Segmenting a studyTopic number: 1425415039534

Images from one patient can be segmented into multiple procedures for the same patient. Segmenting is often needed in sectional imaging to reduce the exposure of the patient to radiation, and for billing and reporting purposes.

Prerequisite

You can segment only verified studies that have unique accession numbers.

Segmenting sometimes requires duplicating images, as in sectional imaging when procedures overlap based on physiology.

Example: For a trauma patient, an order is created for three procedures: CT chest, CT abdomen, and CT pelvis. However, the technologist acquires all the images under one procedure. A reading task is created with multiple studies, but only one of the studies has all the images. The images have to be moved to the respective studies to enable appropriate billing.

To segment a study
  1. Do one of the following
      1. From a task or search results list, right-click the study to segment and select QC task > Start QC task. Red Q

        Starting a QC task for a study with a reading task in progress cancels the reporting task. You are asked to confirm before starting the QC task.

      2. From the QC action list, select Segment.
    • From a task or search results list, right-click the study to segment and select QC task > QC Segment. QC Segment icon

      Use QC segment if the reading task associated with the study is in progress. This allows you to partially segment the study. The report remains with the original study.

    Whether QC tasks appear in your To do list depends on the task assignment group you belong to.

  2. Find the target studies. Normally you are searching for empty orders.

    The system automatically provides the results of searching on the patient ID and the first and last name.

  3. Optionally, to overrule the default lookup of target studies:
    1. Right-click the target search fields and select Customize fields.
    2. Select an item in the Displayed fields pane and click the Details on the selected data element link.
    3. Under Prefill, select No prefill, Value from source, or type a custom value.
      • For a verified patient, Value from source is selected by default for the following fields: Patient ID, Modality type, and Patient date of birth.
      • For an unverified patient, Value from source is selected by default for the following fields: Patient first name, Patient last name, and Patient date of birth.
    4. Save the settings at the user, desktop profile, or system level.
  4. Select the checkboxes of the target study or studies to segment the source images into.

    As you select checkboxes, a symbol appears beside the source study. Each symbol differs to uniquely identify each selected target study.

    Source study: Green L symbol

    Target studies:

    Blue circle, yellow caret, orange upside down L symbols

    Note:

    You can segment into a maximum of nine studies or orders.

  5. In the top toolbar, click Segment.
  6. In the Segment dialog, select the first study to reassign the images to.

    Your cursor is marked with the symbol associated with the selected study (for example, with a blue circle).

  7. In the Image area, navigate among the images, and tag the ones to segment by clicking them.

    The images are marked with the symbol corresponding to the selected target study.

    Tip:

    You can tag individual images or an entire series of images. To tag the whole series, tag it in the Clinical sidebar.

    To untag, click the image or the series again.

    Dynamic images such as 3D, MPR, and MIP cannot be tagged.

  8. In the Segment dialog, select the other target study to reassign the images to. Then tag the images in the Image area, as with the previous target study.
  9. Repeat as needed. You can tag one image with more than one symbol to include it in multiple studies.
  10. Once you have tagged all images to be reassigned, click Segment.

    The untagged images remain in the source study.

The set of images is now segmented into individual studies. If your administrator configured the verify review workflow, then, for studies with a validated report, a verify report task is created. For studies with a non-validated report, a task comment mentions that images have been added or removed.

What happens if you move all images in the source study to other studies? For reported scheduled orders, users receive an error message stating that they are not allowed to remove all the images from the source study. If the source order was unscheduled, the order is removed, along with all attachments and the report.

Required permissions: Can perform QC segment.

(For more on permissions, see Security roles: Concepts.)