MRN merge
Consolidate studies filed under duplicate medical record numbers onto a single patient.
Problem
A patient was registered under two different Medical Record Numbers (MRNs) across separate hospital visits. When the studies are loaded into the PACS, they appear under different patient folders even though they belong to the same person. You need to unify the MRN (Patient ID, tag 0010,0020) across all studies so they link to a single patient record.
Steps
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Open the first study (⌘O) and switch to Edit mode (⌘3).
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Filter for Patient ID (0010,0020) and double-click to edit.
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Enter the unified MRN and save. The Patient ID validates as LO VR: max 64 characters. A 65-character value is rejected.
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Repeat for each additional study belonging to the same patient — either by loading files individually or opening a folder with multiple studies.
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If you’re working with a multi-file study, you can use Batch Label Injection to apply the same Patient ID across all instances at once:
- Open the modal via the command palette (⌘K → “Inject labels”)
- Enter tag
(0010,0020)and the unified MRN - Click Inject to apply the value to every instance in the study
Result
All the merged studies now show the same Patient ID and group under one patient header in the Files tree. Over-long IDs are rejected, and the dirty counter reflects how many instances changed.