Radiology teams must take steps to preserve patient privacy when sharing images

The CT, MR, ultrasound and x-ray images essential for clinical decision making contain sensitive patient information embedded within the DICOM metadata. As healthcare organisations increasingly collaborate across institutions and use imaging data for research, education and AI development, protecting patient privacy has become a priority, states medical technology company Rosenfield Health.

This is where DICOM anonymisation software plays an important role, the company says. By securely removing patient-identifiable information from medical images, the tools allow radiology teams to share imaging data safely while remaining compliant with strict data protection regulations. Without a reliable process for this, sensitive information such as patient names and hospital identifiers could be unintentionally exposed.

While some imaging systems offer basic features, many organisations are adopting specialised DICOM anonymisation tools for secure data preparation. Rosenfield explains that these typically support features such as: automated removal of identifiable metadata, configurable profiles, batch processing for large imaging datasets, secure export for research or teaching use, and compliance with healthcare data governance standards.

Platforms such as BriX Anonymiser and iCode US Anonymiser from Rosenfield are designed to streamline how imaging data is prepared for sharing across institutions, research teams and educational environments. These solutions automate anonymisation processes while maintaining compatibility with existing imaging infrastructure.

Picture: Anonymisation tools allow teams to handle data securely without disrupting workflow.

Published on page 4 of the April 2026 issue of RAD Magazine.