Digital imaging and communications in medicine

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for transmitting, storing, retrieving, printing, and sharing medical imaging. It was developed by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).

History

The DICOM standard was first published in 1993, replacing an earlier standard known as ACR-NEMA Version 2. It has been widely adopted by hospitals and is making inroads into smaller applications like dentists' and doctors' offices.

Overview

DICOM enables the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network hardware from multiple manufacturers into a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The different devices come with DICOM Conformance Statements which state what optional parts of the DICOM standard they support.

Structure

DICOM is divided into services, most of which involve transmission of data over a network. The most common service is C-STORE, where one device sends images (or other data) to another device. There are also services to query (C-FIND) and retrieve (C-GET or C-MOVE) data.

File format

DICOM files typically have a .dcm file extension. They consist of a header with metadata in a fixed format, followed by image data in one of several formats.

Applications

DICOM is used worldwide to store, exchange, and transmit medical images. It is also used for the exchange of non-image data such as ECG waveforms and structured reporting.

See also

• Health Level 7
• Medical Imaging
• Radiology Information System
• Picture Archiving and Communication System

References

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