DICOM Source

The DICOM source implements a C-STORE SCP (Service Class Provider), allowing imaging modalities, PACS systems, and other DICOM SCUs to send images and structured reports directly into an intu channel.

Metadata from DICOM tags is processed and made available to the transformer by default. Pixel data (the image itself) is stored separately and referenced in the message payload, keeping the pipeline efficient for metadata-driven workflows.

Configuration

source:
  type: dicom
  port: 4104
  ae_title: INTU_SCP
  calling_ae_titles:
    - CT_SCANNER_1
    - MR_SCANNER_2
  tls:
    cert_file: ./certs/server.crt
    key_file: ./certs/server.key

Properties

Property	Type	Required	Default	Description
`port`	`int`	Yes	—	TCP port to listen for DICOM associations (commonly `104` or `4104`).
`ae_title`	`string`	No	`INTU_SCP`	Application Entity title advertised by this SCP.
`calling_ae_titles`	`string[]`	No	—	Restrict accepted associations to these calling AE titles. If omitted, all callers are accepted.
`tls`	`object`	No	—	TLS certificate and key for encrypted DICOM (DICOM TLS).

DICOM Concepts

Term	Description
AE Title	Application Entity Title — a unique name identifying a DICOM node on the network.
C-STORE	DICOM service for sending (storing) objects from an SCU to an SCP.
SCP	Service Class Provider — the receiver in a DICOM association (intu acts as this).
SCU	Service Class User — the sender that initiates the association (e.g. a CT scanner).
SOP Class	Identifies the type of DICOM object (e.g. CT Image Storage, MR Image Storage).

Complete Example

A radiology ingest channel that receives DICOM images and converts metadata to a FHIR ImagingStudy resource:

id: radiology-ingest
enabled: true
group: imaging

source:
  type: dicom
  port: 4104
  ae_title: INTU_RAD
  calling_ae_titles:
    - CT_SCANNER_1
    - MR_SCANNER_2
    - US_SCANNER_1
  tls:
    cert_file: ./certs/dicom-server.crt
    key_file: ./certs/dicom-server.key

transformer: dicom-to-fhir.ts

destinations:
  - pacs_archive
  - ehr_fhir

Transformer Example

A TypeScript transformer that maps DICOM metadata to a FHIR ImagingStudy resource:

export default function transform(msg: IntuMessage): IntuMessage {
  const dicom = JSON.parse(msg.payload);

  const imagingStudy = {
    resourceType: "ImagingStudy",
    status: "available",
    subject: {
      reference: `Patient/${dicom.PatientID}`,
    },
    started: dicom.StudyDate,
    identifier: [
      {
        system: "urn:dicom:uid",
        value: `urn:oid:${dicom.StudyInstanceUID}`,
      },
    ],
    modality: [
      {
        system: "http://dicom.nema.org/resources/ontology/DCM",
        code: dicom.Modality,
      },
    ],
    description: dicom.StudyDescription,
    numberOfSeries: dicom.NumberOfStudyRelatedSeries,
    numberOfInstances: dicom.NumberOfStudyRelatedInstances,
  };

  msg.payload = JSON.stringify(imagingStudy);
  return msg;
}