DICOM Tutorials
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. ~ Helen Keller
Background
This is a series of articles on the DICOM® standard which plays a crucial role in nearly all diagnostic medicine-related workflows such as modality imaging, image transfer, image storage, procedures, printing, and interpretation. I hope this series of articles is useful to programmers and other information technology personnel who are new to this field by providing a quick and yet broad understanding necessary of the fundamentals before they attempt to build DICOM applications or participate in any DICOM-related initiatives. Also, a quick disclaimer that I do not serve on the DICOM standards committee. So, you should to refer to the standard itself and its latest recommendations before starting any project involving this standard.
Overview Tutorials
Introduction to the DICOM Standard
A Very Short Introduction to the HL7 2.x Standard
Understanding DICOM Structured Reports
HL7 V3 Standard - A High-Level Overview
Overview of IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise)
Use of Coded Vocabularies and Nomenclatures in DICOM and HL7
Basics of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)
HIPAA and Regulatory Compliance for Healthcare
SOC Reports and their role in Healthcare
GDPR - An Overview for Software Developers
DICOM Programming with Java
DICOM Programming with .NET
Interactive Learning
Test Your Knowledge
Challenge yourself with our comprehensive DICOM quiz to reinforce your understanding of medical imaging standards.
Take the QuizResources
DICOM Toolkits
DICOM Viewers & PACS Applications
Additional Considerations
For the Java tutorials in the DICOM programming series, I use the freely available and easy to use PixelMed Java DICOM Library. For the .NET tutorials in the DICOM programming series, I use another freely available and open source toolkit called Fellow Oak (fo-dicom) DICOM Library. Although I like these implementations, you should be aware that there are a number of other toolkits (such as dcm4che, DicomObjects and DCMTK which are as good if not better in some respects) on the market. You should be able to follow along easily with any other toolkit (open source or otherwise) if you wish to do so as many of the DICOM-related concepts I explain in my tutorials are implemented by all these toolkits in some form or the other.
Disclaimer
I want to make a disclaimer about these articles. I do not serve on the DICOM standards committee. Therefore, I must caution you to take the information provided here with a grain of salt, and ultimately refer to the standard itself and its latest recommendations before starting any project involving the standard. For more information about the standard, you can visit its main site here.
If you have any questions or comments regarding these articles/tutorials, please feel free to send me an email. Please note that I may not get back to you right away due to work and other commitments.