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pydicom DICOM Toolkit

Lets an agent read, inspect, convert and de-identify local DICOM medical imaging files safely

Source Download skill
Repository
K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills
Stars
55,780
Licence
MIT
Files
13 files

What it does

DICOM is the standard file format for medical imaging such as CT and MRI scans. With this skill installed, the agent knows how to work with pydicom, a Python library for reading and writing these files, and follows safety rules for handling patient data. It can summarize metadata, check compression and frame layouts, render a single frame to an image for non-diagnostic review, and run helper scripts that create pseudonymized copies and audit them for leftover identifiers.

Great for

  • Developers building or testing software that handles local DICOM files
  • Researchers preparing imaging datasets who are authorized to access the data and have privacy expert review
  • Engineers planning codec and memory requirements before deploying DICOM pipelines

Skip it if

  • Clinical diagnosis or viewing images for patient care, since the outputs are explicitly not diagnostic and pydicom is not a diagnostic viewer
  • Claiming a dataset is HIPAA, GDPR or DICOM PS3.15 compliant, which the skill forbids because tag removal alone does not establish compliance
  • Handling unauthorized or live PACS/DICOMweb data, since the skill only covers local files and does not connect to such services

Try asking

  • “Summarize the technical metadata of this local CT file without printing patient values”
  • “Check which transfer syntaxes and codec plugins I need to deploy this DICOM series”
  • “Plan memory use for a multi-frame DICOM before decoding it”
  • “Create a pseudonymized copy of these scans and run an audit for leftover identifiers”
Step-by-step guide: how to use pydicom DICOM ToolkitInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 13 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    pydicom.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip pydicom.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip pydicom.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Use the metadata-only and allowlist options so the agent reads only the fields it needs, and keep outputs aggregate.
  • For de-identification, define a site-reviewed action profile first and treat pseudonymization keys and UID maps as secrets stored outside the project folder.
  • Install only the codec plugins your deployment needs, and prefer hash-pinned installs from an internal mirror because native codec wheels widen the supply-chain risk.

What's inside

  • references/common_tags.md
  • references/transfer_syntaxes.md
  • scripts/__init__.py
  • scripts/_common.py
  • scripts/anonymize_dicom.py
  • scripts/deidentification_audit.py
  • scripts/dicom_inventory.py
  • scripts/dicom_to_image.py
  • scripts/extract_metadata.py
  • scripts/pixel_frame_planner.py
  • scripts/transfer_syntax_inspector.py
  • scripts/uid_mapping_validator.py
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.