Image file interoperability for data protection, communication and trans-system connectivity.

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) is a set of international imaging standards developed for medicine and extended to incorporate other professions. These standards encompass primary digital and secondary capture images made for dental diagnostic procedures. The standards provide a basis of interoperability for digital system outputs, providing portability and reducing the danger of obsolescence that would render valuable diagnostic information impossible to display. The American Dental Association, through the activities of its Working Group 12.1, is promoting interoperability within DICOM as the industry standard for digital imaging in dentistry.