Embedded Files
Updated July 23, 2021
Updated July 23, 2021
Horos is a free mature graphical Mac tool for viewing and transferring Dicom files. Horos is an open-source fork of Osirix. It is useful for at least three reasons:
Horos can receive Dicom data transfers directly from MR4 or other Horos and Osirix machines (i.e., it is a Dicom listener). For this, you need a static IP address (so, probably not your laptop). Most of the setup involves getting the network settings right. Security on your machine or in your building may block your access. Once it is working, Scott or Heidi can send data from the scanner directly to your machine without the need for USB drives or DVDs.
Horos can read and write clinical CDs (useful for incidental findings). You can also write to a USB key if you prefer that to a CD.
Horos can be used to view and revise the information in the Dicom header, so you can use it to deidentify Dicoms.
Details about Horos
Horos
If you have been using Osirix, and getting tired of the nagging, Horos can detect and import your Osirix Database of images. It can receive data from the scanner with the same settings that were used for Osirix (and described below).
There is an excellent user guide for $49. Buying it helps to support this open-source project, and can make it much easier to navigate the details of setup.
To Query a DICOM node, you have to add his parameters in the Locations View of the Preferences. But to Query & Retrieve a DICOM node, you also have to add the parameters of your OsiriX DICOM workstation on the DICOM nodes list of the PACS (AETitle, IP Address and Port Number).
The IP address for the UofA MR4 scanner remains unchanged despite the move to the BSRL (email dkp @ arizona.edu for details). If you had Horos set up before, it should still work. Thanks to Aneta Kielar for trying this out.
A bids compliant export plugin is available for Horos on GitHub: https://github.com/mslw/osirix-bids-output. It is under development.
Network settings on your Mac
Mac preferences->security and privacy. IF the firewall is on, then make sure Horos is allowed through it.
Make sure the machine is not going to sleep: System Preferences->Energy saver
You can turn on "screen sharing” and/or “remote login" (ssh) to test whether or not you can access your machine remotely. After you turn on one or both of these services, try to connect from another machine in the same lab. You probably cannot connect from a machine on UApublic. Limit the users who are allowed to do this, it is a potential security problem. If you don’t use this kind of connectivity, then turn it off. If you can connect from your lab, then try connecting from another machine on campus, or connecting from home.
You will probably need to consult with your IT professional to make sure you have a static IP address and that your machine is allowed to receive communications from other machines (you can specify the MRI scanner's IP address).
If you can't ssh or screen share to your machine, you cannot expect Horos to communicate.
Preferences: Listener
Preferences: Listener
The Dicom listener and the TLS listener will conflict, so choose one of them. So far, I'm using "Activate Dicom listener when Horos is running" and turning off the TLS listener. This means you have to leave Horos running to listen for incoming connections:
Watch out for the AETitle. If you let it get set to the hostname, and the university DNS servers don't know your machine's name (this is a UITS failing as far as I can tell, and one they don't seem to care about). Make sure it is right. Supply an IP address. This must be a public static IP address. (Consult your IT professional if you don’t know what a public static IP address is. This is really important).
In general, high port numbers are safer. The University or Psychology may block lower port numbers (say, 1000 or less...but you'd have to check with the IT staff to make sure). I've had success with 11112.
Preferences: Locations
Preferences: Locations
Add the information for machines you wish to communicate with (crucially, the scanner):
After you are happy with all the settings, reboot the machine, start Horos again, and check that the AEtitle has not changed and the other settings are what you wanted.
Leave Horos running.
Make sure Scott has the right information about your IP address and ports...DON'T CHANGE THINGS....try to connect from the scanner (you should be able to monitor your machine from a laptop with screen-sharing, if you have screen-sharing turned on and you are logged in to UAwifi (not UApublic).
If you have tried several times with no success, then consult your IT staff: tell them you are setting up a Dicom server to transfer medical images from the hospital to your local machine. You are sure it can be done, because a colleague in Speech is doing it. Tell them which port you've chosen (11112??) and the IP address of the machine. Make sure they are not blocking the port. Make sure UITS is not blocking the port. Be persistent.
Exporting Images
Exporting Images
Choose “Export” from the main menubar. If you have trouble, choose “decompress all Dicom files” when you export.
Choose “Export” from the main menubar. If you have trouble, choose “decompress all Dicom files” when you export.
Special Note
When you send sequences to Horos, non-image sequences, like stability images, can be included. You will NOT see these Non-Image sequences listed in the Horos database, but they are still there. You can export those sequences along with your Dicom if you select the parent directory and export, but NOT if you select all visible images and export. MRIconvert may refuse to convert such "non-images" to NIfTI.
Horos Mobile
On February 14, 2020 Horos released its mobile app on the apple web store as "Horos Mobile". It is free.
Other Dicom Viewers & Listeners
Other Dicom Viewers & Listeners
Dicom servers and viewers are often expensive commercial tools. However, there are also several open-source alternatives.
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