Using DICOMQueryTool

DicomQueryTool is depricated. Use is not recommended or supported. DicomQueryTool is a java application. DicomQueryTool should work on Windows, MacOS abnd Linux. Java 1.6 or newer is required.

Installation
To install, download DicomQueryTool.zip. Unzip and then copy DicomQueryTool.jar and log4j.xml to a folder on your computer. Double click on the jar file and DicomQueryTool should launch. The first time you use the tool you will need to enter a few settings. Click on the Prefs button at the bottom of the window. This will bring up the Prefs dialog. Destination Path sets where retrieved files go. Click on Change, navigate to your desired location and select a folder or click New Folder. Finally, click Save.

PACS Address sets the AE Title, address and port number of the PACS. The format is AETitle@url:port.
 * For the new PACS use DCM4CHEE_ELLI@elli.ad.bangor.ac.uk:11112.
 * For the legacy PACS use DCM4CHEE_ODIN@odin.ad.bangor.ac.uk:11112

Receive AET, Query AET and the corresponding Ports are the AET and port number for the desktop you are using. These must match entries in the PACS. Receive and query will be identical. Ask Andrew if you don't know the AET and port number for your desktop. Once all the values are set, click on OK. You are ready to run a query.

Query and Retrieve


Most of the time you will search on PatientName. If you've been filling in the ReferringPhysicianName on your scans, you might prefer to use that. Other searches are also possible. In the example above we will be searching for studies with a PatientName that starts with SW0022. As the PACS may hold several years of scans, you will usually want to tick Date Range. Searching without a date range can return a very large number of results. The short cut buttons below the dates will pre-fill the date ranges. In the example we are searching LastWeek. You can also click in the date fields and use the spinners to adjust the dates. Hint: Click one of the short cut buttons to get close to the dates you want, and then adjust using the spinners.

Click Search. The search will run silently. Searches may take some time. Eventually the Result window will pop up. The Result window lists studies matching your Query. The StudyID is a unique number Achieva (the scanner) assigns to each study. It is possible to search PACS by StudyID. StudyInstanceUID is similar but perhaps only useful for debugging.

To retrieve one or more studies, select the studies you want and click Get. Retrieving runs silently and may take 30 minutes or more. You can monitor progress by looking for files in the Destination Path. DicomQueryTool may be run from the command line. If you are interested try $ java -jar DicomQueryTool.jar –h for a short help message or see Andrew for more details.