Storage is one of the simplest parts of computing. That’s why we often find a medical practice’s IT generalist offering to build a bespoke PACS to handle the practice’s medical images. But, while storing the image files is not rocket science, it’s way more efficient to let an expert organize your PACS.
When it comes to veterinary medical image viewing, what are YOU using? Where can you find a DICOM image viewer that is powerful, yet affordable and easy-to-use? The answer: vets now use OsiriXTM [1].
Our industry just passed an unfortunate but significant milestone in the world of medical image viewing. On Friday the 13th (interpret the date as you wish) of March 2015, Pixmeo SARL released Version 6.5 of OsiriX, this time without opening the product to the community under an open source license. What that means to OsiriX users worldwide is that OsiriX is no longer part of the open source community. According to its new license agreement (reprinted below and notably flawed in its legal construction), while you can use the OsiriX Lite version that Pixmeo provides for download without charge, you are no longer permitted to modify, copy or distribute the OsiriX program.
Most radiologists have at least heard of a radiology viewing software product called OsiriX. While they may not know a whole lot about the product, it is the most popular medical image viewing software in the world. OsiriX was produced in Switzerland by several radiologists who had the foresight to distribute it via an open source LGPL license. And now there is Horos, a derivative of OsiriX, with even more functionality, and a growing and potent open source community surrounding it.
I went in for my annual breast exam yesterday. Being over fifty with somewhat dense tissue, I am diligent about doing this annual pilgrimage. As my doctor had told me years earlier, what’s most important is the year-to-year changes in my image. So when they take this year’s image and compare it against last, that’s when I’ll get the most useful information. They have last year’s scan in their archive, along with several prior years from which to compare… but what if they didn’t?
