Hanging protocols, presentation groups, and viewportsTopic number: 1425412249822

A hanging protocol is a logical set of instructions for displaying the images in a study. Hanging protocols contain one or more presentation groups, and each presentation group contains one or more viewports.

Hanging protocols correspond to customary reading workflows and can reduce the amount of image manipulation required for diagnosis. Hanging protocols provide a consistent approach to displaying images based on modality, body part, or procedure. The hanging protocol gallery contains all of the hanging protocols that apply to the study.

Presentation groups correspond to steps in customary reading workflows, and they define the layout of series, the types of viewports on each monitor, and any image modifications. Each presentation group contains a specific set of viewports. You can navigate through the presentation groups in the hanging protocol by clicking the Previous presentation group and Next presentation group arrows.

Viewports range in size from the entire area of the screen to a quarter of the screen or even less. You can configure a given viewport to display only series with a specific dataset, such as 2D images, volumetric images, and others. You can also configure a viewport to apply specific image modifications, such as window level presets, zoom levels, and so on.

When you open a study in Enterprise Imaging, the Image area automatically opens the first hanging protocol appropriate to the study type and body part. The Image area will open the protocol’s first presentation group and populate the viewports with an appropriate series from the study. If no series matches the viewports, the viewports will remain blank and you can use the Next Presentation Group button to move to the next group. Some presentation groups are configured so that they can be skipped, notably mammography groups. In those cases, the Image area will skip any presentation groups that would display only blank viewports. Note that you can always manually select a presentation group, even if Enterprise Imaging skipped it.

When an active study contains no images, a hanging protocol is selected as if this study contains images, but all viewports referencing the active study remain empty. In addition, No Images is displayed in the Clinical sidebar instead of a study description.

For mammography hanging protocols, any series that would not initially be referenced in any of the presentation groups are assigned to a presentation group called Others. The icon for the Others group includes a small loop.

The loop indicates that this presentation group might include multiple presentation groups, even though it only shows up once in the hanging protocol gallery. If multiple groups appear within the Others group, you can navigate through them using the Next Presentation Group and Previous Presentation Group buttons.