DICOM is a standard developed by radiology for image storage. It allows acquisition devices, workstations, and storage archives to communicate with one another. The information stored within a DICOM image file includes pixel depth, which means that the image can be manipulated after it is transferred from the acquisition device.

Advantages of DICOM

• Images are standardized and thus there are no compatibility issues
• Images can be manipulated such as changing window and level
• Most modern CT, MRI, and US machines have built in DICOM output capability
  

However...