• Object ID: 00000018WIA30097870GYZ
  • Topic ID: id_40023953 Version: 1.3
  • Date: Mar 25, 2022 4:12:51 PM

Anonymize patient data

About this task

Patient de-identification or anonymizing an exam electronically removes certain exam information and may replace it with anonymous information. There are two levels to anonymizing patient information: Full and Partial.

Use these steps to remove certain exam information and replace it with anonymous information.

Considerations

When Full Anonymizing is active, the system changes the following Patient List fields when an exam, series, or image is made to anonymous:

  • In the Exam column, the exam reads XXXX/ANON, where XXXX is the exam number.
  • The Patient Name is changed to AnonXXXX, where XXXX is the exam number.
  • The exam description is changed to Anonymized.
  • The series description is changed to Anonymized.
  • On the image, the accession number, the birthdate, sex, weight, and age are removed and the hospital name, station name, patient name, and patient ID are changed to Anonymized or Anon/XXXX.
  • On the exam and series text page the following content appears blank:
    • Referred by
    • Radiologist
    • Operator
    • History

When Partial Anonymous is active, the following fields are made anonymous:

  • On the Patient List, the patient name is anonymized.
  • On the exam test page, the series text page and the image, patient name, and patient ID are anonymized.
  • On the exam text page, series text page and the image the following content appears blank:
    • Date of birth
    • Accession number

Step-by-step instructions

  1. From the header area of the screen, click the Image Management icon to open the Image Management work area.
  2. Select the exam/series/images you want to make anonymous.
    • If an exam is selected, then all images are made anonymous.
  3. Click Tools > Anonymize Patient.
    Figure 1. Tools list
  4. A new exam is displayed in the Patient List.
    • The level of Patient List fields that are made anonymous is dependent on the anonymous setting of full or partial.
    • The exam number of the anonymous exam is the same as the original exam.
    • DICOM standards require that no fields can be left empty. De-identification removes the study date, which means a substitute value must be inserted. Therefore, 1970 January 1 is used as the default date, a date prior to MRI development and thus it cannot be confused with a date when the patient was scanned.
  5. To set the anonymization level, see Anonymize Patient settings.