DICOM reference guide.

The Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard, known as DICOM, exists to facilitate communications between imaging devices and systems. By dictating specific data and interface requirements, DICOM helps ensure that devices--particularly devices made by different suppliers--can communicate with one another. Unfortunately, because different devices can implement the standard in different ways, not all devices that comply with the standard will be compatible. Thus, it's not enough for healthcare facilities to determine whether a device complies with the DICOM standard; they must also analyze how each device complies with the standard. This Reference Guide is intended to provide readers with the background information they need to perform such analyses. The Guide includes the following articles: THE BASICS: This article provides a brief overview of DICOM for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the standard. THE DETAILS: This article focuses on the specific DICOM components that readers will need to understand when working with the standard. EVALUATING DICOM CONFORMANCE STATEMENTS: This article describes how to determine whether, and to what degree, two devices will support communication with one another. In addition to offering detailed, step-by-step guidance, we include a DICOM Compatibility Matching Form to help readers organize the data they'll be analyzing during the evaluation process.