> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect your imaging machines

> Register each imaging machine with its own key so finished studies attach themselves to the right order, and set up the full-resolution viewer.

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['lims']} plans="Professional and above" roles="Anyone granted “Configure analysers and interfaces”. Radiologists and lab scientists do not have it by default." />

Once your machines are registered, a finished study finds its own order. The **Modalities** page explains itself in a line: "Register each imaging machine (or its bridge PC) with a private key. Finished studies with a matching accession attach automatically; anything ambiguous waits below for review."

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Modalities']} />

<TaskHeader before="Professional plan, the “Configure analysers and interfaces” grant, and whoever looks after your imaging machines available" time="10 minutes per machine" after="A registered modality whose finished studies attach to orders by themselves" />

## Your images stay in your building

This is the first question every lab asks, so here is the plain answer: **the image pixels never leave your premises.** ClinikEHR stores two addresses and nothing else. The viewer runs inside the radiologist's own browser and reads the images directly from your on-site archive over an authenticated connection. No study is copied to us in order to be viewed.

The one exception is the optional **Auto-archive to cloud** setting further down this page, which you switch on deliberately and can leave off.

## Register a machine

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the registry">
    The registry table lists **Modality**, **AE title**, **Type**, **Status**, **Last seen** and **Actions**. **Status** is **Active** or **Paused**, and **Last seen** is the honest answer to "is this thing actually talking to us". **Refresh** re-reads it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the modality">
    Select **Register modality** and fill in **Name** ("CT Room 1"), **AE title (optional)** ("CT\_SCANNER") and **Type (optional)** ("CT"). The AE title is what the machine calls itself; getting it right is what lets studies match without a human.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Copy the key — now">
    Registering opens **Bridge key for \{name}** with a copy button; **Copy key** gives you **Key copied**. Paste it straight into whatever configuration your bridge PC uses, then select **Done**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check it is talking">
    Back on the registry, the modality should show **Active** and pick up a **Last seen** time once the bridge connects. If it never does, the key was not saved on the bridge.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  The bridge key is shown **once**. Close the dialog without copying it and it cannot be retrieved — you have to issue a new one with **New key**, which invalidates the old key and stops that machine's bridge until it is reconfigured. Copy it before you close.
</Warning>

Use **Pause** to stop accepting studies from a machine — during maintenance, or when a bridge PC is being replaced — and **Resume** to bring it back. **New key** issues a replacement key when one has been lost or should be rotated.

## Studies that arrive without a match

Automatic attachment depends on a matching accession number. Anything else waits for a person, under **Studies awaiting review (\{n})** — "These arrived without a matching accession. Attach each to the right order so its images show up for reporting."

The table shows **Received**, **Modality**, **Patient / accession** and **Study**, with two actions:

* **Attach to order** opens a picker — "Search by accession, patient or test…" — and on success gives **Study attached — images are now on the order**.
* **Discard** removes it, confirmed with **Study discarded**.

Work this queue daily. A study sitting here is a study a radiologist cannot report, and the usual cause is a typo in the accession number at the machine rather than anything wrong with the bridge.

## Prior-image sources (PACS)

**Prior-image sources (PACS)** lists the remote archives the bridge may pull prior studies from, so a radiologist can compare today's film against last year's. Add one with **Add a PACS source**, giving its **Name** ("Regional PACS"), **AE Title** ("REMOTEPACS"), **Host** and **Port**. Each source can be removed again from its row.

## Auto-archive to cloud

**Auto-archive to cloud** is a switch, and it is off until you turn it on.

| Setting                        | What it does                                                     |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Modalities to auto-archive** | Choose which machines archive. "None selected = all modalities." |
| **Minimum images**             | "Skip trivial studies below this image count."                   |

Select **Save auto-archive policy** to apply it — the toast reads **Auto-archive policy saved**. Set **Minimum images** deliberately: without it, every stray single-frame acquisition is archived alongside the studies you actually want kept.

## The full-resolution viewer

Two addresses turn on **Open full viewer** in the reporting form:

| Field                                | Holds                                   |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- |
| **OHIF viewer URL**                  | Where the viewer itself is served from  |
| **Orthanc DICOMweb URL (tunnelled)** | Where the viewer reads your images from |

Select **Save viewer settings** — the toast reads **Viewer settings saved**. Once both are set, **Open full viewer** becomes available on any study that has images. See [Report an imaging study](/lims/imaging/reports).

## Roles and permissions

Configuring this page is a separate grant — **Configure analysers and interfaces** — from anything else in imaging, because it changes how machines talk to the system rather than what a report says. A radiologist reaches only the imaging screens and does not hold it by default; a lab scientist does not reach imaging at all. See [Permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

<Note>
  The hardware half of this integration is rolling out site by site, and what your machines and bridge PC need varies with the make and age of the equipment. Talk to [support](/platform/help/contact-support) about your specific room before you plan a cutover date.
</Note>

## Check it worked

* The machine appears in the registry as **Active**, with a **Last seen** time that keeps moving.
* A test acquisition with a correct accession number lands straight on its order rather than in **Studies awaiting review**.
* The report's **Study Information** card reads **\{n} images attached**.
* **Open full viewer** opens the study for a radiologist.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The page says Modality integration is a Professional feature">
    The imaging bridge is gated on **Professional** and above, and **View plans** on that screen takes you to the ladder. See [Change your plan](/platform/plans/change-plan).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I closed the key dialog without copying the key">
    Issue a replacement with **New key** on that modality's row, and reconfigure the bridge with it. The old key stops working, so expect a gap until the bridge is updated.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Last seen is never set">
    The bridge is not reaching us with that key. Check the key was pasted in full and that the modality is **Active** rather than **Paused**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Every study lands in Studies awaiting review">
    The accession number entered at the machine is not matching the order. Check how your radiographers are keying it — a leading zero or a prefix dropped at the console is the usual cause — and attach the waiting studies in the meantime.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Open full viewer does nothing">
    Both **OHIF viewer URL** and **Orthanc DICOMweb URL (tunnelled)** must be saved, and the study must have images. Save the pair, reload the report and try again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Nothing is archiving to the cloud">
    Check the **Auto-archive to cloud** switch is on, that the machine is in **Modalities to auto-archive** (or that none are selected, which means all), and that the study clears **Minimum images**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I cannot open the Modalities page at all">
    You do not hold **Configure analysers and interfaces**. It is granted separately from reporting — ask an owner or manager, see [Permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="a modality connection" />