mercure-anonymizer

DICOM anonymization module for mercure

Installation

The anonymizer module can be installed on a mercure server using the Modules page of the mercure web interface. Enter the following line into the "Docker tag" field. mercure will automatically download and install the module, and it will automatically install updates when they get published on Docker Hub:

mercureimaging/mercure-anonymizer

Alternatively, clone the GitHub repository of the anonymizer and build the Docker container locally on your server. It is recommended to append a distinct version tag to the name of the container image (e.g., mercureimaging/mercure-anonymizer:dev) because otherwise the local version will get replaced if a newer module version gets published on Docker Hub.

If you need to modify the source code, compile the code with Qt Creator for Qt version 5.12 under Ubuntu Linux 20.04 and copy the compiled binary file into the folder /bin. Afterwards, build the Docker container using the make command.

Module Configuration

Settings for the anonymizer module can be defined either on the Module page (global module settings) or on the Rule page (rule-dependent processing settings). Both settings are merged prior to the processing. Rule-dependent settings will overrule global module settings if identical settings are defined in both places.

Settings need to be entered in the JSON format.

General and Project-Specific Settings

General settings, which are applied to all anonymization steps, as well as project-specific settings can be defined. Project-specific settings are applied when a series (or study) has been sent to mercure with a certain Application Entity Title (AET). For example, if a series has been sent to mercure using the (receiver) AET "myproject", the "general" settings are applied and, in addition, the settings defined in the section "myproject" are applied (if settings are defined in both sections, project settings overrule the duplicate general settings).

The prefix "az_" can be added to the AET and will be ignored for the project assignment (i.e., both AETs "myproject" and "azmyproject" will be assigned to project "myproject"). This allows defining one global rule for all anonymization tasks by testing in the Selection Rule if "az" is contained in the ReceiverAET (i.e., 'az_' in @ReceiverAET@).

{
    "general": {
        ... define general settings here ...
    },
    "myproject": {
        ... define project specific settings here ...
    }
}

The following entries should be added to each project section for documentation purpose. The corresponding values can be accessed through macros (see section below) and can be referenced when modifying tags.

Tag Assignment

You can specify how each DICOM tag should be processed during the anonymization by adding entries to the configuration sections (either "general" or the project-specific section) with the following form:

Format:  "([group],[element])": "[command]"
Example: "(0010,1001)": "remove"
Example: "(0010,0010)": "set(@fake_name@)"

The following commands are available:

Additional options exist that affect the processing of the tags. These options can be selected in the general section or in project-specific sections (note that values need to be provided as string, i.e. "true").

Helper Macros

Presets

To avoid extensive lists of tag assignments in the configuration, the anonymizer provides presets that can be selected in the general or project-specific sections. The preset initializes the tag assignment prior to evaluating the configuration sections. Individual tags can still be added or modified by writing tag-assignment entries into the general or project sections. Use the "print_assignment" option to review the assignment created by the different presets (see above).

Currently, the following presets exist (please reach out to the authors if you think that the preset assignments are incomplete or if additional specific presets would be useful):

Presets can be selected globally or individually for each project by adding a "preset" entry to the general or project-specific section of the configuration (a project-specific setting overrules the general setting):

{
    "general": {
        "preset": "default"
    },
    "project1": {
        "preset": "none"
    }
}