Kaldoudi Eleni, Karaiskakis Dimosthenis
School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis GR-68100, Greece.
Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2006 Feb;81(2):117-27. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2005.09.007. Epub 2006 Jan 18.
The Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) protocol is currently the ubiquitous standard for the communication of medical images and related data within the radiology department. However, seamless image distribution within the healthcare enterprise and especially with research and educational information systems is still hard to achieve, as software developers of such third-party applications have to go through the rather cumbersome task of adapting the DICOM communication model and implementing the DICOM protocol. This paper gives a brief outline of current trends in medical image distribution in the healthcare enterprise, and proposes a new technological approach for distributing DICOM images and related data through commonplace Internet technologies, based on the emerging web services software paradigm. In particular, the paper describes the DICOM Image Management (DIM) web service which acts as a façade for conventional DICOM sources allowing DICOM image data and related information, to be transformed into XML documents encapsulated in SOAP messages, enabling integration at the application level through general purpose standardized web technologies. Implementation issues are discussed and a demonstration of engaging the DIM web service is included.
医学数字成像和通信（DICOM）协议目前是放射科内部医学图像及相关数据通信的普遍标准。然而，在医疗企业内部，尤其是与研究和教育信息系统之间实现无缝图像分发仍然困难重重，因为此类第三方应用程序的软件开发人员必须经历适配DICOM通信模型和实施DICOM协议这一相当繁琐的任务。本文简要概述了医疗企业中医学图像分发的当前趋势，并基于新兴的网络服务软件范式，提出了一种通过常见互联网技术分发DICOM图像及相关数据的新技术方法。特别是，本文描述了DICOM图像管理（DIM）网络服务，它充当传统DICOM源的外观，允许将DICOM图像数据及相关信息转换为封装在SOAP消息中的XML文档，从而通过通用标准化网络技术在应用程序级别实现集成。文中讨论了实施问题，并给出了使用DIM网络服务的演示。
