DICOMconnect: The IEC 62304-Certified DCMTK wrapper

[Markus Sabin]

Dear forum reader,

with the courtesy of the DCMTK team, I am allowed to announce a non-non-commercial DCMTK application here.

We are happy to announce the release of DICOMconnect V03.00 which is a high-level DICOM-library for C++ based on DCMTK.
DCMTK is a great toolkit – it has been offering robust DICOM functionality since decades. However, implementing DCMTK in a medical device application can still be a challenging task, because:
• It still requires profound knowledge about the DICOM Standard and its practical application
• It comes without any quality assurance

This is the idea behind DICOMconnect. DICOMconnect wraps DCMTK functionality behind a high-level API. It provides an event-driven approach for implementing the typical DICOM workflow for an acquisition modality, that is, rather than implementing individual DICOM functions, it is suitable to encapsulate events (user refreshes worklist, device starts examination, image-/video-/PDF-data is acquired, examination completed) and triggers the corresponding DICOM network communication. Particular attention has been paid to the transition of information between different services, e.g. the DICOM header for an image can be constructed from a worklist record.

On the QA end, an ISO 13845-certified manufacturer has developed DICOMconnect. It is classified as a safety class B component according to IEC 62304. All relevant documentation, including hazard management, risk mitigation measures and test evidence is part of DICOMconnect’s development documentation. This reduces the effort for QM activities related to the implementation of DICOM functionality dramatically.

During our workshops, we have shown several times that a workable DICOM interface with worklist, image creation and storage can be developed within half an hour.
If you are interested to learn more about DICOMconnect, please visit our website or send an e-mail to our connectivity team: dicomconnect@soft-gate.de