DICOM standard

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine — the international standard for the storage, transmission, and communication of medical images and associated clinical information, enabling interoperability between imaging equipment from different manufacturers and between different healthcare information systems; DICOM was developed in the 1980s through a collaboration between the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), with the first version published in 1985 and the current DICOM standard (version 3.0) established in 1993 and continuously updated since; DICOM defines file formats for medical images — each DICOM file contains both the pixel data of the image and a header with structured metadata about the patient, study, equipment settings, and acquisition parameters; DICOM also defines network communication protocols enabling imaging devices, PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems), and hospital information systems to exchange data; the ubiquitous adoption of DICOM has been transformative for radiology, enabling filmless departments, teleradiology, and AI-based image analysis

Examples

• The radiology department's PACS stores all images in DICOM format, enabling any workstation on the network to retrieve and display studies.
• DICOM compliance ensures that an MRI scanner from one manufacturer can send images directly to a reporting workstation or AI analysis tool from a different vendor.

Synonyms: DICOM, ACR-NEMA standard, medical image standard