Components proposal for medical images and HIS

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a standard for the medical imaging area. Modern equipment for the acquisition of images has a DICOM interface, which allows interoperability between the equipment and storage in files in the same format. However, it is desirable that the images and their related information be integrated into the hospital information system (HIS). The computerisation of a hospital, in an integrated manner, is not an easy task. Developing information systems that can integrate medical image data with the rest of the hospital´s information, without developing interfaces which can compromise the system´s performance, is necessary in order to add such characteristics into the information system itself. The growing technology of components allows the development of modulated systems with the advantages attributed by the object technology. In this way, this paper presents an object model that represents the information contained in DICOM files, in order to create software components that facilitate systems development. The model is a result of a study of the DICOM specifications and the analysis made from the file reading, through the implemented system. This work intends to direct the use of components to integrate the contents of the DICOM files with the other data in the HIS, through the specification of an example from the proposed model