What is a Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA)?

Expected File Types for a Vendor Neutral Archive

What is a VNA? The future of imaging which extends past the Radiology, Cardiology and Nuclear medicine departments. The need for digital pathology, dermatology and dental images has called for a single solution that fulfills the needs of each individual PACS. The idea is to have a solution that can store/transmit/view all types of images regardless of which vendor created it. DICOM or non-DICOM. Proprietary or native.

Support for DICOM Images

A radiology PACS system is expected to store radiology specific images. These DICOM image types will be referred to as SOP classes. Naturally a cardiology PACS system is expected to store cardiology specific images. Ideally, vendor neutral archive should have the ability to store SOP classes from all departments. Whether its radiology, cardiology, dental or ophthalmology, the VNA should be able to store and view all SOP classes. Most of the VNA vendors today have the ability to store a multitude of SOP classes. However, the challenge is for the VNA to be able to view these SOP classes as well. The table below demonstrates what images we should expect a VNA vendor to support for viewing. When integrating your VNA system, please be sure to check this list against your VNA vendor’s DICOM conformance statement.

Support for Non-DICOM Images

In addition to the multitude of DICOM images, a vendor neutral archive is expected to store and view non-DICOM images. This poses an additional challenge as there are several proprietary image types that are specific to certain vendor applications. However, some VNAs have the ability to view more non-DICOM images than others. As non-DICOM images are not DICOM wrapped with patient demographic tags, an XDS registry can be utilized to store the metadata. The second table of possible non-DICOM images is provided below as well.

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Ability for VNAs to view DICOM Image Types

DICOM SOP Class	Viewable in Vendor A VNA	Viewable in Vendor B VNA
12-lead ECG Waveform Storage	Yes	Yes
Ambulatory ECG Waveform Storage	Yes	No
Basic Text SR Storage	Yes	Yes
Breast Tomosynthesis Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Cardiac Electrophysiology Waveform Storage	Yes	No
Color Softcopy Presentation State Storage SOP Class	Yes	Yes
Comprehensive SR Storage	Yes	No
Computed Radiography Image Storage	Yes	Yes
CT Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Digital Intra-Oral X-Ray Image Storage – For Presentation	Yes	Yes
Digital Intra-Oral X-Ray Image Storage – For Processing	Yes	No
Digital Mammography X-Ray Image Storage – For Presentation	Yes	Yes
Digital Mammography X-Ray Image Storage – For Processing	Yes	No
Digital X-Ray Image Storage – For Presentation	Yes	Yes
Digital X-Ray Image Storage – For Processing	Yes	No
Encapsulated CDA Storage	Yes	No
Encapsulated PDF Storage	Yes	Yes
Enhanced CT Image Storage	Yes	No
Enhanced MR Image Storage	Yes	No
Enhanced SR Storage	Yes	No
Enhanced XA Image Storage	Yes	No
Enhanced XRF Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Enhanced US Volume Storage	Yes	No
General ECG Waveform Storage	Yes	Yes
Grayscale Softcopy Presentation State Storage SOP Class	Yes	Yes
Hardcopy Grayscale Image Storage SOP Class (Retired)	Yes	No
Hardcopy Color Image Storage SOP Class (Retired)	Yes	No
Hemodynamic Waveform Storage	Yes	No
Key Object Selection Document Storage	Yes	Yes
MR Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Multi-frame Grayscale Byte Secondary Capture Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Multi-frame Grayscale Word Secondary Capture Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Multi-frame True Color Secondary Capture Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Nuclear Medicine Image Storage (Retired)	Yes	Yes
Nuclear Medicine Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Ophthalmic Photography 16 Bit Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Ophthalmic Photography 8 Bit Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Ophthalmic Tomography Image Storage	Yes	No
Positron Emission Tomography Image Storage	Yes	Yes
RT Dose Storage	Yes	No
RT Image Storage	Yes	No
RT Plan Storage	Yes	No
RT Structure Set Storage	Yes	No
Secondary Capture Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Spatial Registration Storage	Yes	No
Ultrasound Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Ultrasound Image Storage (Retired)	Yes	Yes
Ultrasound Multi-Frame Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Ultrasound Multi-Frame Image Storage (Retired)	Yes	Yes
Video Endoscopic Image Storage	Yes	No
Video Microscopic Image Storage	Yes	No
Video Photographic Image Storage	Yes	No
VL Endoscopic Image Storage	Yes	Yes
VL Microscopic Image Storage	Yes	Yes
VL Photographic Image Storage	Yes	Yes
VL Slide-Coordinates Microscopic Image Storage	Yes	No
X-Ray 3D Angiographic Image Storage	Yes	No
X-Ray 3D Craniofacial Image Storage	Yes	No
X-Ray Angiographic Bi-Plane Image Storage (Retired)	Yes	Yes
X-Ray Angiographic Image Storage	Yes	Yes
X-Ray Radiation Dose SR Storage	Yes	No
X-Ray Radiofluoroscopic Image Storage	Yes	Yes
Wide Field Ophthalmic Photography Stereographic Projection Image Storage	Yes	No
Chest CAD SR	Yes	No
Mammography CAD SR	Yes	Yes

Ability for VNAs to view Non-DICOM Image Types

Native Image Type	Viewable in Vendor A VNA	Viewable in Vendor B VNA
BMP	Yes	Yes
JPEG, JPG	Yes	Yes
TIFF	Yes	Yes
EXIF	Yes	Unknown
H264	Yes	Unknown
GIF	Yes	Yes
MP4	Yes	Unknown
MPEG4	Yes	Unknown
PDF	Yes	Yes
PNG	Yes	Yes
Native Video Type	Viewable in Vendor A VNA	Viewable in Vendor B VNA
AVI	Yes	Yes
MOV	Yes	Unknown
MJPEG	Yes	Unknown
MPEG	Yes	Unknown
MPEG2	Yes	Unknown
MPEG3	Yes	Unknown
Native & Proprietary Pathology	Viewable in Vendor A VNA	Viewable in Vendor B VNA
SVC (Aperio)	Yes	No
BIF (Huran and Ventana)	Yes	No
isyntax (Philips)	No	No
mrsx (3DHistech)	No	No
MDS (Motic)	No	No
NDPI (Hamamatsu)	Yes	No
JBIG	Yes	No
JPEG2000	Yes	Unknown
AAC	Yes	No
DVVIDEO	Yes	No
OGG	Yes	No
OGV	Yes	No
PCX	Yes	No
PNM	Yes	No
PSD	Yes	No
RAW	Yes	No
MP3	Yes	Unknown
RTS	Yes	No
SCN	Yes	No
SGI	Yes	No
TGA	Yes	No
WAV	Yes	No
WebM	Yes	No
WMV	Yes	No
Other Proprietary Images
Unknown Legacy Images	No	No

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