comes pre-installed with the OHIF DICOM Web Viewer (version 3.8.0), supporting volumetric data visualization through OHIF MPR (vtk.js).

Prerequisites

Before installation, ensure your system meets the following requirements:

• Node.js: Version 12 or newer.

Installation Steps

Initialize an Empty Directory:

Open your terminal and create a new directory for the installation:

mkdir dicomweb-pacs
cd dicomweb-pacs

Set Up the Project

Initialize a new Node.js project and install dicomweb-pacs:

npm init -y
npm install dicomweb-pacs

Configure the Server:

Modify the configuration file to suit your setup:

nano ./node_modules/dicomweb-pacs/config

Adjust parameters such as Application Entity Titles (AET), IP addresses, and ports as needed.

Start the PACS Server:

Launch the server using the following command:

npx dicomweb-pacs

Import DICOM Images:To add DICOM images to the server, utilize any C-STORE-SCU tool to push images to the internal STORE-SCP (AET: DICOMWEB_PACS, port: 8888).

Alternatively, place DICOM files into the import directory and run:npm run import , Ensure the server is running during the import process.

Access the Web Viewer:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:5001 to start viewing the imported DICOM images.

Optional Configurations

To customize the server's port or AET settings, edit the configuration file:

config.source = {
  aet: "OUR_AET",
  ip: "OUR_IP",
  port: "OUR_PORT"
};

Final Note

By following these steps, you've successfully set up a DICOMweb-enabled PACS server using dicomweb-pacs. This setup facilitates efficient storage, retrieval, and viewing of medical images, enhancing your medical imaging workflow.

For more detailed information and updates, refer to the official dicomweb-pacs GitHub repository:

GitHub

GitHub - knopkem/dicomweb-pacs: Easy to use DICOMWEB enabled PACS with DIMSE services based on sqlite database

Easy to use DICOMWEB enabled PACS with DIMSE services based on sqlite database - knopkem/dicomweb-pacs

GitHubknopkem