Office devices (Hero Connect)

Add a computer: a pairing code and one command

Each computer is added once, with a one-time pairing code and one command pasted into Windows PowerShell. There are no files to download. The easiest way is to open Hero on that computer itself, so you can copy the command there.

1. Open Admin → Office devices and click Add a computer. Before any computer is added, the page explains what Hero Connect is and shows the button in the middle.
2. Name the computer, if you like, and click Get a code. Name for this computer is optional, for example Front desk PC; you can change it later with Rename. Hero shows the Pairing code, the command, and Code expires in with a countdown. The code works once, for 15 minutes.
3. Open Windows PowerShell as administrator on the office computer. Use the computer that is on the same network as your lab machines or X-ray machine and stays on during clinic. Click Start, type PowerShell, right-click Windows PowerShell and choose Run as administrator.
4. Paste the command and press Enter. Click Copy next to the command in Hero, then paste it into the PowerShell window (right-click, or Ctrl+V). Leave the window open until it says it’s finished. It shows Hero Connect is connected to … as …, where it was installed, This computer’s address: … and, last, Hero will finish setting up your devices from Hero. You can close this window.
5. Add its devices. Hero shows Connected: … with the computer’s name and Next, add the lab machines, X-ray machine or folders this computer serves. Click Add a device (see lab machines, X-ray machines and folders).

If the 15 minutes run out first, Hero shows This code has expired. Click Get a new code and paste the new command on the computer. Each code adds a new computer, so to move Hero Connect to another computer, add the new one and its devices, then remove the old one (see Remove a computer).

If the PowerShell window shows a message

Add a lab machine

1. Click Add a device on the computer’s card. Under What is it?, choose GeneXpert Xpress, LIAISON NES or Other lab machine.
2. Give it a name. Name is what staff see in Hero, for example Front desk GeneXpert.
3. For another lab machine, choose its connection. Under The machine’s settings call its connection, pick the word the machine’s LIS or host settings use: ASTM or HL7. This can’t be changed later: To change this, remove the machine and add it again.
4. Keep or change the port. Port is where the machine sends its results on this computer. Leave it empty to use the default in the table below, or the next free port when another device already has it. A port must be from 1024 to 65535, can’t be 4242 (4242 is Hero’s X-ray port. Choose another port.) and can’t be one another device on this computer uses.
5. Leave Secure connection as it is, unless the computer runs Windows 10. It is offered for HL7 machines only, and called TLS on the machine. It is on by default for the LIAISON NES; on Windows 10, untick it (see Machine settings).
6. Optionally, limit who can send. Under More settings, Only accept results from these addresses takes the machine’s own address, for example 192.168.1.50 (several separated by commas, up to 16). Leave it empty to accept any machine on this office network.
7. Click Add device, then enter the settings on the machine. Hero shows What to enter on the machine with this computer’s address and the port. The machine-by-machine steps are in Machine settings, and what staff enter for each patient is in Chart number & filing.

Edit on the machine’s row changes its name, port, secure connection and allowed addresses, or turns it off: untick On (Turn off to stop Hero Connect from serving it without removing it.). If you change the port, change it on the machine too. Remove in the same window asks Remove … from …? Hero Connect stops listening for it. Results it already sent stay in Hero. If someone else changed the device while you were editing, Hero offers Load the latest settings and keeps your changes on top of them.

Add an X-ray machine, with its worklist, or an ECG machine that sends DICOM

Hero Connect installs and runs the DICOM receiver (Orthanc) for you, including the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime it needs. You don’t install anything on the computer yourself. An ECG machine that sends its tracings over the network, such as the Welch Allyn CP 150, uses the same receiver (see An ECG machine that sends DICOM below).

1. Click Add a device and choose X-ray machine.
2. Enter the X-ray machine’s own details, from its DICOM or network settings: X-ray machine’s AE title (for example XRAY1; up to 16 capital letters, numbers, - or _), X-ray machine’s address (for example 192.168.1.50) and X-ray machine’s port (usually 104).
3. Keep Send the day’s X-ray exams to the machine ticked if you want the worklist: The machine’s worklist then lists each patient, so nobody retypes them. See below.
4. Leave Hero’s own details as they are, unless your vendor asks otherwise. Under More settings, Hero’s AE title is what the X-ray machine calls Hero (HERO unless you change it), and Hero’s port is where the machine sends images. Left empty, Hero picks a free port: 4242 unless another device on this computer uses it. Each X-ray machine on a computer has its own port.
5. Click Add device, then enter the settings on the X-ray machine. What to enter on the machine says to add two DICOM nodes on the X-ray machine, both pointing at this computer’s address with Hero’s AE title and port: a Worklist (MWL / “RIS”) server and a Storage (PACS / “Send to”) destination, with automatic send after the exam if the software offers it. Without the worklist there is one node, for storage. Then use the machine’s Echo or Verify button to check each one. If you can’t find these settings, ask the X-ray machine’s vendor to add Hero as a DICOM worklist and storage destination.
6. Wait for Ready. The first X-ray or ECG machine on a computer downloads the DICOM receiver, about 200 MB, so it can take a few minutes. Meanwhile the row shows Setting up with what is happening: Downloading the DICOM receiver (Orthanc, about 200 MB)., Installing the DICOM receiver (Orthanc). This takes a few minutes., Installing the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime that the DICOM receiver needs. and Starting the DICOM receiver. Then it reads Ready for the machine on port 4242, AE title HERO.
7. Click Test. It checks that the receiver is installed and running, that it is listening for the machine, that the office network can reach this computer, that the machine answers a connection test and, with the worklist on, that Hero Connect has today’s worklist. If the machine doesn’t answer, the test says The machine (…) didn’t answer. Check that it’s on and that its network settings match. A machine that only sends never answers: tick This machine only sends in its Edit.

Each image the X-ray machine sends goes to the device inbox, where staff file it to the chart. With the worklist on (below), an image taken from a worklist exam files itself, and so does an exact chart-number match when Automatically file exact chart-number matches is on. The receiver keeps its own copy on the computer for 7 days after Hero has the image.

An ECG machine that sends DICOM (such as the Welch Allyn CP 150)

Some ECG machines, such as the Welch Allyn CP 150, send each tracing over the network in DICOM instead of saving files. They only send: they never answer a connection test from Hero Connect. (For an ECG machine that saves files to a computer instead, see Add a folder of exported files.)

1. Click Add a device and choose ECG machine that sends DICOM (like the CP 150). This machine only sends is ticked, so Test doesn’t call the machine, and there is no worklist.
2. Enter the ECG machine’s AE title and address from its DICOM or network settings, for example CP150 and 192.168.1.60. Hero accepts tracings only from that AE title (and that address, when it is written as numbers), so give the machine a fixed address.
3. Click Add device, then enter the settings on the ECG machine. What to enter on the machine says to add a storage destination (sometimes called a DICOM server or “Send to”) pointing at this computer’s address with Hero’s AE title and port, and to turn on sending each test automatically if the machine offers it. If you can’t find these settings, ask the machine’s vendor to turn on DICOM output to a storage destination.
4. Wait for Ready, click Test, then record a test ECG. Test checks the receiver, the port and the office network. The test tracing then waits in the device inbox, shown as an ECG, to be filed to the chart.

The worklist

The worklist is the list of today’s exams on the X-ray machine, so the technologist picks the patient instead of typing them in. It needs the DICOM dashboard turned on (Admin → Additional Features). Turn on Send the schedule to the X-ray machine in the dashboard’s Setup too: images taken from a worklist exam then file themselves. The exams come from the dashboard’s Worklist tab: Add everyone on this day’s schedule, Walk-in exam, or an exam added for one appointment. Hero Connect fetches today’s exams every minute and puts them on the X-ray machine’s worklist. The Worklist tab says Hero Connect sends these exams to the X-ray machine once it’s set up in Admin > Office devices.

Add a folder of exported files (ECG and other machines)

Use this for a machine whose software saves its results as files on a computer, such as an ECG or a bone density machine. Hero Connect watches the folder and sends each DICOM image or PDF report it finds to the device inbox, with no browser open. The folder must be on the Hero Connect computer itself, so install Hero Connect on the computer the machine saves to. As for an X-ray machine, the practice’s Enable ECG and imaging uploads and Enable the ECG device inbox must be on first (see Add an X-ray machine).

1. Click Add a device and choose Folder of exported files (ECG, other machines).
2. Enter the folder. Folder on this computer is the full path where the machine’s software saves its exports, starting with the drive letter, for example D:\ECG\Export. It must be on this computer’s own drives (Network folders can’t be used.), and it can’t be a whole drive, a system folder such as C:\Windows, a user’s profile folder itself, Hero Connect’s own folder, or a folder another device on this computer already uses.
3. Choose what to send. Under Files to send, tick DICOM images, PDF reports or both. Tick Include folders inside it if the machine saves into subfolders.
4. Click Add device. What to enter on the machine reminds you to set the machine’s software to save its exports to that folder. The row shows Watching the folder. once it is ready. Test checks that the folder is allowed, exists and can be read.

Hero Connect sends a file once it has stopped changing for a few seconds, and sends it again only if it changes. It never changes or deletes anything in the folder: the machine’s files stay where they are. In Hero, each file waits in the ECG inbox (or the DICOM dashboard’s Inbox tab) to be filed, as described in ECG & imaging files. Sending patient details to an ECG machine (Send to ECG) still uses the Chrome connection described there.

Run a check, test, restart, update or remove a computer

The buttons on a computer’s card send one fixed request to that computer. While it works on it the card says Waiting for the computer…, then how it went; Activity keeps the history. The buttons are off while the computer is offline (The computer is offline. Checks and tests are available again when it’s back online.). A request the computer never picks up fails after an hour with The computer wasn’t online, so this didn’t run.

Updates

Hero Connect updates itself when Hero releases a new version; until it has, the card shows Update available. Each update is checked against what Hero says it should be before it is installed. If a new version doesn’t start, Hero Connect goes back to the version it had, by itself, and keeps working; Update now then says The update to version … didn’t start, so Hero Connect went back to version …. Devices keep their settings through every update.

Remove a computer

• While it is online, Remove computer asks Remove Hero Connect from …? It uninstalls itself from that computer and stops sending from its devices. Anything it hasn’t sent yet stays on the computer. Click Remove.
• While it is offline (or if removing didn’t finish), Hero offers to disconnect it instead: it stops working with Hero right away, and this can’t be undone. Click Disconnect. To remove the program later, run the command Hero shows on that computer, in Windows PowerShell as administrator. It needs no internet connection.

Either way, the computer’s card then leaves Office devices, and it can’t connect again with its old key. To use it again, add it as a new computer with a new code.

The office network, Windows Firewall and the “Public” network setting

• Out to Hero only. Hero Connect connects out to Hero over HTTPS. Nothing on the internet connects in, so there is nothing to open on your router.
• In from the office network only. For each lab machine and X-ray machine, Hero Connect adds a Windows Firewall rule for that device’s port, named Hero Connect (TCP …). The rule lets in only machines on the same local network, and only while Windows treats the network as Private or Domain. With Only accept results from these addresses filled in, it lets in only those addresses. Folders need no rule. If a rule goes missing, Hero Connect adds it again.
• A fixed address. Machines send to the address shown on the computer’s card. If that address changes, every machine has to be changed, so have it reserved on your router.

Ports

Another firewall, antivirus or web filter

If your office uses a firewall or antivirus program besides Windows Firewall, ask whoever manages it to allow the ports above from the office network and the Hero Connect scheduled task. If outgoing internet traffic is filtered, the computer must be able to reach Hero over HTTPS and, for an X-ray machine, the Orthanc download site (orthanc.uclouvain.be) and Microsoft, for the Visual C++ runtime.