Getting Started with Orthanc: A free and lightweight DICOM tool

When developing applications related to processing DICOM images, we often need some tools to test the application's behavior. Instead of creating a custom test tool from scratch, there are now many free tools available that support most of the basic features for handling DICOM images.

In a previous blog post, I introduced how to use some free DICOM tools from DVTK. Today, I’d like to introduce another tool called Orthanc. In my personal opinion, this tool has quite a fast response speed. This can be useful in cases where the application you're developing needs to connect to servers with fast response speed.

Below are the steps for installation

• Download from this link. In this article, I will choose the 64-bit version for Windows.

• Proceed with the installation. After the installation is complete, you can check the status of the Orthanc service in the Windows Services screen.

• Access the address http://localhost:8042/ and check that the following Orthanc Explorer screen is displayed. This is the WebUI screen that supports intuitive management of DICOM files.

• Now, try opening another SCU test tool, such as DVTK SCU Storage Emulator, and send a Verification request to the Orthanc server.

• The default port for Orthanc Explorer is 8042, and the default port for the Orthanc server is 4242. The default AE Title is ORTHANC. However, you can change these settings by editing the file "C:\Program Files\Orthanc Server\Configuration\orthanc.json". Here, you can also modify various other settings depending on your needs.

You’ve now completed the installation.
Now, let’s try using the C-FIND request service to send requests to both the ORTHANC server and the DVTK QR SCP Emulator server to compare their response times.

• First, download free sample data from: https://www.dicomlibrary.com/

• Next, import the downloaded data into the ORTHANC server

• Then, import the same dataset into the DVTK QR SCP Emulator server.

• After that, use a simple tool like the Conquest DICOM server tool to act as a client.
  (You can download Conquest DICOM server tool from: https://github.com/marcelvanherk/Conquest-DICOM-Server/)
  Add the information of both the ORTHANC server and DVTK QR SCP Emulator server to the Conquest DICOM server.

• Then, send a C-FIND request for all studies from the Conquest DICOM server to both ORTHANC and DVTK servers.

• If you monitor the network with Wireshark, you’ll see that the response time from the DVTK QR SCP Emulator server is about 3 seconds, while the ORTHANC server responds almost immediately, in less than 1 second.
  This disparity becomes even more significant when dealing with larger datasets.

You can clearly see that the ORTHANC server provides a very fast response.
This is especially useful when you need a testing tool for fast-response scenarios in your application.
For more detailed usage instructions, you can visit the official site:
https://www.orthanc-server.com/

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