Enterprise integration and cross enterprise data exchange are key considerations that are also predicated on the successful deployment of standards.ĭavid Clunie is a retired neuroradiologist, medical informaticist, DICOM open source software author, editor of the DICOM standard and independent consultant. High volume operational use requires attention to the workflow and appropriate acquisition and reporting management standards need to be selected and implemented. The role of meta data and the importance of anticipating annotation interchange is also examined, particularly from the perspective of automated and interactive analytic applications. Decisions in the design of the DICOM WSI standard are considered in light of experience with similar proprietary formats. The lessons learned from other specialties about the advantages and disadvantages of DICOM are considered for a range of use cases.
Though the regulatory issues of modular systems remain to be resolved, standards do exist and are being implemented, as the success of recent DICOM Connectathons demonstrates. As WSI begins to permeate routine clinical anatomical pathology workflow globally, confusion reigns as to the role of standard rotocols and formats for image interchange and storage, as opposed to proprietary monolithic systems.
