How to view your MRI or CT scans on a phone
Your MRI or CT scans came on a disc or as a link, and all you have at hand is a phone. Here is how to look at them without installing an app or uploading them anywhere.
Where your scans are
Clinics hand out scans in one of two ways: on a disc or as a link to a patient portal. Either way they are DICOM files — the format every scanner writes. What these files are is explained in the .dcm guide.
If you got a link
Open the link in your phone’s browser: patient portals usually have a viewer of their own. If there is a Download study button, download it — often it is a ZIP archive. Unpack it first: on an iPhone, tap it in the Files app; on Android, open it in the Files app and choose Extract.
If you got a disc
A phone has no disc drive, so first copy the folder from the disc to a computer. Then move it to the phone with a cable, a USB-C flash drive or a cloud service you trust. Or look at the scans on the computer right away — here is how.
Open the scans in your phone’s browser
- Open the DICOM viewer page in your phone’s browser.
- Tap Choose file and select every file of the series or study — the Files app on iPhone and Android lets you pick several at once.
- The images are sorted into series. Scroll through the frames, change the window and zoom in.
Be careful with apps
App stores have many DICOM apps. Some ask for permissions they do not need or upload the scans to their own cloud — and the tags of a scan hold your name and date of birth. In a browser there is nothing to install, and the files stay on your phone.