Guide
Free DICOM sample datasets.
A few public archives let anyone download real imaging studies for practice. The three below have their licence terms stated, checked in October 2026. This page links to them and does not host or copy any files.
At a glance
| Source | Modality | Licence | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCIA CT COLONOGRAPHY | CT | CC BY 3.0 (images) | TCIA Data Retriever |
| TCIA LIDC-IDRI | Chest CT, plus DX and CR | CC BY 3.0 (images) | TCIA Data Retriever |
| NLM Visible Human Project | Cryosection, CT and MRI | Public domain | See the NLM page |
TCIA CT COLONOGRAPHY
A CT collection hosted by The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), in DICOM format. Its images are licensed CC BY 3.0 and it is about 497 GB in total, so plan for the size. Its supporting clinical files are CC BY 4.0. Download requires the TCIA Data Retriever.
Citation is required. The data citation DOI is 10.7937/K9/TCIA.2015.NWTESAY1.
TCIA LIDC-IDRI
A chest CT collection, with some DX and CR images, in DICOM format. It is licensed CC BY 3.0 and is about 133 GB in total, so plan for the size. Download uses the TCIA Data Retriever.
Citation is required. The data citation DOI is 10.7937/K9/TCIA.2015.LO9QL9SX.
NLM Visible Human Project
The US National Library of Medicine describes the Visible Human Project as a public-domain library of cross-sectional cryosection, CT and MRI images. Its page says a licence is no longer required as of 2019. The page does not state the file format, so check what you are downloading before you plan a session around it.
TCIA terms
The TCIA collections are public collections, and TCIA publishes a usage policy that applies to them. Read the TCIA data usage policies and restrictions before you reuse any images.
Opening a downloaded study in NoustaView
NoustaView opens a file, a folder, or a .zip from your drive, and archives load directly, so there is nothing to extract first. You can also drag and drop onto the viewer. Folder loading needs a Chromium browser such as Chrome, Edge, Brave or Opera.
Once the study is loaded, the Studies & Series sidebar lists it. Double-click a series to load it into the active panel.
Large collections are heavy. The user guide recommends 16GB of RAM for large or multi-study loads. On a smaller machine, load one series at a time rather than the whole study. The user guide has the full steps.
Keep the citation
If you use images from these collections in teaching slides, credit the dataset on the slide. For the TCIA collections that means the citation DOI listed above.
Related
It is not a certified medical device and is not intended for primary diagnostic use, and it does not replace a calibrated diagnostic workstation.