2010 Winter Project Week XND

Upload pipeline of tagged data to remote host

Key Investigators

• Wendy Plesniak
• Ron Kikinis
• Dan Marcus

Objective

• Modify the XNAT Desktop user interface to have a more PACS-like interface while accounting for complexities of research data that aren't part of typical patient-centric interfaces.
• Slicer will also have a native PACS-like browse/load/save interface that will act as a client to XNAT's File Server and other database back ends; we want to ensure as parallel a user experience as possible between Slicer's native interface and XND to help users switch easily between the two.

Approach, Plan

• Use well-received interfaces (Osirix, GE) to motivate the new XND interface. Continue developing mock-ups and iteratively implementing in XND.
• Design for multiple levels of expertise (novice, intermediate, expert), and focus on needs of (mi2b2) clinician scientist users as a key user group

Progress

Wendy developed an initial mock-up that received additional tuning during her recent visit to STL. Subsequent discussions with Ron have revealed additional requirements and design constraints. Work on transcribing this information and storyboard the browse/load DICOM workflow will continue this week.

Discussions this week have refined the design approach and next steps.

• Will begin with DICOM data, but will accommodate other data types that slicer supports.
• Will provide three data "views": Project, Study, and Subject views. Will get rid of "File view" in XND.
• Wendy will design a set of filters to refine search (worked with Tim and Dave to understand the technical constraints, and learn about ways to generate queries.)
• Slicer side will develop thumbnails for all MRML scenes
• XNAT team will develop thumbnails for DICOM.
• Wendy will design a set of workflows for importing and marking up data (DICOM and other).
• Tim and Dan will discuss MIME type variable
• Tim and Dan will discuss where we assign "MRML" as variable value (Format, Content, Mimetype?)
• Tim and Wendy discussed wiki page for "recommended" variable values for these variables, to promote data sharing. Mechanism for updating metadata if a recommended variable value changes?
• Also discussed designing a "QTWidget" for transacting with XNAT -- useful for many groups.