dicom-mcp

The dicom-mcp server enables AI assistants to query, read, and move data on DICOM servers (PACS, VNA, etc.).

🧑‍⚕️ User: "Any significant findings in John Doe's previous CT report?"

🧠 LLM → ⚙️ Tools: query_patients → query_studies → query_series → extract_pdf_text_from_dicom

💬 LLM Response: "The report from 2025-03-26 mentions a history of splenomegaly (enlarged spleen)"

🧑‍⚕️ User: "What's the volume of his spleen at the last scan and the scan today?"

🧠 LLM → ⚙️ Tools: (query_studies → query_series → move_series → query_series → extract_pdf_text_from_dicom) x2 (The move_series tool sends the latest CT to a DICOM segmentation node, which returns volume PDF report)

## ✨ Core Capabilities

`dicom-mcp` provides tools to:

* **🔍 Query Metadata**: Search for patients, studies, series, and instances using various criteria.
* **📄 Read DICOM Reports (PDF)**: Retrieve DICOM instances containing encapsulated PDFs (e.g., clinical reports) and extract the text content.
* **➡️ Send DICOM Images**: Send series or studies to other DICOM destinations, e.g. AI endpoints for image segmentation, classification, etc.
* **⚙️ Utilities**: Manage connections and understand query options.

## 🚀 Quick Start
### 📥 Installation
Install using uv or pip:

```bash
uv tool install dicom-mcp

Or by cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ChristianHinge/dicom-mcp
cd dicom mcp

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

⚙️ Configuration

dicom-mcp requires a YAML configuration file (config.yaml or similar) defining DICOM nodes and calling AE titles. Adapt the configuration or keep as is for compatibility with the sample ORTHANC Server.

nodes:
  main:
    host: "localhost"
    port: 4242 
    ae_title: "ORTHANC"
    description: "Local Orthanc DICOM server"

current_node: "main"
calling_aet: "MCPSCU" 

[!WARNING] DICOM-MCP is not meant for clinical use, and should not be connected with live hospital databases or databases with patient-sensitive data. Doing so could lead to both loss of patient data, and leakage of patient data onto the internet. DICOM-MCP can be used with locally hosted open-weight LLMs for complete data privacy.

(Optional) Sample ORTHANC server

If you don't have a DICOM server available, you can run a local ORTHANC server using Docker:

Clone the repository and install test dependencies pip install -e ".[dev]

cd tests
docker ocmpose up -d
cd ..
pytest # uploads dummy pdf data to ORTHANC server

UI at http://localhost:8042

🔌 MCP Integration

Add to your client configuration (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dicom": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["tool","dicom-mcp", "/path/to/your_config.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

For development:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "arxiv-mcp-server": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "path/to/cloned/dicom-mcp",
                "run",
                "dicom-mcp",
                "/path/to/your_config.yaml"
            ]
        }
    }
}

🛠️ Tools Overview

dicom-mcp provides four categories of tools for interaction with DICOM servers and DICOM data.

🔍 Query Metadata

• query_patients: Search for patients based on criteria like name, ID, or birth date.
• query_studies: Find studies using patient ID, date, modality, description, accession number, or Study UID.
• query_series: Locate series within a specific study using modality, series number/description, or Series UID.
• query_instances: Find individual instances (images/objects) within a series using instance number or SOP Instance UID

📄 Read DICOM Reports (PDF)

• extract_pdf_text_from_dicom: Retrieve a specific DICOM instance containing an encapsulated PDF and extract its text content.

➡️ Send DICOM Images

• move_series: Send a specific DICOM series to another configured DICOM node using C-MOVE.
• move_study: Send an entire DICOM study to another configured DICOM node using C-MOVE.

⚙️ Utilities

• list_dicom_nodes: Show the currently active DICOM node and list all configured nodes.
• switch_dicom_node: Change the active DICOM node for subsequent operations.
• verify_connection: Test the DICOM network connection to the currently active node using C-ECHO.
• get_attribute_presets: List the available levels of detail (minimal, standard, extended) for metadata query results.

Example interaction

The tools can be chained together to answer complex questions:

📈 Contributing

Running Tests

Tests require a running Orthanc DICOM server. You can use Docker:

cd tests
docker-compose up -d

Run tests using pytest:

pytest

Stop the Orthanc container:

cd tests
docker-compose down

Debugging

Use the MCP Inspector for debugging the server communication:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run dicom-mcp /path/to/your_config.yaml --transport stdio

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built using pynetdicom
• Uses PyPDF2 for PDF text extraction