DICOM PS3.2 2024e - Conformance

6 Purpose of a Conformance Statement

An implementation need not employ all the optional components of the DICOM Standard. After meeting the minimum general requirements, a conformant DICOM implementation may utilize whatever SOP Classes, communications protocols, Media Storage Application Profiles, optional (Type 3) Attributes, codes and controlled terminology, etc., needed to accomplish its designed task.

Note

In fact, it is expected that an implementation might only support the SOP Classes related to its Real World Activities. For example, a simple film digitizer may not support the SOP Classes for other imaging modalities since such support may not be required. On the other hand, a complex storage server might be required to support SOP Classes from multiple modalities in order to adequately function as a storage server. The choice of which components of the DICOM Standard are utilized by an implementation depends heavily on the intended application and is beyond the scope of this Standard.

In addition, the DICOM Standard allows an implementation to extend or specialize the DICOM defined SOP Classes, as well as define Private SOP Classes.

A Conformance Statement allows a user to determine which optional components of the DICOM Standard are supported by a particular implementation, and what additional extensions or specializations an implementation adds. By comparing the Conformance Statements from two different implementations, a knowledgeable user should be able to determine whether and to what extent communications might be supported between the two implementations.

The content of Conformance Statement uses a consistent structure regardless of whether the implementation supports a DIMSE interface, a DICOM Media Storage interface, a DICOM Web Service interface, DICOM Real-Time Video interface, or a combination thereof. A single Conformance Statement shall be provided with the appropriate sections filled in. Sections not relevant for the implementation shall be kept and marked as not applicable. Subsections of a section marked as not applicable need not be included in the Conformance Statement (see the template in Annex N).

Note

A Conformance Statement is permitted to either consist of a single document file, or to be a main document file that references a number of annexes contained in one or more separate document files.

The first part of the Conformance Statement contains a DICOM Conformance Statement Overview, which is typically a short summary at the beginning of the document providing a high level description of the system. It should list the transfer capabilities, DIMSE Services, Media Services, DICOM Web Services and DICOM Real-Time Video Services, including their roles (SCU/SCP, FSC, FSR, etc.), and supported Transfer Syntaxes. This overview should also include a list of all Root Templates supported by the system.

6.1 Overview of Implementation Model Section For Conformance Statements

A functional overview containing the Application Data Flow Diagram that shows all the Application Entities. It also shows how they relate to both local and remote Real-World Activities.

DICOM PS3.2 2024e - Conformance