DICOM Viewers

DICOM Viewer - a Modern Digital Medical Imaging Solution

The DICOM viewer is a software application that resides on a PC as well as a server on the World Wide Web that allows health care professionals to view medical images from virtually any modality. These include x-rays, mammographies, MRIs, CTs, ultrasound and others. The DICOM viewer is also used in dentistry and increasingly, veterinary medicine as well.

The DICOM Digital Format

A DICOM viewer is in essence a "translation device" that allows for the viewing of digital images that have been saved in the DICOM file format. This format is similar to other image file formats that you may be familiar with - ".jpeg," ".png," ".gif" and ".bmp" being the most common. However, the DICOM format was especially designed for digitized medical imagery.

"DICOM" stands for Digital Image and COmmunication in Medicine. In addition to visual data, documents formatted for DICOM viewing include "meta-information" - data that is not visual, but relate to the type of scan, the date, where it was produced, the name of the doctor and most important, patient identification. Although rare, there have been times when x-rays and other images became separated from the patient from whom they were taken, sometimes with fatal results. Thanks to DICOM technology, the risk of such a mistake is virtually zero.

DICOM Viewing

In order to view medical images in DICOM format, it is necessary to have a software application known as a DICOM image viewer. While these applications can be installed in virtually any Windows, MacOS or Linux-based personal computer, there are also web based DICOM viewers.The advantage of a web DICOM viewer is that it allows any authorized party to see medical images stored in this format from any computer workstation on the Internet. This has revolutionized the way patient diagnosis and treatment is done, because a physician can now share patient data with any colleague in the world for purposes of consultation - and the implications for medical education are enormous; DICOM web viewers have added an online component to medical degree programs that were unimaginable only ten years ago.

Cost Effectiveness

A DICOM viewer and the necessary hardware was economically out of reach for all but major university medical centers and well-funded private hospitals until recently. As has been the case with all technology, the cost of DICOM systems has fallen drastically over the past decade. Today's small clinic or private practice can purchase or lease its own DICOM system for a third of the cost today; in addition, the PACS system of which the DICOM viewer is an integrated part greatly cuts down on the amount of time required to process and archive medical images and associated patient records.