DICOM
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine — the medical imaging interoperability standard. Every modern scanner, PACS, workstation, viewer, and AI system speaks DICOM.
Core concepts
- AE (Application Entity) Title — network identifier (case-sensitive!)
- SOP Class — a specific DICOM function (Store, Modality Worklist, Print, MPPS)
- Transfer Syntax — encoding format (Explicit / Implicit VR, compressed vs uncompressed)
- Conformance Statement — exactly what a device supports
Common operations
- C-STORE — send images to archive
- Modality Worklist (C-FIND) — pull scheduled exams
- MPPS — announce procedure start/complete
Common trip points
- Case-sensitive AE titles (spec is, in places, case-insensitive; implementations aren't)
- Transfer syntax mismatch — "echo works, store fails"
- Connection timeouts on slow networks