Toolkit compiles anatomy-specific dose data from existing image archive

Toolkit compiles anatomy-specific dose data from existing image archive

Researchers have created an open-source informatics toolkit to capture CT radiation dose information from an enterprise image archive, demonstrating that it is possible to create large-scale anatomy-specific radiation exposure data repositories using existing archival information, according to an article published online June 5 in Radiology.

“Before the medical community can engage in systematic and large-scale patient safety initiatives related to radiation exposure, it must first have the tools with which to capture radiation exposure data on a large scale,” wrote Aaron Sodickson, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and colleagues.

The authors noted that dose report screen captures summarizing overall x-ray exposure metrics for a given CT exam already exist in hospital archives. Information about the CT scanner, patient and protocol used is also contained within the DICOM attributes...To unlock this information, Sodickson and colleagues created the generalized radiation observation kit, or GROK. This toolkit can locate and retrieve volume CT dose index and dose-length product information from a DICOM image archive, as well as convert dose screens to text for analysis...