Using bbRad

The name comes from for 'BroadBand Radiology.' So named because we started bbRad where old modem-based links left off. Now ubiquitous, broadband allows full fidelity DICOM images to be transferred, which wasn't really feasible in the days of modem dial-up!

The up to date list is kept on our Customer Portal (see FAQ x for how to log in), as well as PACS administrators' contact details. Also remember that you can send and/or receive from non-bbRad sites using our CraniumWeb module. Finally, see FAQ x for checking from the bbRad Console.

Log into the bbRad Admin Console, and go to the Accept & Route button. Enter appropriate criteria to search for your study, for example by bbRad Status Updated of 'Today'

You can delete the study from PACS, and have the corrected, complete study re-sent from the sending site.

Yes you can, although this list can include new sites undergoing testing, but not yet live. This crib-sheet [here-link] shows how to check. Alternatively, you can check via our Customer Portal (see FAQ x)

Yes, from the bbRad Admin Console only. Send the study from PACS to bbRad (ie not to a favourite but to the gateway itself). Then go to Accept & Route, select the study, click Recipients icon. This will show a list of Recipients. Hold down the Ctrl key (on Windows) and you can now select multiple recipients. Please note that it is not possible to DICOM send from PACS to multiple sites concurrently – DICOM sending the same study to two different sites in quick succession will cause both Route jobs to fail.

The controls for reports are accessed by right clicking on a study in the bbRad admin console. Log on to the bbRad console, right click on the study and select 'View Report'. You would then be able to see any report or patient note that has been sent with the images.

bbRad is also capable of fully automating your inbound reports workflow. For inbound images and reports received via bbRad to be stored on your local PACS, bbRad can automatically create the HL7 orders on the RIS which gets propagated to PACS. The images are then profiled corrected on PACS and the report stored as HL7 on the RIS. If a referred patient does not already exist on your PAS, bbRad can automatically create a new patient record on PAS before following the profiling process described above. For more information about automated inbound workflow management, please contact us on bbRad@cypherit.co.uk

Some PACS systems do not allow duplicate entries. If a study is already present in the PACS and bbRad tries to push that study again, we get the "SCP returned unknown status 0x111 (Error: Duplicate ..." message from the PACS.

If the whole study was previously sent then you can ignore this notification. If you have new images for this particular study (for example, a new series), then the receiving site will have to delete the study from PACS and have it re-sent via bbRad.

You need to be logged in with a valid password first! Click on the Help button at the top of the screen (second from the right). This will display three icons on the left hand side.

Click on the icon of a hand writing on some paper (hover over an icon for a pop-up description). Now enter your current password, then your new password twice for confirmation and click on Change. Job done!

bbRad uses mappings to alter values in some fields when studies are Taken from other sites. To configure the mappings set on bbRad you can go to the Setup tab on the bbRad Admin console then on the left there is an icon of a Map. Click that icon to see all current mappings, you can then create/edit/delete mappings from the admin console using the buttons underneath the mapping table.

A mapping has 4 values, Mapping type, Source, From code and To code.

Mapping type specifies the type of mapping that you are creating. There are only a fixed number of types and they are specific to bbRad so you must enter the correct mapping type here in order for the mapping to work correctly.

PROCEDURECODE is the most common mapping type and is used to map external procedure codes to a sites internal procedure code value. IDENTIFIER_PREFIX is another common mapping which is used to give external patient numbers and accession numbers a prefix before sending the study anywhere inside your own network.

Source is the SENDING NACS location that you want the mapping to be applied to, if you wanted to map from every site then you can put * in this field and the mapping would be applied to everything, regardless of where it has been sent from.

From code is the value that you want to be mapped. If you want the mapping to match regardless of the value then again you can use * here.

To code is the value that you want to have this mapping apply.

Example: lets say you want to create a mapping to give a prefix to all patient identifiers of any incoming studies. To give them a prefix of EXT you would create the following mapping:

Mapping type: IDENTIFIER_PREFIX
Source: * ( to match all incoming studies )
From code: * ( we don't mind what the incoming value is, so match all )
To code: EXT

With the above mapping if a study is Taken with a patient number 123456, it would be prefixed by bbRad and would read EXT123456.

"...Failed" status indicates that one more of the actions have been unable to complete successfully. This may be because of data inconsistencies (for example, the patient doesn't exist on PAS so it isn't possible to look up the local patient number), or because of a technical fault. If you think it may be a technical fault then contact support here.

A "...Stopped" status indicates that bbRad's workflow was configured to stop due to a problem outside of bbRad, for example if patient no is mandatory and is missing. In general, you should not contact support for "...Stopped" statuses but check the relevant Detailed Status Columns to determin next steps. Answers for each "...Stopped" status to assist you are FAQ18

Yes, you can. To do this, you need to setup a new DICOM destination for your gateway using the Admin Console:

Login to Admin Console and click 'Setup'.
Click on 'Configure DICOM Destinations' button on the left panel.
Click on 'Add' button (green plus icon) at the bottom of the screen.
Enter new DICOM details (e.g. Descriptions, AE Title, Hostname, Port Number, etc.).
Click OK.

After that, you can test your new configuration by forwarding a test study from your gateway to this new Dicom node and see if it comes through.

Sending Site:
Accept - The study is sent to the bbRad/exoPACS gateway from the DICOM device.
Route - The study is encrypted and uploaded to the bbRad server.

Receiving Site:
Take - The study is downloaded from the bbRad server by the bbRad/exoPACS gateway and decrypted.
Forward - The study is DICOM sent to any chosen devices.

bbRad always forwards images to your PACS from AETitle [NACS]BBRAD regardless of whether your gateway is added as a favourite at the other end or not.