OrthoRay – A native, lightweight DICOM viewer written in Rust/wgpu by a surgeon
3 points
1 hour ago
| 2 comments
| HN
Hi HN,

I am an orthopedic surgeon and a self-taught developer. I built OrthoRay because I was frustrated with the lag in standard medical imaging software. Most existing solutions were either bloated Electron apps or expensive cloud subscriptions.

I wanted something instant, local-first, and privacy-focused. So, I spent my nights learning Rust, heavily utilizing AI coding assistants to navigate the steep learning curve and the borrow checker. This project is a testament to how domain experts can build performant native software with AI support.

I built this viewer using Tauri and wgpu for rendering.

Key Features:

Native Performance: Opens 500MB+ MRI series instantly (No Electron, no web wrappers).

GPU-Accelerated: Custom wgpu pipeline for 3D Volume Rendering and MPR.

BoneFidelity: A custom algorithm I developed specifically for high-fidelity bone visualization.

Privacy: Local-first, runs offline, no cloud uploads.

It is currently available on the Microsoft Store as a free hobby project.

Disclaimer: This is intended for academic/research use and is NOT FDA/CE certified for clinical diagnosis.

I am evaluating open-source licensing options to make this a community tool. I’d love your feedback on the rendering performance.

Link: https://orthoarchives.com/en/orthoray

DrMeric
1 hour ago
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Documentation: For those interested in the technical details and usage, I wrote extensive documentation here: https://orthoarchives.com/en/orthoray/docs/getting-started/w...
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verdverm
54 minutes ago
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How are you using this in your practice? What liabilities might arise?

disclaimer, I work with a company that builds one of those expensive offerings

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