Application Of The Dicom Standard To Galicia'S Hospital Environment

The use of the DICOM Standard for the transmission and acquisition of medical images in a hospital environment is very widespread. The acquisition of the images from DICOM-compatible devices requires a DICOM communication and capture system. On the order hand, Spanish Administration and in particular by one of its Autonomous Communities, Galicia, have specific laws for the protection of the transmission and storage of personal information, specially medical images and its associate data.This work describes security mechanisms that are developed in an DICOM server that comply with the Spanish legislation concerning the protection of medical data.The developed application was tested in three different hospitals that constitute a representative sample of the Galician hospital environment.