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Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine

DICOM is the international standard to transmit, store, retrieve, print, process, and display medical imaging information.

Contents

Documentation
View documentation for this standard

About this standard

Publisher
DICOM
DICOM logo
Reference code
ISB 1556
Status
Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Standard type
Technical standards and specifications
Show definitions of standard types

Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.

Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.

Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.

Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.

Contact point

dicom@dicomstandard.org

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Messaging
  • Tests and diagnostics
Care setting
Hospital

Dependencies and related standards

Dependencies

DICOM depends on coding standards below. Infrastructure and security standards outlined below are also profiled in the biomedical imaging environment (see Part 15).

  • SNOMED CT
    The preferred coding system within DICOM for anatomy, clinical findings, procedures, pharmaceutical/biologic products (including contrast agents), and other clinical terms.
  • LOINC
    Another external vocabulary referenced by DICOM; LOINC terms are extensively used in value sets and structured report templates.
  • BI-RADS
    Terminology and reporting templates are used in DICOM Structured Reports for breast imaging.
  • Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
    The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is intended for use as a reliable host-to-host protocol between hosts in packet-switched computer communication networks, and in interconnected systems of such networks. It is used by DICOM as a transport mechanism. Network Time Protocol (NTP) is also used as a part of TCP.
  • Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
    The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a stateless application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypertext information systems. DICOM uses HTTP as a transport mechanism.
  • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
    A network protocol DICOM uses for infrastructure management and security.
  • Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
    A network management protocol used by DICOM.
  • Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
    The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard is used by DICOM for network security.
  • JPEG and MPEG are recognised by DICOM as content types.
Related standards

The DICOM standard is incorporated in a variety of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise imaging related integration profiles and in imaging related resources.

Legal basis and endorsements

Legal authority

Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

Page last updated: 21 August 2024