SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Sante DICOM Viewer Pro

Anonymizing guide
Copyright © 2022 Santesoft LTD, all rights reserved

Table of Contents
Anonymize DICOM files, remove burned-in annotations ................................................................................................................................. 2
Anonymize the current file or series ................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Adjust anonymizing options .............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Anonymize many DICOM files within a folder .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Remove burned-in annotations ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Remove burned-in annotations in many files (batch procedure) ..................................................................................................................... 5
Create anonymized Ultrasound (US) movie (WMV) files .................................................................................................................................. 7
Step-by-step procedure ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Anonymize DICOM files, remove burned-in annotations

The program has the ability to remove confidential patient data from the header of DICOM files, as well as from the images (e.g. the burned-
in names in Ultrasound images). The user can anonymize a single file, a series or study, or all the files within a folder and its sub-folders
(batch anonymizing).

Anonymize the current file or series

Select the menu command "Edit Anonymize Current File" or "Edit Anonymize Current Series". The program uses the Anonymizing
options to select the header information to delete.

Adjust anonymizing options

Select the menu command "Options Anonymizing Options". The dialog box below appears, and it allows you to select the specific fields
which will be removed from the file's header.

OK button:
Accepts the user selection, and closes this dialog box.

Cancel button:
Cancels the selection, and closes this dialog box.

Help button:
Displays a help topic.

Check all button:

Press this button to select all fields for removing.

Uncheck all button:

Press this button to deselect all fields from removing.

Show attention message when critical fields have not been removed because of this setup:
Enable this option to allow the program to generate a warning message, when you attempt to anonymize a file and there are critical fields
which remain on file's header, because of this setup.

Show attention message when burned-in annotation flag (0x0028,0x0301) is set:

Enable this option to allow the program to generate a warning message, when the file's header indicates that there are burned-in
annotations on the images, because in this case the header anonymizing is not enough to protect patient information.

Remove all private "PN" tags:

Enable this option to allow the program to remove all "PN" tags from the header, either they are nested inside sequences, or they are tags
which belong to machine vendor.
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Anonymize many DICOM files within a folder

First of all configure the anonymizing options and then select the menu command "File Batch Anonymize". Use this command to batch
remove patient information from DICOM files within a folder and its subfolders, and to remove burned-in annotations. The filenames of
the new files are the same with the old ones with an "_anon" suffix, to avoid overwriting of the original files. If you want to collect the
anonymized files, search within the folder for files with "_anon" as part of their names (e.g. "*_anon*"), and use a utility like winzip or
winrar to compress the files. In these utilities enable the "Keep directory structure" option, to avoid overwriting files with the same name
in different location. After that, extract your zip to a new location, and delete the old "_anon" files from the file explorer's search window.

Browse button: Use this button to select the directory, which contains the DICOM files.
Include Subdirectories checkbox: Enable this option to force the program to anonymize also the header of the files within the sub-
directories of the selected folder.
Overwrite prompt checkbox: Enable this option to force the program to generate a warning prompt, when it attempts to overwrite an
existing file.
Create DICOMIR checkbox: Enable this option to force the program to generate a DICOMDIR file for the anonymized files. The old files are
not included in the DICOMDIR file. If there is already a DICOMIDIR file within the folder it will be renamed to 'DICOMDIR.old'.
Anonymize button: Press this button to start the procedure.
Close button: Closes this dialog box.
Help button: Displays a help topic.
Options button: Allows the user to select the specific fields which will be removed from the file's header.
Rectangles button: Allows the user to define up to four rectangles which will be filled with the background color, to remove burned-in
annotations, from all frames of the file. The program automatically selects the color of the upper-left pixel of each rectangle as the
background color for this rectangle.

x1, y1: Specify the upper left corner of each rectangle.

x2, y2: Specify the down-right corner of each rectangle.
Clear button: Clears the x1,y1,x2,y2 values.
Save button: Saves the rectangles to the registry.
Load button: Loads the previously saved rectangles from the
registry.
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Remove burned-in annotations

• Open your DICOM file

• Select the menu command "Edit Apply To Frame Range Processing Actions"
• Select the menu command "Tools Selection Rectangle"
• Select the area with the patient's name

• Select the menu command "Selection Fill Selected Area", or press the <Shift> + <Delete> keyboard buttons. The program uses the
color of the upper-left pixel of the selected area to fill the area.

• Save the file with a different name. The program replaces the pixel data, thus the user has to keep a copy of the original file.
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Remove burned-in annotations in many files (batch procedure)

• Select the menu command "File Batch Anonymize"

• Select the "Rectangles" button

This dialog box allows the user to define up to four rectangles which will be filled with the background color, to remove burned-in
annotations, from all frames of the file. The program automatically selects the color of the upper-left pixel of each rectangle as the
background color for this rectangle. The first set of rectangles are used in the single-frame files and the second set in the multi-frame files.

x1, y1: Specify the upper left corner of each rectangle.

x2, y2: Specify the down-right corner of each rectangle.
Clear button: Clears the x1,y1,x2,y2 values.
Save button: Saves the rectangles to the registry.
Load button: Loads the previously saved rectangles from the registry.

• Press the "Save" button to save the rectangles in the registry and the "OK" button to close this dialog.
• Press the "Anonymize" button of the first dialog.
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

The user can use the "Color Picker" tool to find the coordinates of the rectangles.
 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Create anonymized Ultrasound (US) movie (WMV) files

A DICOM Ultrasound multi-frame file with burned-in patient's name

The Ultrasound movie (WMV) file without the patient's name

 SANTESOFT - SANTE DICOM VIEWER PRO

Step-by-step procedure
• Open your DICOM file
• Select the menu command "Edit Apply To Frame Range Processing Actions"
• Select the menu command "Tools Selection Rectangle"
• Select the area with the patient's name

• Select the menu command "Selection Fill Selected Area", or press the <Shift> + <Delete> keyboard buttons. The program uses the
color of the upper-left pixel of the selected area to fill the area.

• Select the menu command "File Export DICOM to Movie File (WMV)"