diff -uNr a/src/dicomdict.cpp b/src/dicomdict.cpp
--- a/src/dicomdict.cpp	2011-12-20 15:52:53.000000000 -0500
+++ b/src/dicomdict.cpp	2017-04-27 09:05:53.295379421 -0400
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
  */
 
 #include "octave/oct.h"
+#include "octave/octave.h"
+#include "octave/interpreter.h"
 #include "octave/load-path.h"
 
 #include "gdcm-2.0/gdcmDict.h"
@@ -256,12 +258,23 @@
 	}
 
 	// find dic if it is anywhere in the search path (same path as for m-files etc)
+	std::string resolved_filename(filename);
+
 #ifndef NOT_OCT
-	const std::string resolved_filename=load_path::find_file(std::string(filename)) ;
-#else
-        // for debugging: if not running in octave, find_file always returns ""
-	// so we just use the original filename
-	const std::string resolved_filename(filename);
+        // Temporary fix.  Eventually, a pointer to the Octave
+        // interpreter should come from information passed to the
+        // DEFUN function that called us, not from global data.
+
+        octave::interpreter *interp = octave::application::the_interpreter ();
+
+        if (interp)
+          {
+            octave::load_path& lp = interp->get_load_path ();
+
+            resolved_filename = lp.find_file (std::string (filename));
+          }
+        else
+          warning ("load_dicom_dict: interpreter context missing");
 #endif
 
 	std::ifstream fin(resolved_filename.c_str());