Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
DICOM is the international standard to transmit, store, retrieve, print, process, and display medical imaging information.
About this standard
- Owner
- DICOM
- Status
- Active
Show definitions of statuses
Active standards are stable, maintained and have been assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Standards in development are APIs or API standards in alpha or beta, meaning they are available for use but are still in progress and may change.
Deprecated standards are older versions of a standard which are being phased out.
Retired standards are not being maintained and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Technical standards and specifications
Show definitions of standard types
Record standards define what information to collect and how to format it, for example when registering a new patient.
Data definitions and terminologies define the format of individual data items so they can be consistently represented, for example dates or medication names. Reference sets and controlled lists are also included.
Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
Information codes of practice are legal or best practice guidelines on how information should be handled.
- Contact details
- dicom@dicomstandard.org
Link to standard
- Documentation
- View documentation for this standardopens in a new tab
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Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Messaging
- Tests and diagnostics
- Care setting
- Hospital
- GP / Primary care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
- DICOM uses both TCP/IP and HTTP as transport mechanisms, while JPEG and MPEG are recognised as content types. It also has its own standard Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type.
- DICOM embraces broadly based network protocols for infrastructure management and security (e.g., LDAP, DHCP, NTP, SAML, etc.). DICOM profiles the use of those Standards in the biomedical imaging environment (see Part 15).
- SCCI0034: SNOMED CT is the preferred coding system within DICOM for anatomy, clinical findings, procedures, pharmaceutical/biologic products (including contrast agents), and other clinical terms.
- LOINC is 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.
- Related standards
The DICOM standard is incorporated in a variety of imaging related Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) integration profiles, and in imaging related HL7 FHIR resources. ISO12052:2017 is a normative reference to the DICOM standard.
Assurance and endorsements
- Reference code for standards issued as requirements in England
- ISB1556
- Quality assurance
This standard has been approved by the Information Standards Board (now replaced) and published as an information standard notice (ISN).
- Endorsements
None
Page last updated: 11 October 2022