.. index:: DICOM
.. index:: .dcm, .dicom

DICOM
===============================================================================

Extensions: .dcm, .dicom

Developer: `National Electrical Manufacturers Association <https://www.nema.org/>`_


**Support**


BSD-licensed: |yes|

Export: |yes|

Officially Supported Versions: 

Reader: DicomReader (:bsd-reader:`Source Code <DicomReader.java>`, :doc:`Supported Metadata Fields </metadata/DicomReader>`)

Writer: DicomWriter (:bsd-writer:`Source Code <DicomWriter.java>`)

Freely Available Software:

- `OsiriX Medical Imaging Software <http://www.osirix-viewer.com/>`_ 
- `ezDICOM <http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/ezdicom.html>`_ 
- `Wikipedia's list of freeware health software <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freeware_health_software>`_

Sample Datasets:

- `MRI Chest from FreeVol-3D web site <http://members.tripod.com/%7Eclunis_immensus/free3d/hk-40.zip>`_ 
- `Medical Image Samples from Sebastien Barre's Medical Imaging page <https://barre.dev/medical/samples>`_ 
- `DICOM sample image sets from OsiriX web site <http://www.osirix-viewer.com/resources/dicom-image-library/>`_

We currently have:

* `DICOM specification documents <http://dicom.nema.org/dicom/2007/>`_ (PS 3 - 2007, from 2006 December 28, in DOC and PDF) 
* numerous DICOM datasets
* `public sample images <https://downloads.openmicroscopy.org/images/DICOM/>`__



**Ratings**


Pixels: |Very good|

Metadata: |Very good|

Openness: |Very good|

Presence: |Good|

Utility: |Fair|

**Additional Information**


* DICOM stands for "Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine". 
* Bio-Formats supports both compressed and uncompressed DICOM files. 
* Support for reading and writing DICOM whole slide images (DICOM WSI format) was implemented through collaboration with `NCI Imaging Data Commons <https://datacommons.cancer.gov/repository/imaging-data-commons/>`_  and has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Task Order No. HHSN26110071 under Contract No. HHSN2612015000031. 

If you have a problematic DICOM file which you cannot send us for privacy 
reasons, please send us the exact error message and be aware that it may take 
several attempts to fix the problem blind. 

.. seealso:: 
  `DICOM homepage <https://www.dicomstandard.org/>`_