Hi,

I wanted to ask the community, if anyone has experience with this.
We have two radiants on our computers (two doctor rooms) - one being the main room, second used when occassionaly two doctors are here.
The radiant database cannot be shared over network, so there are separate databases on the harddrives.

Occassionally, I import the databases from each other, meaning I have all data on both computers. But I cannot do this every day.

A more elegant solution would be to have a PACS server that:
1. sits over the Radiant database folder
2. does not modify the radiant database or the folder structure
3. maintains its own index/dtatabase of the DICOM files
4. can recreate the index adding new files to its database, does not need to be automatic, can be a command I run once in a while
5. I would make the computers see each other pacs servers -> if I do not find the images in local, I go to the PACS

Anybody using something like this?

And, I do not want to have a third computer with PACS server :)

Perhaps running Orthanc PACS server (Windows version) on one of the computers (along with RadiAnt) would be the best solution?

With the latest 2021.1 version you can send images from RadiAnt to PACS, so you would just need to upload studies to Orthanc and access them from both RadiAnts this way.

The problem is that I do not want to duplicate the whole database (too large). It would also be nice to use the Orthanc webviewer to access the files when I am in another room (for instance, the room where I do the radicular blocks etc.)

There is an option in Orthanc (StoreDicom) that can be turned of, then the added files do not contain the pixel data. But there is no link to the pixel data, so the Webviewer (and the other radiant) shows no images, just patient data. There has been an old thread in Orthanc discussion with the similar problem, obviously the link to the file can be added using some metadata, so the images can be served, but the thread did not contain a full solution and the links to the documentation of the metadata do not function anymore (the thread was from 2016).

So I am searching for someone with full solution, because as I could see, I am not the only one trying to acheive this (serve the radiant database with Orthanc without duplicating it).

Do it the other way.
I see at least two solutions:
- Don't use radiant database at all - use local Orthanc as a database - Query/Retrieve over localhost will be as fast as local radiant database
- use radiant database to link, not copy, the orthanc database.

Radiant does not support Q/R SCP - so no way to achieve it easily. Remote network share might be a solution but for a reason it's locked by radiant as far as I seen.

- use radiant database to link, not copy, the orthanc database.

Might be the best solution yet. But I am still searching. I do not want to change the workflow for my other colleagues and nurses etc. Maybe there is something less complicated, like Conquest or other PACS solution that I can modify to use (symbolic) links instead of copying the files.

That brings me to another question @Radiant: does the directory structure of the database change, for instance, in database consolidation or in other scenarios or do the files stay put?

The remote share is locked by radiant because of SQLite corruption in case of concurrent access from the network.

@aaaaaaa

Yes, the structure of the database directory might change. E.g., when you delete the last study, the new one imported will occupy the same file names as the last deleted.

Actually, I am not deleting studies, just adding :)
Now, I am experimenting with Conquest. Conquest can change the home directory to radiant database and index the files contained.

So, for future reference, you cannot setup Orthanc to sit over the Radiant database. But Conquest can be set up to index Radiant database. Now I do it manually, so all studies that were in the database at the start of the day can be made visible to other radiants.
When I have more time I will look at directory monitoring and try to update the conquest database with the added files only.

One change:
Orthanc now has a Folder indexer Plugin from ICTEAM institute of UCLouvain

This solves everything:
1. sits over Radiant database
2. acts as a PACS server and Webserver for the radiant database
3. updates automatically!

Perfect solution until Radiant offers own pacs solution (and Web-Dicom viewer :)

aaaaaa

That's an interesting development. We might even create some tutorial :-)