PHI removal (PatientName, ID, DOB, MRN)
Remove Protected Health Information from DICOM metadata.
Protected health information (PHI) in a DICOM file sits mostly in header attributes such as Patient’s Name (0010,0010), Patient ID (0010,0020), Patient’s Birth Date (0010,0030) and Accession Number (0008,0050). dcmage removes it with a profile: Basic applies the DICOM PS3.15 Basic profile, HIPAA adds the Safe Harbor list, and +Pixel also removes overlay planes. The changes are staged in memory, so you can check each one in the tag editor before you export a copy. Text burned into the image pixels is not in the header and needs redaction regions.
Problem
You need to remove Protected Health Information from a DICOM file before sharing it. The file contains patient names, medical record numbers, birth dates, and accession numbers — all of which are direct identifiers that must be stripped. You want a quick, one-click de-identification that follows the DICOM standard’s own list while preserving clinical metadata like modality and pixel data.
Steps
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Open your DICOM file — click Open files… (⌘O) and select the file.
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Switch to Anonymization mode — click the Anon tab in the mode switcher (⌘3 in the Mac app, ⌘⇧A in the browser). You’ll see the anonymization banner with profile options.
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Select the Basic profile — in the profile picker, click Basic. This activates the PS3.15 Basic profile, a rule for every attribute in the standard’s Table E.1-1. The rule count displayed shows how many tags will be affected.
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Compare with other profiles — click HIPAA and +Pixel to see how the rule count changes. The HIPAA profile adds more aggressive scrubbing; +Pixel adds removal of overlay plane groups (6000 to 60FF). For basic PHI removal, switch back to Basic.
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Apply the anonymization — click the Apply button. All changes are staged in-memory — nothing is written to disk yet.
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Verify the results — switch to Edit mode (⌘2 in the Mac app). Filter for each modified tag to confirm the replacements.
Result
The Basic profile replaces Patient Name and Patient ID with ANON, blanks Birth Date, Patient Sex and Accession Number, and removes descriptions, operator and device names, and private tags. Modality, image geometry and pixel data stay. The exported file says it is de-identified: Patient Identity Removed is YES and the method sequence carries the PS3.15 code 113100. Changed rows turn gold, the dirty counter shows how many tags moved, and study-level metadata stays untouched.