This paper describes why and how DICOM, the standard that has been the basis for medical imaging interoperability around the world for several decades, has been extended into a full web technology-based standard, DICOMweb. At the turn of the century, healthcare embraced information technology, which created new problems and new opportunities for the medical imaging industry; at the same time, web technologies matured and began serving other domains well. This paper describes DICOMweb, how it extended the DICOM standard, and how DICOMweb can be applied to problems facing healthcare applications to address workflow and the changing healthcare climate.

There has been much discussion on the topic of lossy image compression within the medical imaging community, with much of the focus on the potential clinical impact and business benefits. The implications of applying irreversible lossy compression to images as it relates to informatics and management is often not considered thoroughly. Why Use Lossy Compression? Common motivations include as follows: & Less storage required-Smaller files mean reduced capital and operational costs. & More data available on-line-If a typical cache and archive storage model is used, smaller files mean more studies on-line and fewer retrievals from the archive. & Faster retrieval-Less data mean faster retrieval from storage (cache and archive). & Less network bandwidth consumed-Smaller files take up less of your "pipe" and get to the destination faster. & Faster display-Smaller files typically consume fewer resources in the viewing application, resulting in faster access and rendering compared to an equivalent lossless compressed image.