This International Standard specifies a web-based service for accessing and presenting DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) persistent objects (e.g. images, medical imaging reports). This is intended for distribution of results and images to healthcare professionals. It provides a simple mechanism for accessing a DICOM persistent object from HTML pages or XML documents, through HTTP/HTTPs protocol, using DICOM UIDs (Unique Identifiers). Data may be retrieved either in a presentation-ready form as specified by the requester (e.g. JPEG or GIF) or in a native DICOM format.

This International Standard does not support facilities for web searching of DICOM images. It relates only to DICOM persistent objects (not to other DICOM objects or to non-DICOM objects). Access control beyond the security mechanisms generally available to web applications is outside the scope of this International Standard.