Going for an MRI tomorrow. Anyone know if I'll be able to keep the images somehow? I was thinking maybe of taking a memory stick or similar and smiling nicely.

Anyone have any experience of this?

You could ask nicely but I doubt it'd be in any format you could actually view – ain't going to be a jpg 🙁

My place gave* me a CD with the data and also some software for viewing it. Pretty cool 🙂

(* Well, "gave" for 25 Euros)

I was offered my xrays on CD (if I gave him a blank CD), they wouldn't take a flash pen because of the virus risk. You can usually find a way to convert from just about any format, and I've no idea why it wouldn't be a standard format, after all there's no reason that the equipment manufacturer would make the effort of creating a custom format and viewer when there's loads of standard free ones out there that work well.

<thread hijack>How long yo have to wait for MRI? Was it NHS or private?</thread hijack>

Be interested to know if I can keep some images. I suspect if they say no you can always get them under a freedom of information request.

I doubt it'd be in any format you could actually view – ain't going to be a jpg

i bet it will, that's what my consultant had emailed to him

<thread hijack>How long yo have to wait for MRI? Was it NHS or private?</thread hijack>

Private – a few days.

" there's loads of standard free ones out there that work well."

Lol, go on then. Name me a free-to-use imaging format suitable for medical imagery. (there might be one I don't know).

I doubt it though. Even good digital cameras use proprietary formats for their RAW. And as above, jpeg aint going to cut it! "oh I'm sorry, it wasn't a tumour, it was a jpeg compression artifact".

I guess they might use TIFF or another lossless format. But that would be for display only, as the data captured by the devices won't be image data in the conventional sense.

To answer the OP, if there are hardcopies to hold onto you might be able to scan them, I did this with some x-rays I had.

I supect they could give you jpegs, but if they can't ImageJ will open just about any medical image format – http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/

Here is an example 🙂

http://autresdirections.co.uk/pblog/index.php?showimage=8

Aren't I beautiful ?? 🙂

MRI Image formats

They're almost defo not going to be a nice standard format but they 'may' be able to export as something more user friendly.

Coffeeking; you'd be amazed at how many companies will produce their own image format. I work in the document imaging business and there are simply scores of different bespoke image formats. Why? It's the manufacturers attempt at getting clients to stay with just one image format and to increase sales of image viewers.
Personally we always stay well clear of proprietary image formats as it only leads to trouble further down the line.
You're right about the USB drive though – if they allow a random USB drive to be attached to their system the NHS is more f****d up than I thought. 😯

The images will be stored in a format called DICOM (*.DCM) and if you ask for a CD they'll probbaly give you one with a DICOM reader. If not there are free ones on the inter net – google free dicom reader. K-PACS is quite good. IIRC K-PACS will allow you to export to jpg.
DICOM's the standard diagnostic imaging format and there are very few imaging modalities on the market today that work with anything else as an imaging standard.

OP – is it in Scotland?

Lol, go on then. Name me a free-to-use imaging format suitable for medical imagery

Clicky here

Good info, cheers everyone.

It's all happening tomorrow morning, I'll let you know how it goes. I'll post pics if I can get any!

AJF – a bit less than 4 weeks on the NHS

BigButSlimmerBloke, nope its England.

UPDATE:

The short answer is NO.

The very nice nurse said "we can't give you them for legal reasons, but if you contact the departments legal secretary they can make arrangements for a copy".

Typical NHS I reckon, still I guess its not their main priority. I will have a word with the doc once he gets his copy.

I would have thought the information belongs to you, since it's your body and all…?

I asked for a copy of my x-rays from the NHS, they would do it for £30 but I had to sign a disclaimer that they wouldnt be used to sue them.

When I went private, they gave me the originals to take home!

The very nice nurse said "we can't give you them for legal reasons, but if you contact the departments legal secretary they can make arrangements for a copy".

I would have thought the information belongs to you, since it's your body and all…?

Both wrong. The images belong to the NHS who acquired them.
The nurse was talking bollox, but then nurses often do when taken out of their comfort zone. Simply put, if you ask with 14 days of the image being acquired, you are entitled to a copy of the images free, gratis and for nothing. Thereafter, the Trust can make a "reasonable chage" for getting you the images, normally £50. That said, we have no cash handling facilities in my department, only an invoicing system, so if a patient asks for copies of their images, we'll normally just run them off as it's less trouble than trying figure out how to charge them. Phone the hospital and ask to speak to their PACS Manager – he/she should be able to sort you out. If the switchboard don't know what you're talking about, ask for the x-ray department, then ask them fpr the PACS Manager.

I had to sign a disclaimer that they wouldnt be used to sue them

That's rubbish as well. You are entitled to those images. If you don't sign the disclaimer and they don't give you the images they are breaking either the Data Protection or Freedom of Information Act. We have to provide images, even to solicitors we know are suing us or to people who say they are going to.
They can ask for £30 though, but I reckon that's jyt a bit mean, or a contribution to the department's night out.

Hmm data protection says they must give then to you (although they can charge a nominal fee) and I wouldn't touch the disclaimer with a barge poll.

Having said that when we do retinal photo's for peeps we are happy to provide a free copy if they bring in some form of data storage device