DICOM – The Industry’s Equivalent of a .pdf File

The word DICOM has a certain buzz about it in the medical imaging community. A substantial part of IXICO’s business revolves around DICOM data analysis. However, despite the large amount of information available in DICOM format, we can testify from experience that it still remains hazy to many. Below is a short description that explains how DICOM came about and its relevance to the imaging community.

DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine. It was developed in the 1980s and eventually adopted by the medical imaging community to allow for ease of communication and data transfer. DICOM can be thought of as the medical imaging field’s equivalent of a .pdf file or the lingua franca for imaging systems.

The development of a universal industry standard was imperative as digital imaging began to be widely used. Although the 1980s saw the proliferation of magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, both of which allowed for an unparallel level of image detail, the emphasis is now on easy connectivity and seamless communication between different imaging devices to boost efficiency and workflow.

The imaging devices were initially designed as isolated equipment with their unique printing and archiving methods. Equipment vendors were thus free to use their own propriety formats for storing imaging data. An image from one vendor could not be viewed using another’s viewer. Adding to this, it came to the point that the vendors would alter formats such that images from older devices could not be read by newer ones. Slight changes in image formats made it a nightmare for display workstations as they were forced to accommodate each new format.

DICOM was born out of the need to develop an imaging standard that would simplify data transfer and archiving between the many vendors. The DICOM format is now a universal imaging standard that is compatible with different brands, modalities, and models of imaging devices. A DICOM committee of radiologists, imaging equipment manufacturers, and engineers are tasked with periodically producing technical guidelines regarding transfer between devices, archives, printers and display workstations. Major imaging equipment manufacturers are also encouraged to produce DICOM conformance statements for their equipment.

DICOM is now the industry standard for medical images. It has made things easier for devices to communicate, raised awareness for connectivity amongst consumers, immensely enhanced collaboration between manufacturers to improve their products, and had a dramatic impact on clinical workflows.