Patient data security in the DICOM standard.

The DICOM committee added the section "Security Profiles" to the DICOM standard, in order to provide the opportunity of safe communication between health care system partners. Data complying with the DICOM standard--e.g. pictures, signals or reports of examinations can be provided with one or more digital signatures. Attention should be paid to the fact that these possibilities of the DICOM standard are available or can be supplied subsequently by new acquisitions of radiological modalities. The required information to check these prerequisites are given.