The PACS Administrators Registry and Certification Association (PARCA) said it is adding a certification and certification exams for DICOM, replacing the Certified PACS Interface Analyst (CPIA) certification.
The DICOM standard, created by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) in 1985, has grown both in acceptance and complexity with the adoption of several changes and the development of DICOM extensions, PARCA said. Owing to these changes, PARCA President Charles Willis, PhD, said it's time to add a certification that focuses more specifically on DICOM.
The new DICOM certification and exams have been updated to cover the breadth of the DICOM standard, including its latest extension, DICOMweb, PARCA said. The exams will be updated every three years, and taking the updated versions will replace previous requirements for members to submit 60 hours of continuing education and to retake the exam every five years to maintain certification.
The new certification is also an acknowledgement of the evolution of image archiving and communications and the adoption of the standard by professionals outside of radiology who are now working together to implement electronic medical records and enterprise-wide vendor-neutral archives, PARCA founder Herman Oosterwijk said in a statement.
