Subject and Session Labeling Schemes for Uploads

The XNAT Desktop Client supports multiple common labeling schemes for uploads, including custom labels entered by the user. You can set a default labeling scheme for each project in XNAT. See: Setting Project Defaults for Desktop Client Behavior.

Here's how each of these schemes works.

Subject Labeling Schemes

Scheme	Description	Example
Auto-Generate Labels	The Desktop Client produces a randomized-but-readable 5-character string that begins with two letters and ends with three numbers. This combination can support 676,000 unique subjects. The Desktop Client does not keep a registry of which patients have been relabeled with with randomized label. This eliminates the risk of accidentally storing PHI, but it can result in inadvertent duplication of labels. This method is not recommended if you are uploading data slowly over time, as in an ongoing prospective study.	"KN602"
Use DICOM Patient Name (0010,0010)	Reads the DICOM "Patient Name" field (0010,0010) and applies its contents as the subject ID. Not recommended for uploading non-anonymized data from the scanner, unless your XNAT is secured for storing PHI.	"LASTNAME^FIRSTNAME"
Use DICOM Patient ID (0010,0020)	Reads the DICOM "Patient ID" field (0010,0020) and applies its contents as the subject ID. Not recommended for uploading non-anonymized data from the scanner, unless your XNAT is secured for storing PHI. Note that IDs commonly stored in this field in PACS systems can be considered identifying.	"173635167"
Manual Entry	Any value entered by one of the above labeling schemes can be overwritten via the UI

Session Labeling Schemes

Scheme	Description	Example
Use DICOM Patient ID (0010,0020)	Reads the DICOM "Patient ID" field (0010,0020) and applies its contents as the session label. Not recommended for uploading non-anonymized data from the scanner, unless your XNAT is secured for storing PHI. Note that IDs commonly stored in this field in PACS systems can be considered identifying.	"173635167"
Auto-generate from Subject Label	This option follows a standard that was introduced in the original Java Webapp version of the XNAT Upload Utility. A session label will be generated with this pattern: <SUBJECTID>_<MODALITY>_<COUNT>. Notes: If you are uploading a PET session with a defined tracer, the PET tracer name will be substituted for the modality If there are multiple scan modalities in the image session, the label will default to the modality of the first identified scan	"KN602_MR_1"
Use DICOM Accession Number (0008,0050)	Reads the DICOM "Accession Number" field (0008,0050) and applies its contents as the session label. Not recommended for uploading non-anonymized data from the scanner, unless your XNAT is secured for storing PHI. Note that IDs commonly stored in this field in PACS systems can be considered identifying.	"173635167"
Manual Entry	Any value entered by one of the above labeling schemes can be overwritten via the UI