What digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) could look likein common object request broker (CORBA) and extensible markup language (XML)

Common object request broker architecture (CORBA) is a method for invoking distributed objects across a network. There has been some activity in apply ing this software technology to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medic ine (DICOM), but no documented demonstration of how this would actually wor k. We report a CORBA demonstration that is functionally equivalent and in s ome ways superior to the DICOM communication protocol. In addition, in and outside of medicine, there is great interest in the use of extensible marku p language (XML) to provide interoperation between databases. An example im plementation of the DICOM data structure in XML will also be demonstrated. Using Visibroker ORE from Inprise (Scotts Valley, CA), a test bed was devel oped to simulate the principle DICOM operations: store, query, and retrieve (SQR). SOR is the most common interaction between a modality device applic ation entity (AE) such as a computed tomography (CT) scanner, and a storage component, as well as between a storage component and a workstation. The s torage of a CT study by invoking one of several storage objects residing on a network was simulated and demonstrated. In addition, XML database descri ptors were used to facilitate the transfer of DICOM header information betw een independent databases. CORBA is demonstrated to have great potential fo r the next version of DICOM. It can provide redundant protection against si ngle points of failure. XML appears to be an excellent method of providing interaction between separate databases managing the DICOM information objec t model, and may therefore eliminate the common use of proprietary client-s erver databases in commercial implementations of picture archiving and comm unication systems (PACS). Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.