DICOM Storage Commitment

DICOM Storage Commitment (STC) is a key part of Image Management because it shifts the responsibility for maintaining and storing the images from one device, like the modality, to another, such as the PACS archive.

The DICOM Storage Commitment is used by a modality to request whether or not the destination or receiver of the images will commit the images so that the sender can delete them from the local disc of the sending device.

The reason for the Storage Commitment is that DICOM Storage services, which communicate objects such as images, do not guarantee that the images are being kept. After the images have been stored with C_STORE, the device will issue a normalized command (N_ACTION), which contains a list of all the images for which it is requesting a Storage Commitment. The receiver will reply with a N_EVENT REPORT command that contains the objects that it is committed to store, and a list of objects it was unable to store. The reply can be exchanged on the same, or a different Association. The specific transaction that is reported on by the response is identified by the Transaction UID as specified in the request.

The DICOM Storage Commitment Service is used to guarantee the safeguarding of images following the Store operation. It is highly recommended that any modality application software use this service as an addition to image transfer.