Best Practices Strategy for Dealing with non-DICOM Data objects in a PACS-Neutral Archive

In this paper, I am presenting an argument for a best practices strategy for dealing with non-DICOM Medical Image Data Objects in a PACS Neutral-Archive (PNA). In this context, the data objects I am referring to are diagnostic image objects that are produced through a clinical study process. The key message of this white paper is that managing the non-DICOM data objects in a Neutral Archive in their native format is not the best approach. A separate database full of non-DICOM data objects is effectively an alternative proprietary database for the Source system that cannot easily be shared with other systems. Non-DICOM objects complicate the viewing options. Furthermore they present an ugly data migration project sometime downstream that makes a DICOM migration look like a walk in the park. If the image producing device (PACS, modality, digital camera, etc.) cannot produce/output a DICOM-conformant image data object, the best practices alternative would be to convert the data object to a DICOM object. Converting non-DICOM image objects to DICOM objects is a relatively straightforward process that involves the use of a standardized information model, and results in an image object that can be represented in a standard database, which means the directory can easily be queried, so the image data can be retrieved, displayed and ported to other systems.