What Is DICOM?

Abstract

You can walk with this question into the most modern, digital, state-of-theart hospital and spend hours looking for someone who could answer it correctly. We all get used to buzz words and acronyms, and rarely think about their meanings. Unfortunately, nothing distances you more from success than not knowing what you are dealing with! DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine and represents years of effort to create the most universal and fundamental standard in digital medical imaging. As such, it provides all the necessary tools for the diagnostically accurate representation and processing of medical imaging data. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, DICOM is not just an image or file format. It is an all-encompassing data transfer, storage, and display protocol built and designed to cover all functional aspects of digital medical imaging (which is why many view DICOM as a set of standards, rather than a single standard). Without a doubt, DICOM truly governs practical digital medicine. Another important acronym that seemingly all DICOM companies plug into their names is PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems). PACS are medical systems (consisting of necessary hardware and software) designed and used to run digital medical imaging. They comprise digital image acquisition devices (modalities – such as computed tomography (CT) scanners, or ultrasound), digital image archives (where the acquired images are stored), and workstations (where radiologists view the images).