Summary: With Bp VIP.net sunsetting, many Australian specialists are reviewing not only their practice management software, but also how their diagnostic devices connect with it. DICOM integration enables this connection. When implemented poorly, it can add 5–7 minutes of administration per patient, equating to more than 200 hours each year per location, based on Pliny’s published figures. Xestro and Pliny provide an integrated workflow. Appointments flow from Xestro to connected devices, while images and results return through Pliny to the patient record. Users can also move directly from a patient record in Xestro to the corresponding record in Pliny and the connected vendor software. The integration is particularly suited to ophthalmology, including OCTs, biometers, fundus cameras and visual field devices. Through Pliny Lite, it can also support cardiology, ENT and other specialties using DICOM-compatible equipment. This applies to practices of all sizes. Whether it is a single-clinician practice or a large corporate group, the core requirement remains the same: keeping diagnostic devices connected to the correct patient record.
DICOM integration in Australia has quickly become one of the deciding factors when specialist practices choose a practice management software. With Bp VIP.net sunsetting, many ophthalmologists, cardiologists and other specialists who rely on DICOM systems are reviewing more than their practice management system. They are also considering how their clinical software, diagnostic equipment and workflows connect across the practice. At Xestro, we believe strong partnerships are central to delivering cloud based practice management software that is genuinely useful in day-to-day clinical practice. That is why we are highlighting one of our key DICOM integration partners: Pliny.
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Why specialist practices need DICOM integration
DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the global standard for moving medical imaging data between devices, software and storage systems. In a busy Australian specialist clinic, the difference between strong DICOM integration and weak DICOM integration is often the difference between an efficient morning session and an exhausted one.
A high-volume ophthalmology clinic, for example, might run six or more diagnostic devices in a single patient visit e.g. optical coherence tomographers, visual field analysers, biometers, fundus cameras, corneal topographers and slit lamp imaging systems. Cardiology practices have their own mix of echocardiograms and ECG machines. ENT clinics layer in audiometers and endoscopy. Each device manufacturer ships its own software, its own export format and its own quirks.
For the clinician, that usually means three or four applications open at once, manual context-switching, and repeated typing of the same patient details. For the orthoptists, sonographers and technicians behind the scenes, it means USB drives, transcription errors, and an outsized share of every appointment lost to admin. According to Pliny’s published analysis, that adds up to roughly 5 to 7 minutes per patient; or, across a year, over 200 hours per practice location. Good DICOM integration in Australia is what makes that overhead disappear.
Meet Pliny: a vendor-neutral DICOM integration partner
Pliny is an Australian-built clinical operating system that sits between your diagnostic equipment and your practice management software. The team describes it as “the cure to diagnostic silos”: a single, cloud-based interface that keeps scans, images and reports connected to the patient record, regardless of which device captured them or when they were created.
What we appreciate about Pliny, and why they work so well alongside Xestro, is their vendor-neutral DICOM integration position. As Pliny founder James Manners describes it, “our customers should be able to pick and choose whatever equipment works for them, knowing it’s going to work with their practice management system.” Pliny does not sell diagnostic imaging equipment, so they have no incentive to push one device brand over another. That matters in a market where many imaging platforms are tied to a single manufacturer’s range of equipment.
For Pliny customers, the result is a connected workflow that includes side-by-side scan comparison across visits and devices, automated patient notes that pull diagnostic findings into customisable templates, secure scan sharing with referrers and other practices, and cloud-hosted data that stays inside Australia.
How Pliny’s DICOM integration with Xestro works
Every Pliny customer is provided with a small piece of on-site hardware called a gateway. The gateway plugs into the practice network and acts as a secure, encrypted bridge between local diagnostic equipment and Pliny’s cloud, which is important, because many diagnostic devices have no native encryption and cannot safely connect to the internet on their own.
From Xestro, patient and appointment details flow through Xestro Connect to the Pliny gateway, which then publishes them as a DICOM worklist. Each connected device, whether it is a Topcon, Heidelberg, NIDEK, ZEISS, Optos, GE or another supported brand, pulls the worklist on refresh, and the technician simply picks the patient from the list before starting the scan. Scans and structured findings then flow back into Pliny, and where the data supports it, key diagnostic values can be passed back into the patient’s record inside Xestro.
This is a deep, fully bidirectional form of DICOM integration for specialist practices, and it works because Pliny runs a DICOM worklist server hosted in Australia that every compliant device can talk to. In practice, a patient’s details only need to be entered once, in Xestro, and the rest of the clinic stays in sync. Updates, security and integration maintenance are handled by Pliny as part of the service, so the practice does not need to add another moving part to its IT load.
The result is a genuinely integrated, closed loop. Patient data flows from Xestro out to the diagnostic machines, from the machines into Pliny, and from Pliny back into Xestro. On top of that, you can link straight from a patient record in Xestro to the same patient in Pliny, and on to the device vendor’s own software, so the clinical systems a specialist relies on are connected end to end, as you would expect of a clinical software stack in 2026.
Where DICOM integration matters most: ophthalmology, cardiology and beyond
Pliny’s deepest expertise sits inside ophthalmology, where the device load per visit is highest and the gains from integration are largest. Years of work smoothing out the quirks of every major ophthalmic device, including Heidelberg Spectralis, ZEISS OCT, NIDEK biometers, Topcon and the rest, mean Pliny can deliver a true plug-and-go ophthalmology device integration in this space.
But the same DICOM plumbing supports other specialties too. Through what Pliny calls Pliny Lite, cardiology, ENT and other DICOM-capable disciplines can take advantage of a focused, worklist-only integration with Xestro that pushes appointments out to local devices like echocardiograms and ECG machines. Some cardiology practices use this alongside a separate reporting platform such as HeartLab; Pliny still handles the integration plumbing in between.
As a general guide, if a device supports DICOM, Pliny can almost always work with it. If a device is not DICOM-compatible, the answer becomes case-by-case and depends on whether useful metadata, e.g. patient identifier, scan date and scan type, is available in a parseable format. The Pliny team is generally happy to assess unique setups on request.
Who should consider Pliny and Xestro, and when
We are often asked which kinds of practices benefit most from adding Pliny to their Xestro setup. The short answer is: any specialist practice where clinicians regularly work across more than one diagnostic device, and that holds true at any size. Xestro and Pliny are used by everyone from independent, single-clinician ophthalmologists through to large corporate groups, and everything in between, because the core challenge of keeping diagnostic devices connected to the patient record is the same whatever the size of the practice. In a little more detail:
- Ophthalmology practices with multiple imaging devices, particularly those running OCTs, biometers, fundus cameras and visual fields in parallel. This is where Pliny’s ophthalmology device integration adds the most value.
- Cardiology and sonography practices wanting DICOM worklist integration between Xestro and their echo or ECG equipment, with reports flowing into HeartLab or another reporting tool.
- Specialist practices reviewing their software stack, particularly those preparing to transition from VIP.net to a cloud based practice management software. A platform migration is a natural moment to also rethink DICOM integration rather than carry forward years of manual workarounds.
- New or expanding clinics fitting out additional rooms. DICOM integration is easiest to plan in at the start, before workflows harden around manual processes.
The ROI of DICOM integration in a busy clinic
Pliny publishes an interactive ROI calculator on their website that lets practices estimate time savings, direct cost savings and additional revenue from increased patient capacity. For a clinic seeing 100 patients across a morning session, even the more conservative scenario shows several work weeks of clinical time recovered each year.
It is worth a few minutes of any practice manager’s attention, particularly if you are evaluating an integrated digital workflow as part of a broader cloud based practice management software review. Good DICOM integration in Australia is not only about cleaner data; it is about the clinical time you can return to staff and patients every single day.
Frequently asked questions
What is DICOM integration for medical practices?
DICOM integration is the process of connecting diagnostic imaging devices, like OCTs, echocardiograms, fundus cameras and ECG machines to a practice management system through the DICOM standard. Good DICOM integration in Australia means a patient’s details flow automatically from your practice management software to each device, scans and findings flow back, and clinicians see a unified view per patient.
Why do specialist practices need DICOM integration?
A busy specialist clinic typically runs multiple diagnostic devices in a single patient visit. Without proper DICOM integration, technicians can spend 5 to 7 minutes per patient typing patient details into each machine. Connecting your practice management software to your imaging devices through a partner like Pliny removes that admin overhead and lowers transcription errors across the day.
What is Pliny and how does it work with Xestro?
Pliny is a vendor-neutral clinical operating system that sits between your diagnostic equipment and your practice management software. A small on-site Pliny gateway plugs into your practice network, securely exchanges patient appointments with Xestro through a DICOM worklist, and pulls scans back from every connected device into one unified cloud interface.
Is Pliny suitable for practices moving from VIP.net?
Pliny is not a practice management system on its own, it is the DICOM integration layer. For practices moving from VIP.net, a recommended pathway is Xestro for the cloud based practice management software, plus Pliny for connected device data. Together, Xestro replaces VIP.net’s practice management function, with Pliny adding DICOM integration alongside it.
Which devices does Pliny support?
Pliny works with the vast majority of DICOM-capable diagnostic devices, including Topcon, Heidelberg, NIDEK, ZEISS, Optos and Haag-Streit on the ophthalmology side, and a broad set of echocardiogram and ECG vendors on the cardiology side. As a rule of thumb, if a device supports DICOM, Pliny can almost always integrate with it. For non-DICOM devices, the team will assess case-by-case based on whether usable metadata can be extracted.
Does Pliny work for cardiology, ENT and other specialties?
Yes. Pliny’s deepest expertise is in ophthalmology, but the same DICOM plumbing supports cardiology, ENT and other DICOM-capable specialties through “Pliny Lite”, a streamlined DICOM worklist integration with Xestro that pushes appointments out to echocardiograms and ECG machines.
How do I add Pliny to a Xestro practice?
The simplest first step is to contact our support team at support@xestro.com. From there, we can review the device list specific to your rooms, discuss the Pliny gateway setup, and help coordinate the next steps for your DICOM integration.
Learn More About Xestro and Pliny
The Xestro integration with Pliny is live and being used by Australian specialist practices today. If you are an ophthalmologist, cardiologist or any other specialist reviewing your practice management software, and especially if you are looking for a smooth path from VIP.net to a cloud based practice management software with proper DICOM integration, we would love to talk you through how the two systems work together in your real day-to-day.
If you would like to see how Xestro supports specialist practices through a secure, cloud based practice management platform, you can book a free personalised demo with our team.
If you are already using Xestro and want to build confidence with the system, explore our training options. Our sessions are designed to help practices use Xestro effectively and with confidence.
You can also follow Xestro on LinkedIn to stay up to date with company milestones, partnerships, events, and industry insights throughout the year.
