The DICOM Standard is an evolving standard and it is maintained in accordance with the Procedures of the DICOM Standards Committee. Proposals for enhancements are welcome from all users of the Standard, and may be submitted to the Secretariat. Supplements and corrections to the Standard are balloted and approved several times a year. When approved as Final Text, each change becomes official, is published separately, and goes into effect immediately. At intervals, all of the approved Final Text changes are consolidated and published in an updated edition of the Standard. Once changes are consolidated into an updated edition of the Standard, the individual change documents are not maintained; readers are directed to use the consolidated edition of the Standard.

A requirement in updating the Standard is to maintain effective compatibility with previous editions.

The maintenance process may involve retirement of sections of the Standard.

Retirement does not imply that these features cannot be used. However, the DICOM Standards Committee will not maintain the documentation of retired features. The reader is referred to earlier editions of the Standard.

The use of the retired features is discouraged for new implementations, in favor of those alternatives remaining in the Standard.