Thursday, March 22, 2012

Publication: Implementation of an anonymisation tool for clinical trials



Since we do a lot of clinical research we are constantly working trying to facilitate the easy transfer of data from one hospital to the other. In this paper we presented the integration of the CTP tool from the RSNA, used for automated anonymization of imaging data, into an existing trial database that did not support imaging. The abstract is provided below along with a link to the open access paper.
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Implementation of an anonymisation tool for clinical trials using a clinical trial processor integrated with an existing trial patient data information system.
Aryanto KYBroekema AOudkerk Mvan Ooijen PM.

Eur Radiol. 2012 Jan;22(1):144-51. Epub 2011 Aug 14. 


Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
To present an adapted Clinical Trial Processor (CTP) test set-up for receiving, anonymising and saving Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data using external input from the original database of an existing clinical study information system to guide the anonymisation process.
METHODS:
Two methods are presented for an adapted CTP test set-up. In the first method, images are pushed from the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) using the DICOM protocol through a local network. In the second method, images are transferred through the internet using the HTTPS protocol.
RESULTS:
In total 25,000 images from 50 patients were moved from the PACS, anonymised and stored within roughly 2 h using the first method. In the second method, an average of 10 images per minute were transferred and processed over a residential connection. In both methods, no duplicated images were stored when previous images were retransferred. The anonymised images are stored in appropriate directories.
CONCLUSIONS:
The CTP can transfer and process DICOM images correctly in a very easy set-up providing a fast, secure and stable environment. The adapted CTP allows easy integration into an environment in which patient data are already included in an existing information system.

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