DICOM-X - seamless integration of medical images into the EHR

Since its first recommendation by the World-Wide-Web Consortium (W3C) in 1998, the extensible markup language (XML) has had an enormous impact in the IT world. To date, many formerly proprietary data structures have been converted, using existing and well established semantic structures to act in concert with the ubiquitously accessible and processable XML syntax. However, the real power of XML and it's family of specifications is still often underestimated and not completely utilized. XML syntax provides a solid foundation for interoperability and data integration but could be perceived as ordinary without the 'sparks' of further processing capabilities! This paper describes how the XML family of specifications can make a true difference in seamlessly integrating medical images into the electronic health record (EHR). Converting DICOMs proprietary syntax into XML was just the beginning.