MINUTES
MINUTES: DICOM STANDARDS COMMITTEE
PLACE OF MEETING: NEMA HEADQUARTERS
ROSSLYN, VIRGINIA
DATES AND TIMES: WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1998
9:00 A.M.
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1998
8:00 A.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
VENDORS
Krishna AnedathKonica Medical Corporation
David BestEastman Kodak
Robert ChuNikon
David ClunieGE Medical Systems
Girish HaganAGFA
Bernard HayesCanon Research Center America
Keith KlassyCamtronics Medical Systems
Makoto OgodaFuji
Dwight SimonMerge Technologies
Doug SluisATL, Inc.
Kees SmedemaPhilips Medical Systems
Lawrence TarboxSiemens Medical System
USERS
Michel BergAmerican Academy of Neurology
Dean Bidgood American College of Radiology
Brent DoveAmerica Dental Association
Steven Horii American College of Radiology
Lloyd Hildebrand*American Academy of Ophthalmology
Alan RowbergAmerican College of Radiology
GENERAL INTEREST
Robert Britain*NEMA
MEMBERS ABSENT
VENDORS
Alvin BeldenShared Medical Systems Corp.
William GreenwayInfiMed
David HeaneyALI Technologies#
Janet KeyesLORAD
Sundar KingsleyDeJarnette Research Systems
Andrew MacleanToshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.#
Manning PhilipsEMED#
Tim CramerPicker International
Ed SchiefferSterling Diagnostic Imaging#
Anthony SimonImation Corporation
Todd TreiberStorCOMM, Inc.#
Rainer WaedlichIFA Systems Group
# Do not count toward the quorum at meeting
USERS
Ulysses BalisCollege of American Pathologist
Louis KormanAmerican Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy#
Johan HC ReiberEuropean Society of Cardiology
Ruediger SimonEuropean Society of Cardiology#
#Do not count toward the quorum at meeting
GENERAL INTEREST
Sun KimKorean PACS Standard Committee
Loren ZarembaCenter for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA
Jennifer ZelmerCanadian Institute for Health Informatics#
# Do not count toward a quorum at the meeting
OTHERS PRESENT
Bob Hartland+ACR Staff
Jeffrey MarkleyInfiMed, Inc.
James Potter+ACR Staff
Vicki Schofield*NEMA
Hidenori ShinodaToshiba Corp.
David SnavelyNEMA Staff
*Wednesday only+Thursday only
PRESIDING OFFICERS: STEVEN HORII AND DAVID BEST,
CO-CHAIRMEN
1.APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
The minutes of the DICOM Standards Committee meeting held March 17-18, 1998 were reviewed. It was noted that LORAD was left off the list of vendors absent. The minutes were then approved as amended including all the action items of the March meeting.
2.ELECTION OF NEW MEMBERS
There were four applications for vendor membership on the DICOM Standards Committee. Applicants were StorCOMM, Canon, ALI Technologies, and Fuji. The motion was made and approved to accept all four companies as members of the DICOM Standards Committee.
3.REQUEST TO BE ON WORKING GROUP
Members approved the request by Nicholas Brown to be on WG 11.
4.PROPOSED NEW WORK ITEM
David Clunie presented a proposal for a new work item for WG 5 on UDF Interchange Media Extensions (Exhibit A). The motion was made and passed to approve the new work item on UDF Interchange Extensions. In addition to the work item request there was a request to establish liaison with OSTA which is a industry consortium which defines the UDF standard. Members discussed a liaison with OSTA and the consensus was that a liaison should be established but with no cost to the DICOM Standards Committee. The motion was made and passed that WG 5 establish a liaison with OSTA with no cost to the DICOM Standards Committee.
5.REQUEST FOR WORKING GROUP STATUS
Lloyd Hildebrand presented a proposal for a working group for ophthalmology (Exhibit B). The question was raised of the relationship of this group to the VL and SR working groups. It was suggested that a single supplement be developed in cooperation with VL and SR. The number of the new working group would be 9. The motion was made and passed to approve the creation of a new working group for ophthalmology.
6.REPORTS FROM THE WORKING GROUPS
WORKING GROUP 1 (CARDIAC AND VASCULAR INFORMATION)
In the absence of the WG 1 Chairman, David Clunie presented a brief report. No written report was submitted. Two demonstrations were presented at the ACC meeting, one was a DICOM network demonstration and the other was a waveform demonstration for removable media. The ACC also presented the results of the JPEG lossy compression study at the meeting. Full details of the study have not been published. The waveform supplement has not been released for public comment yet.
Concern was expressed that a formal position from WG 1 with respect to their position on DVD is needed and their need to work closely with WG 5. Also there is a need for WG 1 to report to WG 6 on where they are and what they may need from WG 6 in the future. Especially of concern was the lack of a written report of WG 1 activities for the DICOM Standards Committee meetings. David Clunie will discuss these concerns with Tom Kennedy, the Co-Chairman of WG 1.
WORKING GROUP 2 (DIGITAL X RAY)
Brent Dove, Chairman of WG 2, prepared a written report (Exhibit C) which was distributed at the meeting. He reported that WG 2 is working with ADA to get a demonstration together for Supplement 32 Digital X Ray. WG 2 will be presenting the Digital X Ray Supplement to WG 6 at their June meeting for approval to send out a letter ballot.
WORKING GROUP 3 (NUCLEAR MEDICINE)
There was no report from WG 3.
WORKING GROUP 4 (COMPRESSION)
In the absence of the WG 4 Chairman, David Clunie presented a brief report. No written report was submitted. The JPEG 2000 Committee is interested in incorporating medical into the JPEG Standard. WG 4 has provided the JPEG 2000 Committee with medical images for them to compress with their algorithms and then WG 4 will have the medical community do an evaluation. There is not much WG 4 progress yet with respect to MPEG 2.
WORKING GROUP 5 (EXCHANGE MEDIA)
David Clunie, Chairman of WG 5, prepared a written report (Exhibit D) which was e-mailed before the meeting. He reported that the working group has not meet since the last DICOM Standards Committee meeting. They will meet May 21 - 22, 1998 at which time invited speakers will cover the technical aspects of the UDF Standard, DVD-RAM, MOD, and UDF implementation.
WORKING GROUP 6 (BASE STANDARD)
Don Van Syckle, Chairman of WG 6, prepared a written report (Exhibit E) which was e-mailed before the meeting. In the absence of the Chairman Dwight Simon presented the report. No comments were received on the second final text of Supplement 24. The changes corrected some minor errors which were not caught in the preparation of the first final text. Supplements are being incorporated into the 1996 publication of DICOM and this version will be DICOM 1998. The PostScript Supplement has been withdrawn and in its place WG 6 will publish Proposed Guidelines for PostScript Printing.
A motion was made and passed by the DICOM Standards Committee that the Guidelines for PostScript Printing be placed on the NEMA WEB for distribution to the public. The Committee also requested a recommendation from WG 6 on what should be done with Part 1 of DICOM. They also requested that WG 6 look at retiring Part 13. It was the consensus of the DICOM Standards Committee that Part 9 be retired.
WORKING GROUP 7 (RADIOTHERAPY)
In the absence of the WG 7 Chairman, Vicki Schofield provided a short report. There was no written report submitted. Supplement 29 has finished the public comment period with no comments received. The Supplement will be submitted to WG 6 with the request that it be sent out for letter ballot. WG 7 will probably become dormant after Supplement 29 becomes standard.
WORKING GROUP 8 (STRUCTURED REPORTING)
Dean Bidgood, Chairman of WG 8, prepared a written report (Exhibit F) which was distributed at the meeting. WG 8 has not meet for several months. Supplement 23 - Structured Reporting has been frozen for trial implementation. Letter ballot is anticipated in September pending receipt of favorable data on trial implementations.
WORKING GROUP 9 (OPHTHALMOLOGY)
There is no report for WG 9 since it was just formed.
WORKING GROUP 10 (STRATEGIC ADVISORY)
Kees Smedema and Dean Bidgood who were elected as Co-Chairmen of WG 10 submitted a written report. They met May 19, 1998 and agreed to recommend to the DICOM Standards Committee that WG 9 and WG 10 be merged into one working group with the name Strategic Advisory Working Group. The motion was made and passed by the DICOM Standards Committee to merge WG 9 and WG 10 into one working group with the number 10 and the name Strategic Advisory Working Group.
At the WG 10 meeting a scope for the WG was agreed to and the means for accomplishing the objectives in the scope. Presentations were made on related standards to DICOM and it was felt that the DICOM Standards Committee relationship to the organizations developing these standards was adequately covered through the direct membership on these organizations by several of the members attending the WG 10 meeting.
A list of issues which were categorized into short term, medium term, and long term were also developed for the working group to tackle. The agenda for the next meeting will be structured reporting and security. Members from WG 8 and WG 14 along with HL7 members will be invited to the meeting.
WORKING GROUP 11 (DISPLAY FUNCTION STANDARD)
Alan Rowberg, Chairman of WG 11, prepared a written report (Exhibit H) which was e-mailed before the meeting. He reported that Supplement 33 - Grayscale Softcopy Presentation State Storage was the primary work of WG 11 at the present time. The public comment period for Supplement 33 has closed and comments will be discussed and handled at the next meeting of WG 11. WG 11 has also started work on an Advanced Softcopy Presentation State Storage SOP class.
WORKING GROUP 12 (ULTRASOUND)
David Heaney, Chairman of WG 12, prepared a written report (Exhibit I) which was e-mailed before the meeting In the absence of the Chairman, Doug Sluis provided a short report. The working group has not meet since the last meeting. They are in the process of developing requirements for a 3D ultrasound Supplement. DICOM Standards Committee members suggested that WG 12 hold a day of their next meeting on 3D and invite members from other working groups and the DICOM Standards Committee members to attend.
WORKING GROUP 13 (VISIBLE LIGHT)
No written report was presented. Lloyd Hildebrand, Co-Chairman of WG 13, reported that WG 13 has not meet for some time. He reported that the Ophthalmology Board has given support for DICOM as the imaging standard.
WORKING GROUP 14 (SECURITY)
A written report was distributed at the meeting (Exhibit J). Lawrence Tarbox, Chairman of WG 14 (Security), reported that the working group has not meet since the last DICOM Standards Committee meeting. Changes agreed to at the WG 14 meeting held during the SPIE meeting in February have been incorporated into the draft which is on the NEMA ftp server. This included putting in the status flags. The two main areas that need resolution are the harmonization with the MEDIS-DC Online Electronic Storage and whether the Digital Signature proposal is implementable. With respect to the harmonization issue it has been proposed to negotiate with TLS during establishment of a secure channel and decide whether to use protocols supported by TLS or use the Japanese ISCL protocols.
The WG expects comments on the Digital Signature proposal during the public comment period. The Japanese are holding a security meeting near the end of June to discuss the Security supplement and WG 14 is proposing holding a meeting in conjunction with the DICOM Standards Committee meeting in San Francisco at the end of August.
WORKING GROUP 15 (DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY)
There was no written report for WG 15. The Co-Chairman, David Clunie, expressed thanks to the ACR for their help in organizing a WG 15 meeting in September. Mammography companies have been invited to attend this meeting.
WORKING GROUP 16 (MAGNETIC RESONANCE)
This working group has not meet yet.
7.STAFF REPORT
NEMA Staff reported the status of current ballots. Ballot Number 15 - Correction Proposals Package No. 3 has expired and all correction proposals in the package passed. However, CP 45 - Clarification on Encoding Type 2 Sequence Elements passed with only a 2/3 majority vote. There were 6 negative votes and 3 abstentions. A 2/3 majority vote of those voting for and against is required for passage. The results will be provided to WG 6 for action with respect to comments and the handling of the negative votes. Ballot Number 18 - Retiring Reference Print expires June 25, 1998. Ballot Number 19 - Proposed Changes on the DICOM Standards Committee Procedures expires June 14, 1998.
NEMA Staff also review the first meeting of the US TAG to ISO TC 215 Health Informatics at which he represented the NEMA representative Dave Best by proxy. At the meeting Peter Waegemann was elected Chair of the TAG and Sharon Stanford was elected Vice Chair. ASTM is the US TAG Administrator and Teresa Cendrowska of ASTM briefed members on ISO and the US TAG. Members discussed what the US should push for at the first TC 215 meeting with regard to work and how it should be prioritized. Three tiers were suggested with Messaging and Communication under which DICOM was listed being in tier one. The next meeting of the TAG will be the day before the first TC 215 meeting which is August 26 and 27, 1998.
Members of the DICOM Standards Committee discussed whether to let DICOM become an ISO Standard through TC 215 or to pursue the PAS route. The motion was made and passed to begin the PAS submission of DICOM. After the PAS submission a letter will be sent to the Chairman of TC 215 informing him of the action taken by the DICOM Standards Committee.
8.REPORT FROM THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON DICOM PUBLISHING
Robert Britain reported that he has drafted a memo for the NEMA President, Malcolm O’Hagan, to send to the NEMA Board of Governors for consideration of a pilot program to place standards developed by certain industry sectors of NEMA with NEMA as secretariat on the internet with free access. However, there is a need to consider the value of intellectual property, the potential impact on the NEMA Budget, and the Legal Implications of the NEMA/IHS Contract. The memo discusses each of these. The letter also discusses the results of a survey of other standards setting groups that publish standards. Only one organization, and that organization is funded by a grant, makes standards free on the internet. The NEMA Board of Governors meets on July 14, 1998 and a decision by the Board should be made then.
Robert Britain stressed that the proposed trial period is for NEMA and that the DICOM Standards Committee should wait until July 14, 1998 for the Board decision before taking further action. A teleconference of the Ad Hoc Committee on DICOM Publishing was scheduled for July 15, 1998 to discuss the Board’s decision. Members of the Ad Hoc Committee are David Clunie, Lloyd Hildebrand, Dwight Simon, Steven Horii, David Best, and Robert Britain.
9.REFERENCING REGIONAL STANDARDS INCLUDING MEDIS-DC TYPE 2
Kees Smedema, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group on Referencing Regional Standards, presented a written report (Exhibit K). The Ad Hoc Group presented options and proposed that the current practice continue of not introducing regional deviations into DICOM but allowing a regional standard to refer to the DICOM standard.
The motion was made and passed that the DICOM Standard is an international standard. Regional specialization’s are beyond the scope of DICOM. The DICOM Standards Committee supports the work, if required, to achieve consistency between a local requirement and the use of the DICOM Standard.
10.LIAISON OF DICOM COMMITTEE WORKING GROUPS WITH CEN/TC251WGIV
Members edited a proposed letter to Gunnar Klein responding to his request for a liaison between CEN TC251 WG4 and the DICOM Standards Committee. The edited letter is attached (Exhibit L). Members requested it be sent to Gunnar Klein under signature of the Co-Chairmen of the DICOM Standards Committee.
11. REPORT ON DICOM SECRETARIAT IN EUROPE
Kees Smedema reported on the progress of setting up a DICOM Secretariat in Europe. He developed a brochure on DICOM for Europe (Exhibit M) to explain DICOM and get the Europeans more involved with DICOM especially the professional groups. COCIR has become involved and will provide support including monetary support. Consequently, it is possible to start up with a small secretariat program for 1998/99. The European DICOM Secretariat will act as secretariat for specific working groups and substitute as secretariat when other working group meetings are held in Europe.
Kees Smedema read a letter form Toshiba proposing that JIRA form a Japan DICOM Secretariat. They also requested that COCIR be the Secretariat for WG 16.
12.ISO PAS SUBMITTER
There was no report on the ISO PAS Submitter process since Tim Cramer was not at the meeting and did not provide a written report.
13.VOTING PROCEDURES FOR CHAIRS OF THE COMMITTEE AND APPOINTMENT
OF A NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Members discussed and decided that the next election of the Co-Chair of the Committee would be by letter ballot. A Nominating Committee was formed for providing a slate of candidates for the professional chair of the Committee consisting of Brent Dove, Chair, Dave Best and Michel Berg. The nominating Committee will present a slate of candidates at the August DICOM Standards Committee meeting for approval. At that time nominations from the floor will also be accepted. The letter ballot will be completed before the December DICOM Standards Committee meeting and results announced at the meeting.