Anonymising Images

Jim's Image Anonymiser tool can be used to remove and replace sensitive information in images. It allows the removal of information that may jeopardise patients' or physicians' privacy. It can work with a single image, or multiple image files as selected by the user. It will not overwrite the original image files, but will create a copy of the image but with the sensitive information removed. By default, for each folder containing images to be anonymised, it will create a sub-folder called "Anonymised" in which an anonymised copy of the original image will be created.

Alternatively, you can specify the folder for the anonymised images.

Note: You can also also anonymise sensitive information in images as they are converted into one of the loadable formats. However, you have less control over the anonymisation if you do this.

To bring up this tool, select Image Anonymiser from the File menu:

This brings up the Anonymiser dialog:

First, select the image file(s) you wish to anonymise by clicking on the button. A file chooser will now pop up. To select more than one image file, follow the instructions in the file chooser description. You can also select a folder (directory) which contains the image files that you want to anonymise. All image files contained in the folder, and in any sub-folders will be anonymised.

Next select which fields you want to be anonymised. For example, if the check-box is selected, the patient's name will be replaced in each of the image files by the name set in the Text Area next to it: . You can change the anonymised text to any text that you wish.

If you un-select any of the check-boxes, that information will not be anonymised in the images.

You can also choose to remove all private DICOM elements from the images (if the images contain DICOM elements) by selecting the . Private elements have odd-numbered group numbers, and sometimes contain duplicated patient-related information.

When you are happy with the fields you wish to anonymise, and their anonymised values, click the button, to start the anonymisation.

The Anonymiser will now start the anonymisation process. For each of the files selected in the list of files to anonymise, the Anonymiser will:

• Check whether the file is a regular file, or a folder.
• If it is a folder, it will scan the folder for files and folders, and recurse through folders
• If it is a regular file if will check whether the file is a valid image file.
• If if is a valid image file, it will be read in, anonymised and written out with the same file name, but in a sub-folder of the original file location called "Anonymised".

If you want your anonymised images to be stored in a different location, select the check box.

This enables the panel for you to select the folder where the anonymised images are to be saved.

Enter the location of the folder where you want the anonymised images to be saved in the field below the check box. You can also click the button; a file chooser will then pop up for you to select the folder.

Click the button when you have finished anonymising.