Object-oriented implementation of a DICOM network client in Smalltalk

Most of the digital medical devices used in modern clinics and practice provide data corresponding to the DICOM Standard. Cyclops, a knowledge-based image analysis system developed at the University of Kaiserslautern, was suitable to analyze such images, but we needed a DICOM interface to connect to DICOM databases easily and transfer data to the system. All non-commercial software available were not up to our demands, so we implemented a DICOM network client by our own, which can connect to the ctn image server, based on an SQL database. We attached great value to a neat, object-oriented implementation, because it is easy to expand and we are flexible to future versions of the DICOR/I standard.