BUG FIX: We've fixed a bug which caused uploads to fail when selecting 'spine'. We recommend downloading and installing the latest version of the plugin.
Features
Download Horos Os X 10.5 - real advice. Horos and 1 more program. Horos was built to operate on a Mac. However, that doesn't mean that you are restricted with a Mac platform when it comes to medical image management. Don't be ball and chained to a specific brand device. Consider your options and what is best for your business from. Horos - a free, open medical image viewer. The goal of the Horos Project is to develop a fully functional, 64-bit DICOM viewer for OS X based on OsiriX Similar to OsiriX MD and for free. OsiriX MD Full-Featured Version (from $69.99/mo). Get OsiriX MD, the complete edition of OsiriX. With ultrafast performance and an intuitive interactive user interface, it is the most widely used medical images viewer in the world.
- quick upload of DICOM cases from Mac to Radiopaedia
- create a draft case or add to an existing case
- add multiple studies, series and images at once
- high image quality with scrollable stacks
- automatic anonymisation
- automatic gender and age
- optional day numbering for multi-study cases
Requirements
- Mac running Horos or Osirix DICOM viewers
- latest versions of these viewers require OS X
- plugin may work with older versions
We recommend Horos (free) rather than Osirix Lite (free) to avoid 'NOT FOR MEDICAL USE' appearing on images.
Installation
- open Horos or Osirix on your Mac (don't have both open)
- download and unzip the Radiopaedia plugin
- open plugin file using Finder
- click OK to confirm you want to install the plugin
- close Horos (or Osirix) and then open it again
- plugin is now ready for use
Image Preparation
Before using the plugin for a case it is worth considering if any of the DICOM image series could be quickly improved (eg. cropped, windowed, excess images trimmed) prior to upload. This can be achieved as follows (or see video above):
- open the series you wish to edit in the case viewer
- apply your W/L, pan, zoom, rotation, shutter etc. changes
- for ultrasound it is important to remove identifying text using the shutter
- if you want only some but not all images then use Command ⌘ K to select key images
- click FILE > EXPORT > EXPORT TO DICOM FILES or shortcut Command ⌘ E
- select 'all images of the series' or 'ROIs and key images only' depending on your desire
- if using all images then the sliders can be used to trim excess images from the beginning or end
- enter a 'series name'
- click OK
Your new series will now appear as an extra series within the original study and is ready to be used by the Radiopaedia plugin.
Using the Plugin
- navigate to database view
- highlight the studies or individual study series you want to upload
- highlighting the patient's name will upload the complete study
- highlighting an individual series will upload just that component of the study
- hold down Command ⌘ to select multiple series (eg. PA, axial T2) from within multiple studies (eg. x-ray, MRI) to control what you wish to upload
- the plugin will automatically place the studies in chronological order irrespective of the order in which they appear in your database view
- click PLUGINS > DATABASE > RADIOPAEDIA to launch plugin
- a small delay may occur as the plugin analyzes your selection
To add your selected images to an existing Radiopaedia case (public, unlisted or draft) simply enter the case rID number into the top of the plugin screen and click UPLOAD. You can find the rID for any Radiopaedia case by expanding the 'case information' box in the case sidebar.
Creating a new draft case- enter a case title (eg. Glioblastoma)
- select a body system from the drop-down menu
- patient's age at the time of the first study and gender will automatically appear (if known)
- adding presentation and discussion text can help save time later but is optional
- tick the add series titles option if the study has multiple series that are difficult to remember
- tick the add day numbering option if the case consists of multiple studies separated in time
- click UPLOAD to send the case to Radiopaedia
IMPORTANT: During case upload you can continue to use Horos / Osirix but you should not try to upload another case until the current one is completed otherwise this will terminate your upload. For an advanced workaround, see the Tips and Tricks section below.
Authorizing the pluginThe first time you upload you will be asked to log in to your Radiopaedia account and authorize the plugin. You'll need to create a free Radiopaedia account if you do not already have one. The plugin will remain logged in for all future uploads unless you click 'logout'.
Reviewing your uploaded case- on successful upload the case URL will be displayed
- click the URL to open it in your web browser and log in
- check to make sure the case is as you intended
- edit the case to add study findings, planes, phases, quiz questions etc.
- publish the case (public or unlisted) to share it and use it in playlists
Radiopaedia is all about sharing cases for educational purposes and therefore we encourage users to make their cases public. All users can have unlimited numbers of public cases and can publish their draft cases at any time. We recognize that some users may which to keep their cases private and therefore we offer unlisted cases for this purpose. Limits exists for the number of draft and unlisted cases you can have at any time as follows:
- standard user: max 10 draft cases, max 10 unlisted cases
- Felson supporter: max 25 draft cases, max 25 unlisted cases
- Hounsfield supporter: max 50 draft cases, max 100 unlisted cases
- Roentgen supporter: max 100 draft cases, max 500 unlisted cases
Tips & Tricks
- hold down Command ⌘ to select as many relevant series as you like from as many studies as you like (eg. x-ray, CT, MRI) to ensure your case is detailed but efficient
- if uploading a study with many series sequences or phases that are difficult to remember then use the add series titles feature to assist you
- if uploading a study with multiple studies separated in time then use the add day numbering feature to help you know the timeline
- consider storing the rID for successfully uploaded cases into your database comment field (or add the cases to an album) to keep track of those you have uploaded
Sometimes a single DICOM study may contain multiple series that are best divided into two studies on Radiopaedia. For example, you may wish to separate the non-contrast and contrast enhanced components of a single CT Brain study into two studies. There are several ways to do this (including on Radiopaedia itself) but with the plugin you can achieve this by highlighting the non-contrast series to upload that as a new case. Then copy the rID number of that new case, highlight the contrast enhanced series and upload that to the existing case.
Simultaneous case uploadsIf you are keen to upload multiple cases at the same time (not supported directly by the current plugin), then you can do this using Terminal to open multiple instances of Horos / Osirix by typing the command: open -n -a 'APPLICATION NAME'
Feedback & Updates
If you have any feedback about the plugin you can add a comment below this post, or alternatively contact Dr Andrew Dixon via his profile page or via twitter. The download link on this page automatically updates with the latest version of the plugin.
The code for this plugin is open source on GitHub and can be accessed here. Feel free to build upon it and let us know if you come up with any improvements that we should add.
Plugin by Jarrel Seah, Jennifer Tang and Andrew Dixon
The best free software solutions for DICOM images
Sometimes it's useful to be able to view and manipulate medical images such as X-rays, CT or MRI scans on your own PC, laptop or tablet. This is particularly important when preparing teaching files or practising for your radiology exams. Finding a good free DICOM viewer can be tricky, especially as there are so many options out there. We have tested may different applications (so you don't have to) and the following are our best picks. We grouped them according to the operating system used because unfortunately there aren't any free viewers that run on both!
A popular software for radiologists working in the UK is currently a programme called 'Horos'. This is a free open source version of the software used by the Royal College of Radiologists for the viva part of the Final FRCR 2B exam, so obviously it makes sense to use it for teaching as well. This programme is only available on Apple computers, hence why so many radiologists own MacBooks.
There is a paid version of Horos called 'OsiriX MD', which is produced by Pixmeo, however it is expensive so not ideal for basic teaching purposes, although has great functionality. Pixemo also produce a free demo version called 'OsiriX Lite', however there are major limitations placed on this including pop-ups asking you to upgrade to the paid version, performance restrictions, image viewing restrictions and inability to edit the meta-data attached to DICOM images - for example you can't easily re-order series within a study, which may be important if you are preparing cases for teaching or examinations. It is for these reasons that we do not list OsiriX Lite in our recommendations.
- The OsiriX UK user group are a group of Radiologists in the UK who are keen on digital radiology education and use OsiriX/Horos for teaching. The aim is to achieve a nationally agreed consensus on how cases are collected, organised and used for teaching and examination and thereby achieve a collective common ground/platform/standard for radiology education across the country. The resources on this site are amazing so we recommend you visit it now!
Software for Apple MacOS
Radiology Cafe's top pick:
Main features
- Intuitive user interface and customisable toolbars
- 64-bit
- Advanced manipulation and measurement tools
- Multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) with thick slab (Mean, MIP, Volume Rendering)
- 3D MIP, 3D Volume rendering, 3D surface rendering
- Image fusion for PET-CT & SPECT-CT
- Reads and displays all DICOM files
- DICOM Editing
- OsiriX migration assistant
- Separate iOS app to view DICOM on mobile devices (requires iOS 13.0 or later)
System requirements
- OS: MacOS 10.11 or later
Horos should run on any Mac brought within the last 3 years.
Why we like it
We really like Horos as it is a free open source version of the same software as that used by The Royal College of Radiologists for the viva part of the final FRCR (Part B) exam. Becoming familiar with Horos will help radiology trainees when preparing for this exam. Horos is easy to use and as a full 64-bit medical image viewer for Mac there is a huge amount of functionality contained within. It is updated regularly. We believe Horos is the best free DICOM viewer for Apple MacOS.
Interestingly, Horos is named after the Egyptian god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis. Horos is a based on OsiriX (a similar paid-for medical viewer), named after Osiris. The developers obviously appreciate Egyptian and greek mythology!
Visit the Horos website to download the Horos DICOM viewer!
- There is a useful Mac plug-in for Horos that allows you to quickly upload selected studies / images to Radiopaedia, a free educational radiology resource with one of the web's largest collections of radiology cases and reference articles.
- User guide and installation guide:
https://radiopaedia.org/blog/radiopaedia-plugin-for-horos-osirix
Software for Microsoft Windows
Radiology Cafe's top pick:
Main features
- Simple and intuitive interface with full-screen mode
- Standard manipulation and measurement tools
- Browse several series concurrently in multiple windows with automatic synchronization between series and cross reference lines in series with different image planes
- Display of dynamic sequences/series (CINE)
- Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR)
- Fusion of series with different modalities (e.g. PET-CT) or different protocols (e.g. MRI T1/T2–DWI)
- Huge range of DICOM file types supported and support for DICOM overlays
- Export DICOM files to JPEG, BMP and WMV.
- Copy and paste directly into Word or PowerPoint documents
- Read DICOM studies from CD/DVD/BluRay disks and local or network folders
- Asynchronous reading (browse images while they are being opened)
- Multi-core and multi-processor support, and advanced memory management system which facilitates concurrent opening of studies with thousands of images
- Universal installer (32 and 64-bit)
- Multilingual interface (>20 languages)
- Multi-touch support
more feature details..
System requirements
- OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP (SP3)
- Processor: Intel or AMD 1GHz or faster (multicore Intel processor recommended)
- Memory: 512MB of RAM (2GB recommended)
- Hard Disk Space: 9MB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required for image caching
- Screen Resolution: 1024x768 minimum
Why we like it
We really like RadiAnt as it is free, simple, easy to use and very fast. Watch this YouTube demonstration video to see RadiAnt in action. It is downloaded as a single compact application with an installer size of approximately 5MB. The application can even run directly from a USB stick! This basic DICOM viever does all the things you would expect and is perfect for revision purposes for radiology trainees.
Visit the RadiAnt website to download the RadiAnt DICOM viewer!
Radiology Cafe's one to watch:
Main features
- Designed mainly for CT and MR DICOM modalities
- 3D reconstruction and volume rendering
- Multi-planar and oblique slicing
- Easily anonymize and de-identify patient scans
- Fast surface extraction and export to STL and PLY formats
- Load DICOM data directly from PACS, CD/DVD, USB or local computer
- Patient search to locate patient data on your PACS
- Loads common non-DICOM file formats: NifTi (.nii), Visualization Toolkit (.vtk), and ANALYZE (.hdr)
- Window/level (brightness and contrast) presets
- Screen capture
- Axis-aligned cropping with context
- Side-by-side comparative assessment
more feature details..
System requirements
- OS: Windows 10/8.1
- Processor: Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 (64-bit CPU for data sizes over 100MB)
- Memory: 8+ GB of RAM
- Hard Disk Space: 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required for image caching
- Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 or better
Why we like it
We like Pro Surgical 3D as it is fast and easy to use. Although it is designed for surgeons, it's easy to view patient scans quickly. It works well with studies on CD/DVDs, USB sticks and local DICOM files.
Visit the Pro Surgical 3D website to download the Pro Surgical 3D DICOM viewer!
Online Software
If you are keen to upload multiple cases at the same time (not supported directly by the current plugin), then you can do this using Terminal to open multiple instances of Horos / Osirix by typing the command: open -n -a 'APPLICATION NAME'
Feedback & Updates
If you have any feedback about the plugin you can add a comment below this post, or alternatively contact Dr Andrew Dixon via his profile page or via twitter. The download link on this page automatically updates with the latest version of the plugin.
The code for this plugin is open source on GitHub and can be accessed here. Feel free to build upon it and let us know if you come up with any improvements that we should add.
Plugin by Jarrel Seah, Jennifer Tang and Andrew Dixon
The best free software solutions for DICOM images
Sometimes it's useful to be able to view and manipulate medical images such as X-rays, CT or MRI scans on your own PC, laptop or tablet. This is particularly important when preparing teaching files or practising for your radiology exams. Finding a good free DICOM viewer can be tricky, especially as there are so many options out there. We have tested may different applications (so you don't have to) and the following are our best picks. We grouped them according to the operating system used because unfortunately there aren't any free viewers that run on both!
A popular software for radiologists working in the UK is currently a programme called 'Horos'. This is a free open source version of the software used by the Royal College of Radiologists for the viva part of the Final FRCR 2B exam, so obviously it makes sense to use it for teaching as well. This programme is only available on Apple computers, hence why so many radiologists own MacBooks.
There is a paid version of Horos called 'OsiriX MD', which is produced by Pixmeo, however it is expensive so not ideal for basic teaching purposes, although has great functionality. Pixemo also produce a free demo version called 'OsiriX Lite', however there are major limitations placed on this including pop-ups asking you to upgrade to the paid version, performance restrictions, image viewing restrictions and inability to edit the meta-data attached to DICOM images - for example you can't easily re-order series within a study, which may be important if you are preparing cases for teaching or examinations. It is for these reasons that we do not list OsiriX Lite in our recommendations.
- The OsiriX UK user group are a group of Radiologists in the UK who are keen on digital radiology education and use OsiriX/Horos for teaching. The aim is to achieve a nationally agreed consensus on how cases are collected, organised and used for teaching and examination and thereby achieve a collective common ground/platform/standard for radiology education across the country. The resources on this site are amazing so we recommend you visit it now!
Software for Apple MacOS
Radiology Cafe's top pick:
Main features
- Intuitive user interface and customisable toolbars
- 64-bit
- Advanced manipulation and measurement tools
- Multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) with thick slab (Mean, MIP, Volume Rendering)
- 3D MIP, 3D Volume rendering, 3D surface rendering
- Image fusion for PET-CT & SPECT-CT
- Reads and displays all DICOM files
- DICOM Editing
- OsiriX migration assistant
- Separate iOS app to view DICOM on mobile devices (requires iOS 13.0 or later)
System requirements
- OS: MacOS 10.11 or later
Horos should run on any Mac brought within the last 3 years.
Why we like it
We really like Horos as it is a free open source version of the same software as that used by The Royal College of Radiologists for the viva part of the final FRCR (Part B) exam. Becoming familiar with Horos will help radiology trainees when preparing for this exam. Horos is easy to use and as a full 64-bit medical image viewer for Mac there is a huge amount of functionality contained within. It is updated regularly. We believe Horos is the best free DICOM viewer for Apple MacOS.
Interestingly, Horos is named after the Egyptian god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis. Horos is a based on OsiriX (a similar paid-for medical viewer), named after Osiris. The developers obviously appreciate Egyptian and greek mythology!
Visit the Horos website to download the Horos DICOM viewer!
- There is a useful Mac plug-in for Horos that allows you to quickly upload selected studies / images to Radiopaedia, a free educational radiology resource with one of the web's largest collections of radiology cases and reference articles.
- User guide and installation guide:
https://radiopaedia.org/blog/radiopaedia-plugin-for-horos-osirix
Software for Microsoft Windows
Radiology Cafe's top pick:
Main features
- Simple and intuitive interface with full-screen mode
- Standard manipulation and measurement tools
- Browse several series concurrently in multiple windows with automatic synchronization between series and cross reference lines in series with different image planes
- Display of dynamic sequences/series (CINE)
- Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR)
- Fusion of series with different modalities (e.g. PET-CT) or different protocols (e.g. MRI T1/T2–DWI)
- Huge range of DICOM file types supported and support for DICOM overlays
- Export DICOM files to JPEG, BMP and WMV.
- Copy and paste directly into Word or PowerPoint documents
- Read DICOM studies from CD/DVD/BluRay disks and local or network folders
- Asynchronous reading (browse images while they are being opened)
- Multi-core and multi-processor support, and advanced memory management system which facilitates concurrent opening of studies with thousands of images
- Universal installer (32 and 64-bit)
- Multilingual interface (>20 languages)
- Multi-touch support
more feature details..
System requirements
- OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP (SP3)
- Processor: Intel or AMD 1GHz or faster (multicore Intel processor recommended)
- Memory: 512MB of RAM (2GB recommended)
- Hard Disk Space: 9MB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required for image caching
- Screen Resolution: 1024x768 minimum
Why we like it
We really like RadiAnt as it is free, simple, easy to use and very fast. Watch this YouTube demonstration video to see RadiAnt in action. It is downloaded as a single compact application with an installer size of approximately 5MB. The application can even run directly from a USB stick! This basic DICOM viever does all the things you would expect and is perfect for revision purposes for radiology trainees.
Visit the RadiAnt website to download the RadiAnt DICOM viewer!
Radiology Cafe's one to watch:
Main features
- Designed mainly for CT and MR DICOM modalities
- 3D reconstruction and volume rendering
- Multi-planar and oblique slicing
- Easily anonymize and de-identify patient scans
- Fast surface extraction and export to STL and PLY formats
- Load DICOM data directly from PACS, CD/DVD, USB or local computer
- Patient search to locate patient data on your PACS
- Loads common non-DICOM file formats: NifTi (.nii), Visualization Toolkit (.vtk), and ANALYZE (.hdr)
- Window/level (brightness and contrast) presets
- Screen capture
- Axis-aligned cropping with context
- Side-by-side comparative assessment
more feature details..
System requirements
- OS: Windows 10/8.1
- Processor: Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 (64-bit CPU for data sizes over 100MB)
- Memory: 8+ GB of RAM
- Hard Disk Space: 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required for image caching
- Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 or better
Why we like it
We like Pro Surgical 3D as it is fast and easy to use. Although it is designed for surgeons, it's easy to view patient scans quickly. It works well with studies on CD/DVDs, USB sticks and local DICOM files.
Visit the Pro Surgical 3D website to download the Pro Surgical 3D DICOM viewer!
Online Software
Radiology Cafe's top pick:
Main features
- Free 50GB cloud space to store medical images and clinical documents
- Multi-platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS, and Android) Support
- Upload, store and view DICOM files
- Upload, store and view non-DICOM clinical documents which are in PDF, BMP, PNG, JPG, MP4 and AVI formats
- Automatic synchronization of compatible series with showing cross-reference lines
- Standard measurement tools
- Ability to anonymize patient data before uploading
- Share patient images with doctors, medical groups, and patients by sending a viewing link and password
- Organize patients into folders and enter custom descriptions to them
- Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR)
- Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP), Minimum Intensity Projection (MinIP), Average Intensity Projection (AvgIP)
- 3D Reconstruction
- PET-CT, and PET-MR fusion
- Create user groups and manage user Authorizations
- Recycle Bin to prevent accidental deletion
more feature details..
System requirements
- The following operating systems and internet browsers are supported:
- Windows: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
- Mac OS: Apple Safari, Google Chrome
- Linux: Google Chrome
- iOS: Apple Safari
- Android: Google Chrome
Why we like it
We really like PostDICOM as it is free (up to 50GB online storage), simple, easy to use and fast once the DICOM images are uploaded. As it is cloud based, you can access it on pretty much any device. This DICOM viever does all the things you would expect and is great for sharing studies.
Horos Dicom
Visit the PostDICOM website to use the PostDICOM viewer!
Radiology Cafe's alternative recommendation:
Main features
- Unlimited cloud storage space to store medical images
- Multi-platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS, and Android) Support
- Upload, store and view DICOM files
- Fast Cloud DICOM imaging loading
- Automatic synchronization of compatible series with showing cross-reference lines
- Standard measurement tools
- Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR)
- View DICOM metadata
- Share, tag and comment on cases with other professionals
- Enter custom descriptions to cases
- WebGL browser rendering
- PACS integration using the Collective Minds® Proxy
- One click case upload using the Collective Minds® Proxy
more feature details..
System requirements
Horos Dicom Windows
- The following operating systems and internet browsers are supported:
- Windows: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
- Mac OS: Apple Safari, Google Chrome
- Linux: Google Chrome
- iOS: Apple Safari, Google Chrome
- Android: Google Chrome
Why we like it
We really like Collective Minds Radiology as it is a bit different to other sites. It's a radiology collaboration service and centered around sharing cases with other professionals for expertise, advice or teaching. It is free with unlimited storage, easy to use and fast. As it is cloud based, you can access it on pretty much any device. The service is restricted to medical professionals and sharing can be done to specific groups e.g. your hospital community. The ability for users to comment and tag images is particularly unique and great for learning and teaching.
Visit the Collective Minds website to use the Collective Minds Radiology viewer!
Horos For Mac
So there you have it!
Horos Radiology
Radiology Cafe's 'top pick' and 'one to watch' free DICOM viewers for Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and online. Please send us your suggestions for other great free DICOM viewers!
