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MINUTES-tcon
DICOM Working Group Twelve
(Ultrasound)
March 3, 2014
Members Present
Represented by
Agfa HealthCare
GE Healthcare
Philips Healthcare
Siemens Healthcare
Toshiba Med. Res. Inst.
Ramona Shirley
Gopi Pattaswamy
Joe Luszcz
Ruth Knipe for Jan-Ulco Kluiwstra
Kevin O’Donnell
Members Absent
Voting Representative
AIUM/UC San Diego
PixelMed
Tom Nelson
David Clunie
Alternate Representatives, Observers and Others Present:
Chris Armstrong
Earl Canfield
Ernie Lieu
Stephen Vastagh
Presiding Officer:
Toshiba Med. Systems
Philips Healthcare
Siemens Healthcare
MITA
Kevin O’Donnell, Supplement Editor
1. Opening
The Chair called the meeting to order at 13.00 USA Eastern Time. The Agenda was approved:
continue work on Sup 169. The Secretary reviewed the antitrust rules.
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
of the DICOM Standards Committee
March 3, 2014
2. Review and update Core Measurement Specifications
Prior to the t-con K. O’Donnell updated DocBook worksheet, producing the “Mega Merge”
sheet and editing a few hundred cells to begin normalizing the codes/content. Most
comments were resolved, a few were clarified and resubmitted to Ramona for consideration
and a few remaining were manually copied from previous versions into Notes (as Comments
do not transfer when cells are copied to a new tab)Legend: Blue=flag that a new code will be
needed, Green&Yellow = need revisiting. Old tabs
The group continued the review and revision of the ASE Core Measurement specifications.
K. O’Donnell entered the decisions of the discussions in the DocBook worksheet. The
discussion included:
 Added [measurement] “Type” column and an Index column. Type: direct or indexed.
Index: value against which the measurement is indexed.
 Discussed that not all best-practice left ventricular measurements have a corresponding
right ventricular measurement, and visa-versa, so some “asymmetry” is to be expected.
 Ruth reported on her Stress homework: the question was sent to the other vendors. Some
have started preparing responses
 Discussed how to handle alternative equations for BSA. DuBois is most common for
western adults, but alternate equations are sometimes used for pediatrics, Asian adults,
athletes, obese populations, etc. Since the scope of the report is a single exam, will
consider adding a top level BSA Method Attribute that applies to all BSA indexes in that
report. Deviations could be coded for vendor-specific measurements. This will be
brought for WG-06 discussion. Indexing against Height^^2.7 is a separate topic since
that is not BSA.
 Discussed negative values and flow directions. Concluded that no negative values are
expected to be used for velocities or VTI. In the case of Regurgitant flow, it would be a
positive value with the direction specified as regurgitant. The current feeling is to remain
silent rather than mandating positive value since it could be used in other reports (e.g.
vascular) and we don’t want to mandate an asymmetry.
 In a future step the measurements in this set that are not regularly used will be identified
for deletion from the draft Supplement.
 Several other questions were discussed and recorded in the first tab of the Google Doc.
3. Post Coordinated Measurements
4. In addition to the ASE Core measurements the Group intends to identify and include
measurements that are generally similar among the vendors.
5. The group developed a new worksheet in the Google Spreadsheet as an alternative to
worksheet being developed by Jan-Ulco. (Co. name, Main SR Section/Anatomy, Main
Concept, Modifiers, etc.] It was proposed that vendors would enter respective vendorspecific measurement characteristics; Stephen Vastagh will issue a three-digit random code
to the vendor to identify anonymously the measurements entered.
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
of the DICOM Standards Committee
March 3, 2014
6. Alternative confidential submission may be made by sending freestanding worksheets, in
confidence, to the Secretary, Stephen Vastagh.
7. It was discussed that an alternative to assembling these measurements or to verify the list
could be information collected by a vendor of a “multivendor PACS product” assuming that
such vendor wish to share this information. R. Knipe will check with the Syngo Dynamics
Team at Siemens. R. Shirley will also check on other sources.
8. It was concluded that assembling these measurements to submit for the Group’s discussion in
the above format will be a multi-day effort by each manufacturer; the resources must be
allocated therefor and completion date could not be specified at this time.
9. Next Steps
 Vendors to enter measurements in Google Doc or otherwise submit to the Secretary.
 R. Shirley will make initial review using clinical experience to identify similar
measurements for Group discussion.
10. Next Meetings
Tcons (all 13.00-15.00 USA Eastern time)
 2013-03-21
 2014-04-21 or 2014-04-24
In Person
2014-05-12 and 2014-05-13 in connection with SIIM in Long Beach CA
11. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 14:45.
Reported by
Stephen Vastagh, Secretary
Reviewed by legal counsel: Clark Silcox
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
of the DICOM Standards Committee
March 3, 2014