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Auto-routing of Studies

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Introduction

As mentioned in the Rules Engine section, the ImageServer software contains a sophisticated rules engine for defining auto-routing rules and disk management rules. Auto-routing rules are applied to each image/file in a study as it is being processed. The rules are typically applied when a study is initially processed by the server, or when individual images are processed by the server.

The rules test against the values of DICOM tags encoded within the header of a DICOM file. Any DICOM tag that is contained within the root message can be specified in a rule. The names of DICOM tags are typically the names contained within the standard with any spaces and punctuation removed from the name, and the first character in any word contained in the name being capitalized. DICOM tags encoded within rules are verified when a rule is updated within the GUI and feedback will be given to the user if a tag specified is unknown.

Auto-Route Apply Times

Auto-route rules can be assigned to two different apply times.  The first is when a DICOM SOP Instance is processed.  In this case, as each message within a DICOM study is processed, the auto-routing rules are applied against that message.  The second time when an auto-routing rule can be processed is when a SOP Instance is edited.  In this case the rules are applied to each SOP Instance within the study after the edit is complete.

Example Auto-Route Rules

The following example defines a rule that looks for images that have a DICOM Modality of CT and a Study Description which contains the phrase chest. The rule auto-routes these images to two different devices.

<rule id="CT Chest Rule">

  <condition expressionLanguage="dicom">

    <and>

      <equal test="$Modality" refValue="CT"/>

      <regex test="$StudyDescription" pattern="chest"/>

    </and>

  </condition>

  <action>

    <auto-route device="CLEARCANVAS1"/>

    <auto-route device="CLEARCANVAS2"/>

  </action>

</rule>

 

The following example defines a rule that looks for images that have a DICOM Modality of CT, MR, PR or KO. The rule auto-routes these images to one device.

<rule id="CT MR Rule">

  <condition expressionLanguage="dicom">

    <or>

      <equal test="$Modality" refValue="CT"/>

      <equal test="$Modality" refValue="MR"/>

      <equal test="$Modality" refValue="PR"/>

      <equal test="$Modality" refValue="KO"/>

    </or>

  </condition>

  <action>

    <auto-route device="CLEARCANVAS"/>

  </action>

</rule>

 

Notes

•When creating an Auto-Route rule, the DICOM device must be configured on the Device page.  Verification is not done of the proper device configuration until the auto-route rule is used.  An error will appear in the log when this occurs.
•When a Device is Disable on the Device configuration page or when Auto-routing is disabled for a device, the rule will simply be ignored for the device.
•When routing multi-modality studies, note that the rules are applied to each SOP Instance within a study.  For instance, if the study contains Key Image Objects (KO) or Presentation States (PR) along with standard CT modality images, if a rule is defined only for the CT modality, the PR and KO objects in the study will not be auto-routed.