Re: obvious solution ...
There is, alas, more to DICOM than getting studies from one place to another. DICOM has been in common use since the early 90s & even today is probably one of the most complex standards in common use. It is one of very few standards that is (almost) plug-and-play between vendors globally.
For example, outside of the IT security concerns, a serious (like, very serious) patient risk is mis-identification of data. I.e. one patient's data going to another patient's 'folder'. DICOM has this solved (I think noted in the discussion above) which itself requires a series of handshakes between provider and client.
Putting the data onto media & resorting to airgap is, alas, one thing DICOM has not been great at. Vendor interpretations of the file 'format' (known as DICOM Part 10 - yes the file format is only part 10 of dozens of elements of the standards) has meant such transfer is still quite unreliable.
Yes, early versions of DICOM did have a specification of RS232 transport - but a lot of folk have done a lot of work in the meantime and partying like its 1993 probably isn't a great way forward.
Oh and a lot of these devices (especially but not exclusively outside Radiology) would also use HL7 for data transfer. That's a different kettle of fish.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
