Integration of heterogeneous systems via DICOM and the clinical image access service

In this paper we present a proposal for the integration of DICOM Structured Reporting (DICOM SR) and the Clinical Image Access Service (CIAS). The advantage of this approach is that the structure of information defined by the DICOM SR is well known and can be understood through institutions with little effort. It is also important because we believe that DICOM SR will be widely adopted together with the CORBAmed specification. The DICOM SR and the CIAS models were integrated by mapping the nodes of DICOM SR into observations and the relationships of DICOM SR (HAS PROPERTY, CONTAINS, etc.) to observation reference objects. For a more complete union of the standards the mapped information (in both directions) can be accessed by the Structured Reporting Object Model (SROM) which makes transparent the navigation in the tree nodes, supporting different implementations for the same interface. The union of these standards brings together the best side of each one, giving semantics to CIAS while improving DICOM through transparency of location, naming service and easier integration of legacy systems.