Relevance of eHealth standards for big data interoperability in radiology and beyond

The aim of this paper is to report on the implementation of radiology and related information technology standards to feed big data repositories and so to be able to create a solid substrate on which to operate with analysis software. Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) and Health Level 7 (HL7) are the major standards for radiology and medical information technology. They define formats and protocols to transmit medical images, signals, and patient data inside and outside hospital facilities. These standards can be implemented but big data expectations are stimulating a new approach, simplifying data collection and interoperability, seeking reduction of time to full implementation inside health organizations. Virtual Medical Record, DICOM Structured Reporting and HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) are changing the way medical data are shared among organization and they will be the keys to big data interoperability. Until we do not find simple and comprehensive methods to store and disseminate detailed information on the patient's health we will not be able to get optimum results from the analysis of those data.