The File Room provides patients and clinicians CDs of exams performed at PIC. Most exams are stored in a digital format, and no longer automatically printed to film.

These discs can contain one or many exams, and include an autoloading program that will work on Windows based PCs that run Windows 98 or later, and Internet Explorer 5.0 or later. **
They are DICOM compliant, and can be taken to other healthcare facilities that utilize digital imaging to be compared.
** NOTE: As of 1/31/12, we've confirmed with the vendor who services our Anchorage CD burner that the discs WILL NOT WORK for users of the Windows Vista operating system. We are seeking a solution with the vendor. The vendor shared that the discs will work on Windows 7 machines, and there is a file burned on each disc called Osirix.pkg that Mac users can install, which runs an application called Osirix that can read the images from the CD.

How to use the CD viewing software
If you are having trouble viewing the images on the CD, be sure you are running a PC with Windows 98 or later, and with Internet Explorer 5.0 or later (** see note above). Some machines require that you log in as the Administrator first, then pop in the CD. It will load a file that it needs to run, and should load with no problem afterwards, even when you are not logged on as Administrator (clinicians, you may need to contact your IT person to do this).

Also, be sure you are clicking the button on the upper left of your screen labeled "View Images". This will load the actual viewing software called e-Film Lite. It contains a series of tools that will allow you to view each exam, its series and the images that belong to the series (MRI, CT and PET-CT studies have lots of images, whereas a simple chest x-ray may only have two). You can also select images in the bottom right corner with a mouse click, and then print them to a printer. You can also save the images you want as a .JPG file, or make an .AVI movie (for exams with multiple images). If you have any questions, please call Nathan Switzer at (907) 212-6032, or look at this PDF file for some help.

A note regarding CT sinus coronal views:  Due to the way sinus images are acquired on the scanner, and the CD burning software, coronal images are "upside down" when initially viewed with the CD viewing software. In order to view the coronal images right side up, simply go to the "Toolbars" menu item at the top of the screen and select "Medium".  Then make the coronal window active on the screen by clicking on it.  Finally, click the icon with the arrows pointing up and down, which will flip the coronal images so they are right side up.

Apple Macintosh Users
CDs of exams are a great way for patients to view their exams on their home PC, and are formatted in such a way that other healthcare facilities can view the images easily. Unfortunately, the viewing program that automatically loads once the CD is inserted is not compatible with Apple Macintosh computers. There is a shareware program called Osirix that Mac users can download at no cost that will allow them to view the images. Click here to visit the site and download the latest software, or see the note above to find the .pkg file on your CD (** applies to CD's burned in January 2012 and later).

For Mac OS X Tiger version 10.4.1, an older version of Osirix is needed.  Currently, it can be downloaded here at http://sourceforge.net/projects/osirix/files/  Select the download file Osirix 2.7.5, dated 2007-04-11  If the link changes, you can download the approximately 35 MB zip file here.

File Room Hours:
7 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday
(907) 212-3144 to request films, reports
(907) 212-3119 fax