A simple method for extracting DICOM images from a magnetooptic disk.

Objective: Our objective was to develop a simple and easy-to-use method to extract DICOM images from magnetooptic (MO) disks to the computer desktop for research purposes.

Conclusion: The method we developed allows users to extract DICOM images directly from MO disks to a PC desktop. The hardware component that we used is commercially available and is plug-and-play. The system is lower in cost than a clinical workstation. Users do not need to have special computer skills to use our method. DICOM images can be transferred directly from the MO disks to computer desktop folders using drag-and-drop. In our implementation, we store the DICOM files in a shared folder in our hospital network, so users can access the data from their office or research computers.