About DICOMan and DICOManTX

This is a short story about DICOMan and DICOMan^TX. As a medical physicist, I encountered some DICOM problems from time to time. When it happened, I had to dig into specific problems and tried to find ways to fix them using whatever tools I could find. It may take quite a while to pinpoint the problem and may take even longer to fix it if doable. In 2006, I thought that I need a handy DICOM tool to make my life a little bit easier. So I started searching on the internet for tools to help fix those problems quicker. I did find some free DICOM software tools, but they are mostly for users in Radiology not Radiation Therapy where DICOM RT objects are often encountered. I decided to write a tool for myself. DICOM RT is quite complicated. I purposely put some educational ingredients in its design. The first version was released in early 2007 with a name "DICOMan".It turned out to be pretty helpful for clinic, R&D and education. Thinking that it might be helpful to other users too, I put it online in 2008. Not for long, it got some attentions around the globe.

In early 2012, I moved from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, but I would like to continue the development. A new name, DICOMan^TX, was given to the artifact reflecting the employer change. Its IP belongs to both institutions.

DICOMan^TX was developed from scratch in C++. It is versatile and efficient. Common Non-DICOM objects, such as JPEG, TIFF and PDF etc. are also supported.

Main Functions:

• Parse, organize and view DICOM & DICOM RT objects and non-DICOM objects
• Review and compare Radiotherapy plans in dosimetrical statistics and radio-biological models
• Model clinical protocols and assess plan compliance for clinical trials
• Push DICOM objects to remote DICOM storage servers
• Retrieve DICOM objects from remote PACSs
• Use it as a DICOM storage server
• Help build your own RT PACS
• Edit Individual DICOM objects
• Anonymize DICOM objects for clinical research
• Extract data from and revamp DICOM objects
• Convert image formats
• Paint DICOM image phantom
• View Radiotherapy Dosimetry files
• Dose summation
• Edit MLC segments
• Restore RT plans from RTP plan files
• Export RT plans in RTP or MLC formats
• Create and maneuver RT Structure Set (contours)
• Support second-generation DICOM RT objects
• Miscellaneous data maneuvering for R&D

Supported Formats:

• Acrobat PDF (*.pdf)
• Analyze (*.hdr)
• Bitmap (*.bmp)
• BrainLAB iPlan dosemap (*.flu)
• CMS Focus/XiO dosemap (*.cms)
• DICOManTX 3D (*.dm3)
• EGS4 3D dose (*.3ddose)
• GIF (*.gif)
• J2K (*.j2k or *.JP2)
• JBG (*.jbg)
• JPEG (*.jpg or *.jpeg)
• PCX (*.pcx)
• Philips Pinnacle3 or TomoTherapy dosemap (*.header)
• Plato dosemap (*.pla)
• PNG (*.png)
• PTW Seven29 ion chamber array measurement (*.mcc)
• RAW (*.raw) RAW image data
• RIT Film Dosimetry Version 4 (*.rv4)
• RTP plan file (*.rtp)
• TIFF (*.tif or *.tiff)
• TGA (*.tga)
• Varian Eclipse Fluence (*.efl)
• Varian MLC files (*.mlc)
• XRD X-Ray (*.his)