DICOM Verification requires that a device shall be able to verify the existence and state of its configured destinations and it shall respond to inquiries from other devices about its existence and status using the DICOM Verification service. It is highly recommended that a device shall support the DICOM Verification Service both as a SCP and a SCU. The DIMSE used is the C_Echo command.

The verification service is sometimes referred to as the DICOM-Ping. This is in reference to the Ping utility that is commonly used to detect the presence of devices on the TCP/IP network. The Verification service is more than a TCP/IP Ping. It also identifies whether the DICOM process at the other end is up and running and capable of negotiating a DICOM connection.

In the case of remote devices, and for troubleshooting purposes, the availability of this service is a highly recommended requirement.

Any device that is able to accept a DICOM connection is required to support the Verification Class as an SCP, according to DICOM. THis means that, for example, devices supportign Storage Commitment (STC) as a SCU have to support Verification as a SCP because the STC SCU has to be able to support Role Negotiation.

DICOM echo testing is a good way to see if two DICOM systems can talk with each other. The DICOM Verification service sends an Echo Request to a remote application entity (AE), given the AE Title. If the remote system is functional and has a DICOM VERIFY SCP capability, it will return an Echo Response. The Verification service is used to confirm that anassociation can be opened with a remote AE.