The primary impetus for deploying a PACS-Neutral Archive is the consolidation of the massive volume of Radiology and Cardiology image data objects into a single, centric, enterprise-class repository. Important secondary objectives include ending costly image data migrations, supporting image data sharing across disparate PACS, and image-enabling the Electronic Medical Record portal. In all of these cases, we are focusing on DICOM image data objects. The DICOM image data object is very well defined and the vast majority of diagnostic medical imaging systems are based on the use of DICOM. It is a natural then for the PACS-Neutral Archive to focus on the acquisition, management and display of DICOM image data objects.
What is to be done with those non-DICOM image data objects?
There are a number of medical image data Sources (modalities) that produce non-DICOM data objects. In some cases these objects are the images, and in some cases these objects are clinical information associated with the images or the study. Object types include PDF, JPEG, MPEG, TIFF, WAV, and other consumer image formats.
What is the best strategy for acquiring, managing, and viewing these non-DICOM image data objects? My opinion, one that is shared by others, is that we should take advantage of all the benefits of the DICOM standard and convert non-DICOM image data objects to DICOM image data objects.
In my latest White Paper titled Best Practices Strategy for non-DICOM data in Neutral Archive, which was edited and contributed to by a number of leading developers in the industry, I discuss the Best Practices Strategy for Dealing with non-DICOM Image Data Objects in a PACS-Neutral Archive. The paper includes DICOM conversion methodologies, shortcomings of managing non-DICOM image objects in their native format, and the future role of XDS-I in image data object management.
There’s a lot of confusing information out there on this subject. This paper is a must read for those that are just planning or already deploying a Neutral Archive.