DICOM DE-IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

A system for creating de-identification programs for de-identifying DICOM image files containing DICOM images and metadata. The system provides a user interface that allows users to create de-identification programs. Each program has redaction rules specifying redaction regions in normalized coordinates defining a region of a DICOM image to be redacted to obfuscate content in the redaction region, and metadata substitution rules specifying metadata elements to be substituted with pseudonyms. The user may modify the redaction rules and metadata substitution rules, and preview the effect of the de-identification program by applying the de-identification program to DICOM images and associated metadata and displaying the resulting modified DICOM image and associated metadata. The system maintains a pseudonym memory to determine if a pseudonym has been stored for each metadata element specified by the substitution rule so that the same pseudonym is consistently used for the same element values.

主权项

1. A de-identification system for creating de-identification programs for de-identifying DICOM image files containing DICOM images and metadata, the system comprising:
(a) an electronic interface for receiving DICOM image files; (b) a computer processor electronically connected to the electronic interface, the computer processor being configured to:
(i) provide a user interface to receive input from a user;(ii) display a DICOM image and associated metadata to the user;(iii) create a de-identification program based on user input, the de-identification program comprising at least one user-specified redaction rule, each redaction rule specifying a redaction region in normalized coordinates defining a region of the DICOM image to be redacted to obfuscate content in the redaction region, the de-identification program further comprising at least one user-specified metadata substitution rule, each metadata substitution rule specifying a metadata element to be substituted with a pseudonym;(iv) modify the de-identification program based on user input specifying how to modify a redaction rule contained in the de-identification program;(v) modify the de-identification program based on user input specifying how to modify a metadata substitution rule contained in the de-identification program;(vi) preview the effect of the de-identification program by applying the de-identification program to a DICOM image and associated metadata and displaying the resulting modified DICOM image and associated metadata to the user, wherein applying the de-identification program comprises modifying the DICOM image to obfuscate information in the redaction region specified by each redaction rule, and, for each metadata substitution rule, checking a pseudonym memory maintained by the processor for the de-identification program to determine if a suitable pseudonym value previously used to replace the value of the metadata element specified by the substitution rule has been stored, and if such a pseudonym value has been stored, then replacing the metadata element value with the stored pseudonym value, or otherwise generating and storing in the pseudonym memory for the de-identification program a pseudonym value for the metadata element value and replacing the metadata element value with the generated pseudonym value.