June 14, 2012 — Etiam introduced its DICOM Izer 4.0 at this year’s SIIM (Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine) conference, held June 7-10 in Orlando, Fla. The new version contains major enhancements to make it the most advanced solution for bringing digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) compliance to non-imaging data for greater interoperability and integration into the patient record.
Since its introduction in 2001, Etiam DICOM Izer has been a solution for all medical data: dermatology images, endoscopy or surgery motion video, documents, ophthalmology illustrations and more. It makes consistent management of medical data in conformance with the DICOM standard possible throughout a facility. It also eliminates disparate, difficult-to-maintain data silos with limited access due to the data heterogeneity, and opens up new possibilities for meaningful use.
Key features in Etiam DICOM Izer version 4 include:
- Integration and indexing of HD video: DICOM Izer can convert video (AVI, WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4) to DICOM Visible Light formats both in standard and high resolutions. This feature makes it possible to import into PACS (picture archiving and communications system) video sequences in DICOM MPEG format, offering the best quality/compression ratio. Also, a new feature for indexing key images in video simplifies identification of key images in video sequences. This is extremely useful, for example, for a surgeon who needs to quickly find a critical phase in a surgical procedure in a recording that is several hours in length.
- Addition of medical information (position, laterality…) to images through the insertion of editable DICOM attributes: A new “Add DICOM Attributes” tool makes it possible to add as many DICOM attributes as necessary based on the image type using a customizable labeling system suited to each particular medical specialty. For example, attributes are important in mammography where identifying the laterality and the shooting orientation is required.
- Addition of image annotation for efficient PACS integration: The newly supported Presentation State format makes it possible to take measurements, add arrows or text to images and draw regions of interest without altering the image (annotations are shown on top of the images and do not modify image pixels). For example, in dermatology, it is important to specify measurements and show regions of interest to follow up the evolution of a pathological zone over time.
The new solution offers an intuitive user interface for easily getting started with the product and an enhanced communication system for automatically inserting patient and study information retrieved from the hospital information system (support of the IHE PDQ profile). It also adds the ability to record images on a workstation. For example, they may be added in the OR directly from a workstation and then post-processed on another workstation in the physician’s office. This is important because the DICOM Izer database is typically shared by several installations throughout the hospital.
For more information: www.etiam.com
May 16, 2024 
