Innovation and advantage of the DICOM ECG standard for viewing, interchange and permanent archiving of the diagnostic electrocardiogram

The DICOM standard is a set of rules that allows medical images to be digitally exchanged, viewed and archived. Since the year 2000 the widely used DICOM standard has included rules for diagnostic ECG waveforms, but for a long time, no ECG manufacturer had marketed electrocardiographs that support the DICOM waveform standard. It was spring 2006 before the first ECG manufacturer announced its adoption of the DICOM standard for diagnostic electrocardiographs. Diagnostic 12 lead DICOM ECGs sent to DICOM network servers can be reviewed on DICOM workstations in conjunction with typical DICOM images like cardiovascular angiographic x-ray and cardiac US images. In DICOM the clinician has access to comprehensive medical information that provides essential decision support for evaluating patients. The implementation of a vendor neutral DICOM solution allows healthcare providers to connect a variety of electrocardiographs from different vendors to DICOM servers and no proprietary ECG management system for ECG data will be required.