The VA's use of DICOM to integrate image data seamlessly into the online patient record.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is using the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard to integrate image data objects from multiple systems for use across the healthcare enterprise. DICOM uses a structured representation of image data and a communication mechanism that allows the VA to easily acquire radiology images and store them directly into the online patient record. Images can then be displayed on low-cost clinician's workstations throughout the medical center. High-resolution diagnostic quality multi-monitor VistA workstations with specialized viewing software can be used for reading radiology images. Various image and study specific items from the DICOM data object are essential for the correct display of images. The VA's DICOM capabilities are now used to interface seven different commercial Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and over twenty different radiology image acquisition modalities.