Once the image is acquired it has to be stored. This is accomplished by the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) [42] standard developed by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. This standard handles not only the storage process but also the print and transmission of the information in medical imaging.
The DICOM format differs from all the rest in the fact that it groups together the information of the patient and of the image source (the mammograph in our case) as well as the full image or images. Thus, the images coming from a single study are never mistakenly separated neither from their information. The image data can be compressed using a variety of standards, like JPEG, JPEG Lossless, JPEG 2000, and Run-length encoding (RLE). A discussion about its convenience is given in the article of Avrin et al. [4]. They conclude that the benefits of using compression techniques compared to increasing storing capabilities of the current and future technology are not that significantly clear.
Moreover, the DICOM standard also handles the communication protocol enabling, therefore, the integration of the different imaging devices of the hospital. Thus displays, scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network hardware can be integrated in a fully digital system, usually referred as the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). Typically a PACS network consists of a central server storing the DICOM database and the set of clients which provides or uses the images.