DICOM: The Invisible Pipeline

The hidden standard behind modern medical imaging

At 4:17 in the morning, a scan finishes in a hospital basement, and no one has to think about how the image will reach the doctor who needs it. That invisibility is the achievement.

Behind every medical image transmitted, stored, and read anywhere in the world sits DICOM: a forty-year-old data standard almost no patient has heard of, built by a committee of rival manufacturers who had every incentive not to cooperate. It works, most of the time. When it doesn't, this book is about why, tracing the failures through FDA recall records, court opinions, ransomware investigations, and the everyday judgment calls of the people who keep the pipeline running.

Drawing on thirty years inside that infrastructure, DICOM: The Invisible Pipeline explains how medical images actually move, what interoperability really requires, and what happens to patients when a system that was never supposed to be visible finally fails.

Standards solve agreement. They do not solve implementation.

Book details

• Title: DICOM: The Invisible Pipeline

• Subtitle: The Hidden Standard Behind Modern Medical Imaging

• Author: Mark W. Carr

• Publisher: Independently published, 2026

• Paperback: 239 pages, 6 x 9 inches, ISBN 9798162586456

• Hardcover: ISBN to be announced

Cite this book

APA 7: Carr, M. W. (2026). DICOM: The invisible pipeline: The hidden standard behind modern medical imaging. Independently published.

AMA: Carr MW. DICOM: The Invisible Pipeline: The Hidden Standard Behind Modern Medical Imaging. Independently published; 2026.

Chicago: Carr, Mark W. DICOM: The Invisible Pipeline: The Hidden Standard Behind Modern Medical Imaging. Independently published, 2026.

Last updated October 2026.