SectionB - Basic Operations
SectionB - Basic Operations
Basic Operations
This section provides basic information about using the DROC to acquire images and
send them to output devices. It also includes procedures for system starting up and
shutting down.
CONTENTS
B1
Basic Operations
NOTE: Steps below only for reference. Steps may be changed according to your system
configuration.
Steps:
1. Before power up the host system, please powers up the X-ray generator, detector
and all the other x-ray system components needed.
2. Make sure that the peripheral X-ray system components are on and working
properly.
The following subsections provide specific instructions for each of those steps:
Once the X-ray generator is powered on, perform the following checks:
Remove any patient supports or other objects so that they do not interfere with the
movement of the X-ray tube's suspension arm.
Switch on the collimator’s light to ensure that the area to be exposed to the X-ray beam is
illuminated.
Check the releases, if applicable, on the X-ray tube's suspension arm, the Bucky, and
the table to ensure that the controls are operating properly.
Power up the HOST PC and Log in to the PC's operating system; if the monitor is not on,
press the power button on the monitor.
NOTE: Before you power on the DROC HOST PC, make sure the detector have completed their
startup sequence (wait at least several minutes after you power on the UPS).
Start up the DROC application by double clicking the DROC shortcut on desktop. The login
window shows as below:
NOTE: The default password of login is the same to its name. Consult your System
Administrator if you do not know your log-in password. Passwords are case sensitive,
please ensure you have entered the correct password, if you enter false password
continually for three times, the application will be forced to exit.
To sign into the application, choose your level from Level Icon (Technician, Application,
Manager) and your name from the User Name drop-down list, enter your password, and
click Login button.
NOTE: In case you CAN NOT see this window, and a message box “No Dongle available or
Dongle is invalid! DROC System will exit!” shows up instead. Check your USB
license key to make sure it is well installed or contact our engineers for further support.
If you login DROC system successfully, the main interface will show up as below:
Navigation
Bar
System
Status Bar
DROC system has six menu items in the navigation bar. Each item represents different function.
System menu: Provides User management, Statistic, and Detector Calibration function
etc.
Work menu: Provides patients registration, worklist query and history images query etc.
Exam menu: Provides hardware control, exposure and technique settings etc.
Process menu: Provides image processing, adjustment etc.
Output menu: Provides image sending, print etc.
Exit menu: Exit DROC system.
Capturing Images
The general workflow to acquire and send images to output devices involves the following
steps.
Steps:
2. Taking an exposure;
3. Viewing and accepting the image; Optionally, you can reject the image and re-capture
till an acceptable image is acquired;
4. After all images captured, the data will be transmitted to the default node. Alternatively,
users can send the images to other node or print the images;
The following subsections provide specific instructions for each of those steps.
Before capturing images, you must identify the patient with whom they are to be
associated. Proper identification ensures that the image data is associated with the
correct patient information.
There are three ways to identify/add a patient and study. You can register a patient at the
Work window, or query associated study in the Local or Worklist window, or scan the bar
code.
NOTE: If your system supports bar code scanning, you can use the bar code scanner to read
the patient ID or some other unique identifying number. If the ID is found in worklist (if
this feature is available) or in the local DROC patient database, the corresponding
patient’s study will be opened. If the ID is not found, you must enter that patient
manually.
You can capture images for the patient/study of SCHEDULED or IN PROGRESS status;
even can super-add images to a COMPLETED status patient/study as long as it still
existing in the Local database.
NOTE: Make sure you enter patient names and IDs correctly. Incorrect entries can cause
duplicate patient records for the same patient. As a result it will be more difficult to find
the patient in future search operations.Fields labeled with an asterisk (*) are required to
be filled in. You can switch to the next field by pressing Tab key. After birthday entered,
age is calculated and showed by system automatically.
1. Fill the patient information in the New Patient window shown below.
NOTE: The name will be displayed in the format LAST ^MIDDLE ^FIRST. If you don’t want
“^“ character to appear in name, you can input all content of name in Last Name field.
2. Click Add Protocol button. Then the Add Protocol window will show as below.
Select a Body Part from the left list, the corresponding protocol will be listed in the
upper right area. If select “Often Used” item in the left list, only protocols marked
“often used” display in the upper right area (The often used protocol is defined by
DROC configuration)
Click the protocol to load the corresponding views into the lower right area.
To delete the view from the lower right area, click Delete Selected View
3. Click Exam button. The patient information will be saved. And system goes to Exam
window to start capturing images. Click Back button, system will save the selected protocol
and go back to New patient window. Click Cancel button, system go back to New patient
widow without saving selected protocol.
4. After adding protocol, you can click Exam button at the Next step bar to Exam widow to
start capturing images or click Save To Local button. The patient information save to Local
database and system is still in New patient window.
To add a patient for emergency, register the patient rapidly and skip all the filling tasks,
click the Emergency button in New Patient page. Then DROC loads the Exam window
directly for technicians to capture images of this emergency patient.
1. Click Emergency button
NOTE: The system will register a patient automatically with the name composed of prefix, current
date and sequence number. The sequence number increases 1 by each patient. The prefix of the
name, default procedure and other factors can be modified in setting window (Refer to Section E:
Emergency Setting Part).
If your system supports bar code scanning, you can use the bar code scanner to read the
patient ID or some other unique identifying number. If the ID is found in worklist (if this
feature is available) or in the local DROC patient database, the corresponding patient’s
study will be opened. If the ID is not found, you must enter that patient manually.
You can edit an emergency patient or locally registered patient fundamental information
before exposure (in fact any time you need as long as it is still in your local database).
Only the Manager can edit the information. (More details about user account, please refer to
relevant topic of Section E)
1. From the Local page in the Work widow, select the patient/Study whose fundamental
2. Click Edit button, patient fundamental information editing page displays with the
original information:
4. Click Accept button to save the correction, the information will be updated.
NOTE: As to a newly completed Study, the images will be transmitted to a default PACS node.
Once you have modified an item of captured image, the new information (for example, a
new name) will be written into the DICOM info. This Editing operation is only effective for
local database data. It DOES NOT make any change of the images already transmitted to
the PACS node. We extremely recommend you to resend the Study, which you just
edited, to your desired destination.
From the Query Panel in the Local/Worklist page, you can query a patient/Study by
various searching criteria such as Patient ID, Patient Name, Accession Number and date.
Input the key information associated to the desired patient/Study, and then click Query
button. DROC application will search the local database, and then the result will be
If your site is connecting to RIS, DROC can retrieve the worklist in background and
automatically refresh the Worklist page. You can override this operation manually by
Select the patient/Study that you want to delete from the Local/Worklist page; then click
Delete button. A dialogue box will show up. To confirm deletion, click OK button.
NOTE: Only the Manager can delete the item. Captured images will also be deleted with
this operation. Only the local cached worklist item can be removed by this deleting
Double-click the item or click Exam button. The study will be loaded in the Exam
Window.
From the Local/Worklist page, select several Studies belongs to same patient by pressing
Ctrl + left click mouse; Click the Exam button in Next Step area; Studies relating to the
At the time the system is installed, default exposure settings and capturing sequences are
configured according to every specific view. You can use manual mode or photo timing
If you need to adjust the exposure parameters or capturing sequence, refer to Section C
For one patient, you may want to open additional procedures, to include all images in the
same Study. For more information, refer to Section C “Working with Multiple Open
If you need to capture extra view image, you could add views to current procedure. Refer to
Taking an Exposure
While taking an exposure behind the leaded wall, you must maintain
verbal communication with the patient and keep the patient within your
sight at all times.
If the X-ray tube heat index exceeds the maximum allowable limit, the
X-ray tube and generator will be disabled until the heat index drop to the
safe level. If this condition occurs, a message will be displayed and an
audible beep will sound.
Steps:
1. Check the detector state in Detector Status area. It shows three colors corresponding to
three detector states: green indicates “ready to exposure”, yellow indicates “preparing for
exposure”, red indicates “on exposure”. If the indicator turns into yellow, please wait until it
turns to green.
2. Optionally, to get higher quality image, you have to give the patient instructions, such as to
hold breath or do not move.
3. Press the Prep/Expose button to the first (prepare) position and hold till you hear a beep
from the generator which signifies ready. After that, press the button to the end.
Approximately a half to several seconds (the time interval depends on the characteristic of
the detector) will be cost during the whole process of exposure. At the time the exposure
starts, you will hear a sound.
When the exposure is completed, the Preview window pops up and the raw captured image
displays in it. It will close automatically after several seconds. For more details of the other
NOTES: Releasing the Prep/Expose button on the hand-switch before exposure beep will
cease the exposure process without any problem.
If there is any error occurs during the exposure, the Message Field under the
After the exposure, the image is shown in Process window. The exposure information will be
Choose one post-process algorithm from LUT and Symphony (if available).
Enter a comment that accompanies the image when sending to a DICOM workstation
or printer.
Add markers.
One can check the patient and exposure information surround the image.
For more information, refer to the sub-topic “Selecting ESA or SymphonyTM” of topic
From the LUT panel, you can change the current setting by:
Clicking on the drop-down list in the ESA panel and choosing a different setting.
Pressing and holding the right button, and moving the mouse on image preview area,
the LUT is changed. Vertical movement changes window width of LUT, and horizontal
Adjusting the image’s LUT settings by placing the pointer on the three rectangle
handles of the curve, pressing and holding the left mouse button, and dragging the
handle.
ESA setting changes or LUT adjustments are typically not needed. For more
information about making LUT adjustments, refer to the topic “Changing the ESA
Users can click button to enter symphony setting page. Please refer section C
for details.
Cropping an Image
You can crop an image in order to cut the background and only save the area with useful
information. The cropping applies only to the image when it is sent to a DICOM printer or a
storage device. In DROC Configure page, the default crop size is set for each procedure.
When previewing image, the initial crop rectangular is positioned according to this size. If
DROC is capable of controlling the collimator’s movement, the collimator will receive the
position parameters from DROC and sets its field to the specified size before image taking;
otherwise you have to do it manually. Furthermore, if DROC could be notified of the new
position of collimator adjustment manually, the size of crop rectangle will be updated
You can add text comments to an image at the time of acquisition; the comment will be sent
to the DICOM devices which are chosen as output destination. There are already three
For more information, refer to the sub-topic “Adding Comments to an Image” of topic
You can add markers to an image which allows further information about the image (for
example, supine, upright, and so on), and the markers will be sent to the DICOM devices
which are chosen as an output destination. In DROC Configure page, you can configure
the default text and its position in the raw image for each view. For more information, refer to
the sub-topic “Adding Markers to an Image” of topic “Working with Acquired Images” in
Section C.
You can rotate or mirror the image. For more information, refer to the sub-topic “Rotating or
Mirroring the Image” of topic “Working with Acquired Images” in section C.
You can view the image in full size. For more information, refer to the topic “View the Image
in Full Size” under the topic “Working with Acquired Images” in Section C.
To accept the image, click the Accept button. The Process window closes and a thumbnail
(minimized view) of the image will be displayed in Exam window, as shown below. The
applied exposure parameters will also be found under its thumbnail image.
Once accept the image, that image is stored in DROC and is queued to be sent to default
output devices (Automatic sending function depends on your configuration). Now the image
is successfully acquired.
By default, the next view to be exposed will be selected in image area automatically. If
needed, you can select a different view and adjust the exposure settings before acquiring
the next image.
You may need to reject an image (for example, if the patient moved during the exposure).
Steps:
The Image Rejection Reason list displays, as shown below. In this list, you can select a
reason of the rejection.
2. Check the corresponding check-boxes to choose one or multiple reasons from the list
of default comments. If you check the Other Reason check-box, you need to type the
reason in field under the check-box.
3. Click the Reject button to save the rejection reason and reject the image.
Then the Rejection Reason Window and Process window will close then you can
recapture the image.
To dismiss the window and return to Process window without rejecting the image,
click the Cancel button.
Rejected images are stored in a designated reject bin storage area in DROC, and can be
discarded or resent to an output device.
NOTE: Rejected images can be manually deleted by the system administrator. And the system
will delete rejected images when it reclaims disk space.
After captured, the images will be sent to default destinations or printers automatically. But
you can still re-send the images to different destinations or resend images from Output
window.
There are two types of output destinations: archive server for storage and printer for
printing. These two destinations (may contain zero or multiple nodes) can be configured for
all images belong to the same procedure. Furthermore, the film orientation, size and format
can be configured for each different procedure. When an exam is opened, these
configurations are loaded automatically. You can also change them manually for current
Study.
You can quit the Exam window to perform other operations, no matter whether all the
images are captured or not.
To quit the Exam window, click the button in Next Step area.
If all of the images in the current study has being acquired, the status of this Study
will become Completed in Local window;
Otherwise, the status will become In Progress in Local window.
If you left Exam window with the current study uncompleted, the system will pop up
message window as below.
Selecting Finish button, the state will be completed. Selecting cancel button, system will stay
in Exam window.
You can pick up the incomplete Study from the Local window to proceed with the
NOTES: The fact that a Study is incomplete does not prevent the patient record and associated
images from being deleted which is part of the system's storage space reclamation
process. For more information about the reclamation, and how to protect a patient
record and associated images from being deleted, refer to Section E.
When Study is closed and no new patient is selected, the detector will perform offset
calibration; if no Study is opened for a period of time, the detector enters “sleep” mode
to save energy. To make detector could enter “sleep” mode when system is idle, don’t
leave a Study opened for a long time without taking exposure.
To log off the DROC application, click the Exit button from the Menu Bar. The DROC Close
dialog displays.
Exit:Close DROC
Typically, you should leave the system components on. The DROC HOST PC, monitor, and
Detector are able to enter an energy-saving "sleep" mode1 when they are not used for a
period of time.
To power off the system, it is recommended that you perform the power off tasks in the
following sequence,
Steps:
Firstly close all the applications running in PC; then from the Start Menu, choose “Turn
off the computer” “Turn off”.
Powering off the X-ray generator also typically DOES power off the other X-ray
system components, such as X-ray tube, tube suspension arm, collimator, Bucky,
and table (if applicable).