Dermoscopy Integration

Open Forum
1

I’m currently involved in a project exploring how to integrate dermoscopic imaging into PACS/VNA.

I’d be really interested to hear from anyone who has:

  • Worked on DICOM-based or vendor-neutral integrations for dermoscopy
  • Dealt with tagging or linking dermoscopy images to existing PACS or RIS systems.
  • Encountered challenges around metadata, image formats, or long-term archiving.

Any lessons learned — technical or workflow-related — would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

2

Matt - Many years ago I was storing bronchoscopy images on an ageing PACS using some expensive third party Dicom hardware.
In 2025, PACS vendors should be able to routinely support these kinds of workflows without the need for additional investment or complex workflows.

3

I believe Calderdale and Huddersfield store their medical photography images in Agfa Enterprise Imaging, if that helps.

4

You have a multi-layered set of issues. I would “start at the bottom”, that is the meta-data definitions - how you are describing (coding) the studies or exams, then work through how that can be
i) described in the systems used to manage the data flow (do you intend to use a RIS os soe other scheduling software?)
ii) how this gets baked into the data

  • does your VNA have an explicit separate meta-data structure (some Registry - eg. IHE Registry or FHIR Document or the FHIR flavour of that, and MHDS Document Registry)
  • how all objects will ensure the correct patient, study, type etc are encoded. There are placeholders for these in the DICOM, FHIR, IHE formats for Objects and data transfer, but suppliers can use them inconsistently.

My recommendation is that as a “user” you take an active part in deciding these elements of the solution and not just passively accept what the suppliers say - this is especially important when considering what will happen to your data in the future. A VNA is supposed to help you with future use of data, but if you back in data quality problems from the start it will void the promises for future use.

Feel free to reach out for a chat

5

*Commercial Interest declared*

Hi Matt,

We supply a software to users which allows integration of any kind of image from any source into PACS/VNA & HIS/RIS systems. The solution let’s you select patients (which draws from your EPR system) and ‘DICOMises’ the image (including video files), which allows them to be stored in your PACS/VNA for long term storage. You can also use mobile devices (iPad/mobile-phone) to capture these images.

Data is sent to a pre-staging server to ensure unwanted data is not stored in your PACs or EPR. All data is tracked and automated, saving users having to input patient data every time they log onto a new system. You can also integrate your DICOM workflow list and work from there.

It is a modality agnostic solution and if you would like to hear more about it, please drop me a DM and I can share more details with you.

Matt@EIZO