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XNAT services provided by MIRSG§

What is XNAT?§

XNAT is a data system for storing, organising and sharing medical research data. MIRSG host several XNAT servers at UCL for use by your research projects. Your users can visualise and download your data from the web interface, upload data from any computer, and develop custom processing pipelines using high performance computing (HPC) clusters or your own hardware. XNAT is primarily designed around medical imaging data (typically DICOM) but can store any types of files as well as custom data types.

Core XNAT features§

  • Organise imaging data by project, subject and imaging session
  • Store additional data alongside images, such as patient demographics or project-specific custom variables
  • Upload and download data using the web interface and cross-platform applications
  • Visualise data online using OHIF viewer
  • Project manager can control access on a per-user basis and share data with other projects
  • XNAT REST API allows integration with your own software
  • Develop automated processing using DAX or the XNAT Container Service
  • On-site DICOM anonymisation supported by desktop uploading tools

For more information about XNAT see the XNAT website.

XNAT imaging data servers§

MIRSG provides several servers with different levels of access. You choose the server most appropriate for your project. Every user has their own account and you control which users can access your data.

  • ucl-open-xnat: log in from any internet connection
  • ucl-collab-xnat: log in from UCL and collaborating institutions
  • ucl-internal-xnat: log in from UCL only

Integration with software applications§

XNAT provides a API which allows you to integrate with your own software applications. You can request development resource from MIRSG to assist with your software.

Automated data processing and HPC clusters§

You can develop automated processing pipelines which integrate with XNAT. These allow your custom algorithms to be run automatically and the outputs automatically uploaded to your project. Processing can use systems such as DAX or the XNAT Container Service and the processing algorithms can run in docker images, the UCL or CS HPC cluster or your own custom hardware. Note that you need to arrange and configure the hardware resources yourself as these are not generally provided by MIRSG, and there may be significant effort involved in developing an automated pipeline. You can request development resource from MIRSG to assist with your pipeline development and setup.