DICOM

DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine and is an international standard for open, vendor-independent exchange of information in medicine. The standard is supported worldwide by all leading providers of medical imaging and is also fully established among users in clinics and practices.

 

DICOM essentially defines data and exchange formats for image data or video data and for bio-signals. Added is also supplement information such as e.g. findings or clinical data, annotations, image registration and image segmentation.

 

In addition to the data formats DICOM also specifies communication protocols for the exchange of data between systems of different manufacturers. These protocols define e.g. the network transfer of a CT image data of a computer tomography into a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) or to a diagnostic workstation.

 

Data formats and transmission protocols are defined for almost all relevant imaging systems in medicine. Almost classical methods at this are digital x-ray, CT, MRI or ultrasound in radiology. Similarly, angiography and echocardiography have been standardized for some time. In recent years, the standard has always been evolved and now also covers video data, e.g. in endoscopy, as well as bio-signals, e.g. ECGs. Also for radiotherapy special data formats (DICOM RT) are defined. Interoperability has been upgraded and new diagnostic techniques such as tomosynthesis are considered.

 

Thus the DICOM standard is the basis for a future-proof digital archiving and communication platform in the Enterprise PACS for hospitals and clinics but also for the inter-sectoral communication. In addition to the HL7 standard DICOM is an important standard within the IHE initiative.

 

In principle VISUS is open with its products and solutions for the vendor independent connectivity and integration. Therefore VISUS actively supports the development of communication standards.

 

Because of the complexity of the DICOM standard, it is useful to review in advance of an investment decision the actual supported interfaces of all relevant providers. Information about this will be given by the standardized DICOM Conformance Statements of the respective manufacturers. Any manufacturer who supports DICOM should be able to provide such a document. Most providers also offer these for download.

 

Here are the DICOM Conformance Statements for the VISUS JiveX products. If you miss an interface, then please let us know.  

External Links

Official DICOM Homepage: medical.nema.org

American College of Radiology: www.acr.org

Radiological Society of North America: www.rsna.org

Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DICOM