The DICOM standard : a brief overview

Abstract : The DICOM standard has now become the uncontested standard for the exchange and management of biomedical images. Everyone acknowledges its prominent role in the emergence of multi-vendor Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), and their successful integration with Hospital Information Systems and Radiology Information Systems, thanks to the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative. We introduce here the basic concepts retained for the definition of objects and services in DICOM, with the hope that it will help the reader to find his or her way in the vast DICOM documentation available on the web.