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MINUTES-tcon
DICOM Working Group Twelve
(Ultrasound)
April 21, 2014
Members Present
Represented by
Agfa HealthCare
Philips Healthcare
Siemens Healthcare
Toshiba Med. Res. Inst.
Ramona Shirley
Joe Luszcz
Ruth Knipe for Jan-Ulco Kluiwstra
Kevin O’Donnell
Members Absent
Voting Representative
AIUM/UC San Diego
GE Healthcare
PixelMed
Tom Nelson
Gopi Pattaswamy
David Clunie
Alternate Representatives, Observers and Others Present:
1
Earl Canfield
Ann Kang
Stephen Vastagh
Philips Healthcare
Philips Healthcare
MITA
Presiding Officer:
Joe Luszcz, Chair
Opening
The Chair called the meeting to order at 13.00 USA Eastern Time. The Agenda was approved:
continue work on Sup 169. The minutes of the March 21 t-con have been posted; they will be
reviewed at the upcoming in-person meeting.
2
Review and update on the Supplement 169
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
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March 21, 2014
Supplement Editor Kevin O’Donnell reviewed with WG-12 highlights of the WG-06 discussions
(3/31-4/4) of the supplement (See posted WG-6 minutes).
Kevin has implemented some of the changes directed by WG-06 and presented to WG-12
<Sup169_05b-EchoSR.doc>. Additional changes were made during the course of this t-con
and additional annotations were made to the document. The ensuing discussion included but
was not limited to the following items (more details can be found in the updated supplement
draft):
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The next draft for WG-06 will be written up with new SOP class
WG12 accepted the proposed syntax for referencing extra columns in the CID table.
WG12 agreed that all image references must be direct (since this is common practice
anyway)
WG-12 would like to push back on the WG-06 approach of making the root
measurement an atomic property. Earl and ?? will prepare an argument to present to
WG-06 in June, likely based on the goal of parsing Pre-coordinated measurements
and recognized Post-coordinated measurements the same.
In response to WG-6 request, Kevin evaluated changes to make the new template
strictly compatible with 5200. Mostly 5200 is extensible, so strict compatibility is
about including mandatory items.
o WG-12 agreed to stick with 3602 since it is a superset of 5201.
o WG-12 doesn’t mind how the issue of M vs MC for BSA is addressed and
leaves it to WG-06
o 5200 requires a pair of nested measurement containers with a SectionSubject
coded into a Finding Site concept (although this usage doesn’t strictly fit the
semantics of Finding Site). If we want to match this structure, our two
sections (for “Pre-coordinated” and “Post-coordinated) would each be coded
with three rows setting the SectionSubject to “Pre-coordinated” and “Postcoordinated”. A long discussion took place among A. Kang, E. Canfield and
K.O’Donnell concluding in part that this usage doesn’t really fit the semantics
of Finding Site. The core issue of whether we should try and maintain strict
compatibility with 5200 was not discussed. The discussion will resume with
the findings of Earls practical parsability homework.
The semantics of measurement tagging were clarified (the presence of selection status
is itself the preferred value flag, and its contents just identifies the reason). Kevin
will re-draft and simplify around this approach. Philips currently does it this way.
Siemens, Toshiba and Philips will confirm this is acceptable.
A homework issue was raised to consider what to say about managing/populating the
Equivalent Code (i.e. Pre-coordinated). Rather than defer discussion to Long Beach,
the remainder of the call was spent discussing some initial points. Understanding the
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
of the DICOM Standards Committee
March 21, 2014
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alternatives and reaching a conclusion will require walking though the different
scenarios (carts that are re-installed, carts that do not maintain a library of codes for
post-coordinated measurements, etc) and how databases will likely handle such
situations. In the meantime, the proposed Requirement Type was changed to M.
A related issues is whether the cart should be permitted to include multiple mappings
(e.g. to national or local coding schemes), or whether that should be prohibited. This
will affect the VM (currently 1-n)
Assigning homework spreadsheet was deferred until another call
HOMEWORK:

Ann Kang volunteered to work through the scenarios for pre-coordinated codes for
post-coordinated measurements. Alternatives include mandating carts maintain a
code library, allowing carts to generate new UIDs for each measurement instance, or
omitting such pre-coordinated codes. Several scenarios were listed in the
supplement (See line 210, Row 15 of the post t-con version.)
.

Earl Canfield – will evaluate “practical compatibility” of the new template with
existing parsing software. Is there anything too unexpected in the new material.
Will existing software “fail gracefully”? Is that a must have or a nice to have?
The “end-of-meeting” version was posted in the meeting folder as < sup169_05cEchoSR.docx>
3
Next Steps
All members to complete items marked as HOMEWORK above.
The upcoming reading at the June 23-27 WG-06 meeting is intended to achieve approval
to distribute as Public Comment. WG-06 was so notified.
The WG-06 sessions are scheduled for the afternoons so (if the connection is available)
members from the USA may call in. Currently scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday
(June 24 & 26) at 10:30-12:30 USA Eastern Time
4
Next Meetings
Tcons
2014-05-02 (12.00-14.00 USA Eastern Time)
In Person
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
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2014-05-12 and 2014-05-13 in connection with SIIM in Long Beach CA See the meeting
file.
5
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 15:20.
Reported by
Stephen Vastagh, Secretary
Reviewed by legal counsel: Clark Silcox
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Working Group Twelve (Ultrasound)
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March 21, 2014