# DICOM Message Service Element

DIMSE Stands for [DICOM Message Service Element](http://dicom.nema.org/medical/dicom/current/output/chtml/part07/chapter_7.html) and is the standard method through which DICOM archives communicate. We support this messaging standard for the retrieval of study, series, and instance metadata because it is widely support. For certain PACS systems, it also (currently) provides faster query results than DICOMWeb.
