Transversal PACS Browser API: Addressing Interoperability Challenges in Medical Imaging Systems
Diogo Lameira, Filipa Ferraz
TL;DR
The Transversal PACS Browser API addresses interoperability and retrieval challenges in modern PACS by offering a Qt/C++-based solution that can query and retrieve DICOM images from multiple stations through a unified interface. It integrates DCMTK for DICOM services, supports advanced filtering including a custom DICOM tag field, and provides in-app JPEG previews to improve accessibility and workflow efficiency. The system includes admin-controlled authentication with local SQLite storage and leverages QSettings for persistence, aiming to balance usability with security considerations. Validation through stakeholder testing indicates strong satisfaction with search capabilities and image handling, suggesting the API can reduce fragmentation and streamline cross-institution imaging workflows, while future work targets stronger security, cloud deployment, and enhanced user feedback features.
Abstract
Advances in imaging technologies have revolutionised the medical imaging and healthcare sectors, leading to the widespread adoption of PACS for the storage, retrieval, and communication of medical images. Although these systems have improved operational efficiency, significant challenges remain in effectively retrieving DICOM images, which are essential for diagnosis and overall patient care. Moreover, issues such as fragmented systems, interoperability barriers, and complex user interfaces can often prevent healthcare professionals from efficiently accessing medical images. Addressing these challenges, the Transversal PACS Browser API is a robust and user-friendly solution designed to enhance the process of querying and retrieving DICOM images. It offers advanced filtering capabilities through a variety of filter options as well as a custom field search, that allows users to easily navigate through large medical image collections with ease. Additionally, the application provides a unified interface for querying and retrieving from multiple PACS stations, addressing the challenges of fragmentation and complexity associated with accessing medical images. Other key features include the ability to pre-view images directly within the application. All of this contributes to the transversal nature of the API, serving not only healthcare providers, but anyone who relies on efficient access to these resources. To validate the performance and usability of the application, comprehensive testing was carried out with stakeholders of the field, the results of which showed general satisfaction, highlighting the API's clean design, ease of use, and effective search capabilities of the API, as well as the usefulness of previewing images within the application.