TOOLS, PRODUCTS, AND RESOURCES

National Electrical Manufacturers Association and the American College of Radiology Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine Standard

http://dicom.nema.org

RRP promotes collaboration between imaging sciences and radiation oncology to develop objective determinations of tumor volumes. To facilitate this collaborative research, the American College of Radiology and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) have developed Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), a standard that allows communication between medical image devices. Published by NEMA, the standard is entirely based on freely available software. NEMA recently released a 16-part update of the DICOM standard. DICOM is used by virtually all medical professionals who use images, including specialists in cardiology, endoscopy, mammography, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pathology, pediatrics, radiation therapy, radiology, and surgery. RRP has participated in the extension of DICOM to DICOM–RT, which includes objects that are unique to radiotherapy such as dose distributions and the treatment delivery parameters.