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| © DNC - www.brachymetatarsia.blogspot.com |
Yesterday was a back-and-forth-day with both Dr. West and Dr. East. (This is actually the short version... Many emails. ;o)
I sent a third request to Dr. East via email asking for my xrays in the DICOM format. (Having
to pay for such an expensive visit with him and then having to pay for
another set with another doctor just didn't make sense.) Part of my email: "...It is normal and legal practice for xrays to be provided on CD as DICOM images along with the "reading" software. Not TigerView, but with the PC AutoPlay DICOM Viewer....."
He called me back within 20min. He was not rude, but seemed confused. He expressed not knowing what I was asking for. He barely let me get a word in, going on about his confusion. I had to actually ask him to give me a moment.
The result of his call?
He's only able to provide: TIF, JPG, either of those placed in a MS Word doc, or a paper printout. I thanked him, but expressed 1. I could do all that myself, and 2. It was not what I needed.
He's only able to provide: TIF, JPG, either of those placed in a MS Word doc, or a paper printout. I thanked him, but expressed 1. I could do all that myself, and 2. It was not what I needed.
He asked, "what are you trying to do?!" I repeated what I had said before: "I want any hospital/physician to be able to make measurements."
He said he had never heard of DICOM..... blah blah. Also stating, "Most podiatrist don't even do DIGITAL xrays as we do." I left it at that and thanked him (for nothing).
I contacted Dr. West via email with the following:
- While I have an upcoming appointment with him in two weeks, I was still trying to get the xrays from Dr. East.
- I informed him of the unfruitful results with Dr. East.
- Researching I discovered 2 things
1. I can save out a TIF into DICOM format (.dcm) with
Adobe Photoshop
2. There are free DICOM Viewers he can download
online to then view them.
(FYI: a Dicom VIEWER is sort of like Adobe Acrobat
READER. The acrobat program cost something but
the READER does not.)
READER. The acrobat program cost something but
the READER does not.)
- I sent him two .dcm files
- I sent him a link to a free PC downloadable DICOM Viewer (I had tried this myself on my Mac and was able to view the DICOM files in the Mac version of a Free DICOM Viewer.)
He got back to me very quickly (meaning he probably did not download the viewer and try it at that time.) He informed me however that:
"You can convert the TIFFs to Dicom via Photoshop, but the original file must have the proper registry. Therefore your file will not work accurately and can't be used for surgical planning. By the way, TigerView does produce DICOM images." cosmeticfootsurgery.com
I had already been thinking about my call with Dr. East and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he really was unfamiliar with the whole DICOM thing. Even though based on Wikipedia, it seems like a standard thing 'now-a-days'.
I had already been thinking about my call with Dr. East and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he really was unfamiliar with the whole DICOM thing. Even though based on Wikipedia, it seems like a standard thing 'now-a-days'.
I thought that I should send Dr. East all the info I had gathered on this so he could be informed and ready for other clients who may request the same. I mean, if it's something his fellow physicians know about, perhaps he should too. (Seems strange to me. His website really gives you the impression that they have "state-of-the-art" equipment, yet he doesn't know about the DICOM format or its practice.)
leepodiatry.com
But now Dr. West was telling my that TigerView (The program Dr. East uses) is able to save out files in DICOM format!! Uhg.
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| © DNC - www.brachymetatarsia.blogspot.com |
I asked that he do this and I sent along with it:
1. a TigerView toturial/ statement pdf I found online about how to do this. (pg7?)
(I wasn't going to just take Dr. Wests' word for it. I looked it up.)
2. A link to a webpage mentioning DICOM and TigerView in the same breath
I received an email from his office stating:
"At the moment we are unable to process your request. As our prior conversation, here is your left-foot image as a jpg. Thank you."
I'm not naive, I'm inclined to believe this email was sent by one of the receptionist from Dr. East's office. They know how to save to jpg and email I'm sure. He had called me before from his cell, so I'm sure he was off-site at the time.
I can only hope that he'll look into my request further and be pleasantly surprised that he could do it all along.?? It would be great if this would happen in two weeks before I leave. If he never replies back then he knew all along or is not inclined to be in-the-know?
In any case I've done all I can at this point. What will be— will be. ;-)
One last thing, I did notice that Dr. West's office as a whole stays out of things. They kept quiet and never told me about the difficulty I'd have finding a local doctor to take xrays (yet they knew I would); while I explained all the difficulties in getting the xrays in a format they wanted, they really never went out of their way to help me get them from Dr. East. I will say, my emails were never completely ignored, in time they did answer them all at this point.
But I guess I was hoping that maybe they'd write something out to help me ask for them properly (I did request this)— in the right medical verbiage or something. Or maybe go the extra mile and call Dr. East to get what they needed. But they never did that. They stay out of it. You have to fend for yourself.
One last thing, I did notice that Dr. West's office as a whole stays out of things. They kept quiet and never told me about the difficulty I'd have finding a local doctor to take xrays (yet they knew I would); while I explained all the difficulties in getting the xrays in a format they wanted, they really never went out of their way to help me get them from Dr. East. I will say, my emails were never completely ignored, in time they did answer them all at this point.
But I guess I was hoping that maybe they'd write something out to help me ask for them properly (I did request this)— in the right medical verbiage or something. Or maybe go the extra mile and call Dr. East to get what they needed. But they never did that. They stay out of it. You have to fend for yourself.
Here are some things for you.
I'm pooped! ;-)
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