WG-32: Neurophysiology Data

SecretariatThe International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN)
Kim Zaiss
wg32chairs@dicomstandard.org
Co-ChairsJonathan J. Halford, MD, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Andrew Ehrenberg, Nihon Kohden Corporation
wg32chairs@dicomstandard.org
Last strategy update2025-11-17
MinutesWG-32 minutes
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Scope

The purpose and scope of WG-32 is to extend DICOM as a transmission and data format standard for clinical neurophysiology. The goal is to create a standard which is more advanced than the currently available and to provide features which are needed in the 21st century, and to integrate with enterprise infrastructure and security requirements.

  • Extend and promote the use of DICOM for the creation, storage and management of neurophysiology data in a healthcare setting
  • Serve as a liaison body between the multiple involved stakeholders, including
  1. clinical end-users of neurophysiology equipment and software
  2. vendors offering neurophysiology equipment and software for healthcare applications
  3. vendors of medical image and video acquisition, processing, and management systems
  4. standards and professional organizations addressing neurophysiology in general (e.g. IEEE)
  • Provide best practice guidance and reference implementations to promote the use of DICOM in neurophysiology applications; in particular, ensure that neurophysiology vendors find it easy to adopt the Standard and encourage vendors to participate in DICOM WG-32.

Current Work Items

  • Work Item 2022-09-A: Waveform Compression Transfer Syntax. Develop lossless and near-lossless DICOM transfer syntaxes for the new H.BWC (MPEG/ISO/IEC 23003-8) codec.  
  • Work Item 2025-05-C: Intracranial EEG. Develop an IOD to encode Intracranial EEG studies.

Future Roadmap and Objectives

  • IOD for Long-Term Monitoring and Sleep Studies making use of the H.BWC transfer syntaxes

Challenges and Opportunities

  • The current level of enthusiasm for a Standards-based approach in both end-user and vendor community appears high.
  • There are competing non-DICOM data format proposals that would require a completely novel infrastructure and not address the silo problem. It is important to assure that the best features of such proposals are assimilated into DICOM to avoid fragmentation of competing new proposals and not sacrifice the effort and knowledge that has been invested.

Past Work