DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the international standard for medical imaging. It defines the file format and communication protocols used by virtually all medical imaging equipment — CT scanners, MRI machines, X-ray systems, ultrasound devices, and more. DICOM files (.dcm) contain both image pixel data and rich metadata including patient demographics, acquisition parameters, and study information embedded in standardized tags.
The MDTools DICOM Viewer is designed for healthcare professionals who need to quickly view DICOM images outside of their institutional PACS system — for example, reviewing images shared by patients, viewing CD/USB imports, or examining DICOM files from research datasets. It is entirely browser-based: images are loaded and processed locally in your browser with zero data transmitted to any server, making it safe for viewing protected health information.
The viewer supports standard DICOM viewing operations: window/level (brightness/contrast) adjustment optimized for different tissue types, zoom and pan, pixel value display, ruler measurements, and complete DICOM metadata tag browsing. It supports common transfer syntaxes including Little Endian, JPEG Baseline, JPEG Lossless, and JPEG 2000. Drag and drop files directly onto the viewer or use the file selector.
Tool last reviewed: February 2026