The veterinary DICOM validation is an ongoing project where DICOM conformance by vendors marketing equipment to veterinarians is tested.

Participation in the veterinary DICOM validation is voluntary.  There is no official body that has the authority to enforce conformance with this standard. There is no certification or testing authority to verify claims of conformance. Each of the vendors listed below voluntarily submitted their images for evaluation. They are commended for their willingness to place their products on public display in an effort to advance veterinary informatics.

All images submitted for validation will be reviewed by the staff at DVMinsight and Dr. Dave Harvey and/or Dr. David Clunie who are recognized experts in the field of DICOM. All images that are submitted are available for future validation on the Animal Insides Veterinary Image Repository. The repository can be accessed at http://www.dvminsight.com/showdown. 

Images are tested for conformance to the DICOM Image Object Definition Standard for the type of DICOM object (DX or CR) sent to the server. Remember, this is only one facet of the DICOM Standard. For further information about your vendor's DICOM conformance with other DICOM services you must check the vendor's DICOM conformance statement. For general information about DICOM and what these results mean, please feel free to contact ANIMAL INSIDES. 

An open source DICOM validation toolkit ( http://www.dvtk.org) and Validator Included in DICOM3 Tools (http://www.dclunie.com/dicom3tools/dciodvfy.html) were used as the standard for conformance. 

Validation Rules: 

• Vendors must sumit a series of images from a working veterinary installation or working unit at the Annual Veterinary Digital Radiography SHOWDOWN.
  
• Vendors are able to resubmit images without penalty in the event that the images do not conform to the DICOM standard. Vendors have 30 days from the time of submission to correct any errors. During that time, the vendor will appear in the "submitted and in process list."
• Grading:
  
• Pass: No errors
• Pass and suports veterinary attributes
• NOT PASS: If there are errors with any of the atrributes included in the image, the images will receive a fail. If veterinary attributes are included anywhere in the image and the vendor does not appropriately utilize the veterinary attributes included in the DICOM standard, this will result in an automatic NOT PASS.
  
  

PASS

1. BIORAY DENTAL
2. EKLIN MEDICAL SYSTEMS
3. FUJI - with supportof veterinary attributes
   
4. HUDSON DIGITAL SYSTEMS - with support of veterinary attributes
5. ImaSight - with support of veterinary attributes
   
6. SCHICK DENTAL
7. SIMON DR - with support of veterinary attributes
8. SOUND TECHNOLOGIES- with support of veterinary attributes
   
9. SUMMIT (Innovet) - with support of veterinary attributes
10. VETEL - with support of veterinary attributes
    
    

NOT PASS

1. AFP DENTAL
2. AFP WHOLE BODY
3. AGFA
   
4. IDEXX
5. KONICA
6. MERLIN
   
7. SEDECAL
8. VJ Medical Systems
   
   
9. ALLPRO VISIX
10. ALLPRO METRON
    
11. FOVEA
12. QUANTUM

NOTE: Failing to pass does not indicate that the vendors images are lacking in diagnostic value. Rather, it indicates that there are critical errors that caused these vendors to not receive a passing grade. This is important to the practicing veterinarian because these errors may prvent images from opening in some DICOM viewers, being received by some DICOM servers, or may make it difficult to migrate your images to a new PACS vendor in the future. If you have specific questions about a vendors DICOM compliance, please contact ANIMAL INSIDES for details.

NOTE: Any vendor who would like to submit images for evaluation and be added to this list is encouraged to submit their images. Images must be sent directly from an existing veterinary digital radiography installation. Any vendor who appears on this list and would like to resubmit images for re-review is welcome to do so. This website is current and will be updated to reflect all new submissions.

NOTE: If a vendor you are interested in purchasing equipment from does not appear on this list, please encourage them to submit images for review. There is no fee for evaluation.