Managing DICOM image metadata with desktop operating systems native user interface

Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) is commonly used in the hospital environment as the tool to manage radiological images which has standardized on the DICOM format. PACS usually consists of dedicated high performance server computers to provide functionalities of acquisition, storage, retrieval, editing (metadata), distribution and presentation. As the personal computers become more powerful, average desktop workstations can process large amount of data with performance comparable to the high cost dedicated systems. Recent desktop operating systems (OS) such as Microsoft Windows Vista have built-in indexing and search capability integrated with the graphic user interface (GUI) to allow fast retrieval and customized presentation for digital media and documents. Integrating DICOM image management into desktop OS GUI can reduce the cost of software acquisition, maintenance, and user training. We developed DicomProp as a Windows plug-in to provide an easy to use alternative for managing DICOM images on desktop computers.