U.S. patent application number 10/836305 was filed with the patent office on 2004-10-14 for method and system for facilitating selection of stored medical image files.
Invention is credited to Gueck, Wayne J., McCabe, Laurence S..
Application Number | 20040204965 10/836305 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 29779432 |
Filed Date | 2004-10-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040204965 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gueck, Wayne J. ; et
al. |
October 14, 2004 |
Method and system for facilitating selection of stored medical
image files
Abstract
A method and system for facilitating selection of stored medical
image files are disclosed. In one preferred embodiment, a plurality
of medical image files are stored. Each medical image file
comprises image data and a header comprising medical-image-file
retrieval information. During image review, a user specifies
medical-image-file retrieval information for at least one medical
image file desired to be retrieved from the stored plurality of
medical image files. Then, a set of medical image files is
automatically selected from the stored plurality of medical image
files based on the specified medical-image-file retrieval
information. Other preferred embodiments are provided, and each of
the preferred embodiments can be used alone or in combination with
one another.
Inventors: |
Gueck, Wayne J.; (Redmond,
WA) ; McCabe, Laurence S.; (Sunnyvale, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Siemens Corporation
Attn: Elsa Keller, Legal Administrator
Intellectual Property Department
170 Wood Avenue South
Iselin
NJ
08830
US
|
Family ID: |
29779432 |
Appl. No.: |
10/836305 |
Filed: |
April 30, 2004 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10836305 |
Apr 30, 2004 |
|
|
|
10184729 |
Jun 27, 2002 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/3 ;
707/E17.026 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G16H 30/20 20180101;
G06F 16/58 20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/003 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for facilitating selection of stored medical image
files, the method comprising: (a) storing a plurality of medical
image files, each medical image file comprising image data and a
header comprising medical-image-file retrieval information; (b)
specifying medical-image-file retrieval information for at least
one medical image file desired to be retrieved from the stored
plurality of medical image files; and (c) automatically selecting a
set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical
image files based on the medical-image-file retrieval information
specified in (b).
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: extracting the
medical-image-file retrieval information from the header of each
medical image file; and placing the extracted medical-image-file
retrieval information in a database; wherein the set of medical
image files is automatically selected in (c) by searching the
database for the medical-image-file retrieval information specified
in (b).
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information is in ASCII.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the
medical-image-file retrieval information is encrypted.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the encrypted medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA)-protected information.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information comprises a plurality of fields.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one field is associated
with an identifier that specifies whether that field can be used to
automatically select a set of medical image files from the stored
plurality of medical image files.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one field is encrypted
to provide more than one level of access to data stored in the at
least one field.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information comprises an annotation.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information comprises a measurement.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information comprises at least one member of at least one of the
following: patient attributes, institution attributes, trial
attributes, and study attributes.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval
information comprises at least one member of at least one of the
following: waveform attributes, modality options, processing
options, and user interface options.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein the header comprises a DICOM
tag.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the header comprises a private
attribute of a DICOM tag.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the header comprises a standard
attribute of a DICOM tag.
16. A system for facilitating selection of stored medical image
files, the system comprising: at least one storage device storing a
plurality of medical image files, each medical image file
respectively comprising image data and a header comprising
medical-image-file retrieval information; and computer-usable media
storing computer-readable program code for automatically selecting
a set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical
image files based on specified medical-image-file retrieval
information.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer-usable media
further stores computer-readable program code for: extracting the
medical-image-file retrieval information from the header of each
medical image file; and placing the extracted medical-image-file
retrieval information in a database; wherein the set of medical
image files is automatically selected by searching the database for
the specified medical-image-file retrieval information.
18. The system of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information is in ASCII.
19. The system of claim 16, wherein at least some of the
medical-image-file retrieval information is encrypted.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the encrypted
medical-image-file retrieval information comprises Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-protected
information.
21. The system of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises a plurality of fields.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one field is
associated with an identifier that specifies whether that field can
be used to automatically select a set of medical image files from
the stored plurality of medical image files.
23. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one field is encrypted
to provide more than one level of access to data stored in the at
least one field.
24. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises an annotation.
25. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises a measurement.
26. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one
of the following: patient attributes, institution attributes, trial
attributes, and study attributes.
27. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file
retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one
of the following: waveform attributes, modality options, processing
options, and user interface options.
28. The system of claim 16, wherein the header comprises a DICOM
tag.
29. The system of claim 28, wherein the header comprises a private
attribute of a DICOM tag.
30. The system of claim 28, wherein the header comprises a standard
attribute of a DICOM tag.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/184,729, filed Jun. 27, 2002, which is
hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] For many years, ultrasound images generated during an
ultrasound exam were stored on VCR tape and retrieved using
conventional VCR controls like fast forward. Because VCR tape
provides only serial access to stored images, viewing a specific
image in a recorded exam requires a user to scan through all of the
prior images in the series, which is a slow and manual process. VCR
storage has largely been replaced with digital storage to random
access media, such as memory or disk. However, digital storage of
ultrasound images is not as fully utilized in existing ultrasound
systems as it could be because exams are still presented to users
as a serial collection of images, which a user must manually scan
through to select a specific image. Selecting an image in this
manner is time consuming because:
[0003] (1) Images are large files that take a relatively long time
to load from storage media;
[0004] (2) Images are often compressed, and time is required to
decompress the images;
[0005] (3) Visual examination of each image takes time; and
[0006] (4) The operation of advancing to the next image in a series
requires an action by the user.
[0007] Several methods can be used to facilitate the selection of a
stored medical image, but each has its own disadvantages. For
example, image load time can be improved by adopting faster
hardware, but this increases system cost. Also, the time required
to advance to a next image in a series can be reduced by displaying
multiple images of smaller size; however, the smaller image size
can interfere with a sonographer's ability to examine each
image.
[0008] There is a need, therefore, for an improved method and
system for facilitating selection of stored medical images.
SUMMARY
[0009] The present invention is defined by the following claims,
and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on
those claims.
[0010] By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments described
below provide a method and system for facilitating selection of
stored medical image files. In one preferred embodiment, a
plurality of medical image files are stored. Each medical image
file comprises image data and a header comprising
medical-image-file retrieval information. During image review, a
user specifies medical-image-file retrieval information for at
least one medical image file desired to be retrieved from the
stored plurality of medical image files. Then, a set of medical
image files is automatically selected from the stored plurality of
medical image files based on the specified medical-image-file
retrieval information. Other preferred embodiments are provided,
and each of the preferred embodiments described herein can be used
alone or in combination with one another. The preferred embodiments
will now be described with reference to the attached drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of a preferred embodiment
for facilitating selection of stored medical images.
[0012] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a medical diagnostic ultrasound
imaging system of a preferred embodiment.
[0013] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a network environment of a
preferred embodiment.
[0014] FIG. 4 is an illustration of a medical image file of a
preferred embodiment.
[0015] FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method of a preferred embodiment
for facilitating selection of stored medical image files.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0016] By way of overview, the preferred embodiments described
below relate to a method and system for facilitating selection of
stored medical images. With these preferred embodiments, a user can
more quickly retrieve a desired medical image from a collection of
stored images by manipulating the same controls that were used to
acquire the desired image in the first place. With reference to the
flow chart 100 of FIG. 1, in one preferred embodiment, medical
images generated by a medical image acquisition device are stored
in one or more storage devices (act 110). For each of the stored
images, the settings of at least one acquisition time control used
to create the image are also stored (act 120). To select a stored
image, a user selects a set of acquisition time control settings
(act 130), and based on the selected settings, a set of medical
images is automatically selected from the stored images (act
140).
[0017] Turning again to the drawings, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of
a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system 200 that will be
used to illustrate the operation of the method shown in FIG. 1.
While an ultrasound system and ultrasound images are used in this
illustration, it should be noted that other types of medical image
acquisition devices and medical images can be used with these
preferred embodiments. As shown in FIG. 2, the ultrasound system
200 comprises a transducer probe 205, a beamformer 210, a processor
220, a display device 230, a storage device 240, and a user
interface 250. The term "processor" broadly refers to the
appropriate hardware and/or software components of the ultrasound
system 200 that can be used to implement the functionality
described herein. The storage device 240 is suitable for storing
digital images and can take the form, for example, of a solid-state
volatile or non-volatile memory device or a permanent or removable
optical or magnetic disk. The user interface 250 can include, for
example, physical knobs, buttons, or keys that a user can
physically manipulate on a control panel; soft buttons displayed on
the display device 230 that a user can select with a pointing
device or by touching the displayed button if the display device
230 is touch-sensitive; or a microphone through which a user can
voice commands. The ultrasound system 200 can comprise additional
components, which are not shown in FIG. 2 for simplicity. For
example, the ultrasound system 200 can comprise an additional
memory device (computer-usable media) that stores software
(computer-readable program code) run by the processor 220.
[0018] In operation, a sonographer uses the user interface 250 to
select a set of acquisition time controls settings. As used herein,
the term "set" refers to a group of one or more, and the term
"acquisition time control" refers to any control that a user
manipulates in the process of acquiring a medical image to affect
how the medical image is acquired. Manipulating an acquisition time
control can affect transmit, receive, and/or processing operations.
For a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, an acquisition
time control can be a "major mode" key that a user selects to
choose the type of ultrasound image that will be generated (e.g.,
M-mode, B-mode, color flow, or Spectral Doppler (PW)). An
acquisition time control can also be a flow sub-mode with Doppler
Tissue Imaging or contrast imaging settings. Additionally, an
acquisition time control can be an individual parameters (e.g.,
frequency or depth) or a "pre-set," which is a stored combination
of individual acquisition time control settings (e.g., specific
mode, frequency, and depth settings) grouped together based on the
anatomy being imaged (e.g., general radiology, vascular
examination, cardiology) or the sonographer performing the
examination (e.g., Dr. Smith, Dr. Robert).
[0019] During an ultrasound examination, the sonographer contacts
the transducer probe 205 with a patient, and the ultrasound system
200 acquires an ultrasound image in accordance with the acquisition
time control settings. In general, the ultrasound system's
processor 220 causes the beamformer 210 to apply a voltage to the
transducer 205 to cause it to vibrate and emit an ultrasonic beam
into the portion of the patient's body in contact with the
transducer 205. Ultrasonic energy reflected from the patient's body
impinges on the transducer 205, and the resulting voltages created
by the transducer 205 are received by the beamformer 210. The
processor 220 processes the sensed voltages to create an ultrasound
image and displays the image on the display device 230. In addition
to being displayed on the display device 230, a generated
ultrasound image can also be stored in digital form. For example,
the sonographer can be given the option of storing an ultrasound
image by pressing an "image capture" key on the user interface 250,
or, alternatively, the ultrasound image can be automatically stored
without user intervention. In this way, a series of images from an
ultrasound exam can be stored in the storage device 240 in the
ultrasound system 200 for later review. While shown as a single box
in FIG. 2, the storage device 240 can comprise one or more
individual storage devices (e.g., two separate disks).
Additionally, as will be described below, an ultrasound image can
be stored in a storage device external to the ultrasound system
200.
[0020] In this preferred embodiment, for each stored ultrasound
image, some or all of the acquisition time control settings used to
create the image are also stored. As will be described below, the
stored acquisition time control settings can later be used as a
selection criteria for selecting a stored image. The acquisition
time control settings for an image can be stored in any suitable
manner and can be stored before, during, or after the storage of
its associated image. The settings can be stored along with the
image, such as when the settings are stored in a DICOM tag attached
to an image. Alternatively, a separate file comprising the
acquisition time control settings can be stored for each stored
image. The separate file can be stored in the same storage device
that stores the image or in a different storage device. Preferably,
a directory is used for a collection of stored images (e.g., images
from a given exam) to store the acquisition time control settings
for each image in the collection. The directory can be stored in
the storage device that stores the images or can be stored in a
separate location. Storing acquisition time control settings for
multiple images in a directory allows review software to more
quickly identify an image since searching a single directory for
the search criteria is faster than searching each stored image or
file individually.
[0021] In prior ultrasound systems, to retrieve an image from a
stored exam, a user selects an "image review mode" using the user
interface, and the processor retrieves all of the images in the
exam. To find an image of interest, the user manually views each of
the images. Consider, for example, the situation in which a
sonographer captures 50 images of a patient during an exam, 45 of
which are B-mode images and five of which are Spectral Doppler
images. If the sonographer were interested in reviewing the
Spectral Doppler images, he would scan though the series of 50
images until he found the five Spectral Doppler images. As
discussed in the background section, this retrieval process can be
time consuming and tedious for the sonographer.
[0022] To facilitate the selection of a stored image, the
ultrasound system 200 in this preferred embodiment allows a user to
filter the stored images using the acquisition time control
settings stored with the images. In operation, after the user
enters the image review mode, he manipulates the acquisition time
controls of the user interface 250 to select a set of acquisition
time control settings. The number of settings selected as search
criteria can be the same as, more than, or less than the number of
settings used to generate the image of interest. Based on these
settings, a set of the stored medical images is automatically
selected from the group of stored images. With reference to the
previous example in which a sonographer is interested in reviewing
Spectral Doppler images, during image review mode, the sonographer
would press the Spectral Doppler button. The review software would
search the acquisition time control settings stored for the stored
images and automatically select the five Spectral Doppler images
from the 50 stored images, thereby filtering out all images that
were not associated with the Spectral Doppler setting. By using
these preferred embodiments to narrow the search to a subset of the
stored images, the number of images that a user needs to load and
visually examine is reduced, thereby allowing the user to more
quickly find a desired image.
[0023] The results of the automatic selection can be presented to
the user in any suitable manner. For example, the processor 220 can
present a list of the automatically selected images to the user,
and the user can select an image for viewing from this list.
Instead of presenting a list, the review software can automatically
retrieve and display the selected set of images (e.g., in a
thumbnail format). Additionally, the functionality of "next image"
and "previous image" operations can be adjusted to skip over images
that do not match the specified acquisition time control
settings.
[0024] Regardless of how the images are presented, the images can
be sorted in order of their closeness to the specified acquisition
time control settings. For example, in an ultrasound system
utilizing position sensing, moving a Doppler Gate to a specific
location in one image can order the images in the exam so that
those with Doppler spectra collected from close to the specified
Gate location would be in front of images with Doppler spectra
collected far from the current Gate location. Images can also be
sorted based on other criteria. For example, clicking on a
particular image can initialize a search/sort criteria to order
images by their closeness to the selected image. Criteria can then
be manually turned off in order to widen the search. As another
example, the review software can analyze the selected set of images
to determine the similarities/differences between the images and
then provide the user with an indication of those
similarities/differences to help the user narrow the search. For
example, consider the situation in which the review software
automatically selects a set of ten images, five of which were
acquired at one frequency and five of which were acquired at
another frequency. The review software can automatically illuminate
the frequency key to inform the user that he can narrow the images
even further by pressing the button and selecting a specific
frequency.
[0025] There are several alternatives that can be used with these
preferred embodiments. In the preceding examples, an exact match
selection scheme was used in which only those images whose stored
settings exactly matched the selected set of acquisition time
control settings were automatically selected. Other selection
schemes can be used. For example, a selection scheme can be used
where those images whose stored settings most closely match
(instead of exactly match) the selected set of acquisition time
control settings are automatically selected. Consider, for example,
the situation in which a sonographer is looking for a long-axis,
Color Doppler view of the heart. During image review, the
sonographer selects the Long-Axis Preset and presses the Color
Doppler mode key. If none of the stored images are stored with both
the Long-Axis and Color Doppler settings, the review software can
present the closest match (e.g., images stored with either the
Long-Axis setting or the Color Doppler setting). Further,
relational selection schemes, such as greater than, greater than or
equal to, less than, less than or equal to, or not equal to, can
also be used. For example, some acquisition time controls (such as
depth) can be incremented or decremented, and the direction of the
change applied by a user can be used to establish the relational
selection criteria (e.g., increasing the depth control filters out
images with depths that are shallower than the current depth
setting, while decreasing the depth control filters out images with
depths deeper than the current depth setting).
[0026] As noted above, the automatic selection of images is "based
on" the selected set of acquisition time control settings. Any
selection that at least in part uses the selected set of
acquisition time control settings is "based on" that selected set.
While the acquisition time control settings can be the sole search
criteria, other information related to and stored along with an
image can be used along with the acquisition time control settings.
Such additional information includes, but is not limited to,
identification of the probe used to generate an image, the location
of the probe (indicated by a position sensing device), the presence
or absence of a biopsy needle in the image, annotations, and stage
timer values. Additionally, it should be noted that while the
stored images that were searched in the examples described above
were of the same patient and generated in the same exam, the stored
images that are searched can be generated over multiple exams and
be of different patients. This would allow a user to easily access
images acquired for different patients and/or during different
exams, but related to the same anatomy, for comparison
purposes.
[0027] In the embodiments described above, the selection of
acquisition time controls during image review was made using the
user interface 250 of the ultrasound system 200. There are several
advantages to using the user interface 250 of the ultrasound system
200 to enter search criteria: (1) acquisition time controls are
very familiar to sonographers, (2) the user interface 250 of the
ultrasound system 200 is designed so that the acquisition time
controls are fast and easy to use; and (3) many acquisition time
controls have strong associations with image content, so
manipulating them feels like a natural way for sonographers to find
images with specific content. All of these advantages contribute to
making this technique of facilitating selection of a stored image
easy for sonographers to adopt with a very short learning
curve.
[0028] In another preferred embodiment, instead of using a user
interface of an ultrasound system, an image review station is used
to select acquisition time control settings for image retrieval.
This preferred embodiment will be illustrated in conjunction with
FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is an illustration of a network environment 300
comprising an ultrasound system 200, one or more image servers 310,
and a review station 320, all connected to a communications network
305 (e.g., the Internet, a hospital or clinic intranet, etc.). In
this environment 300, images generated by the ultrasound system 200
can be stored either in the storage device 240 of the ultrasound
system or in the image servers 310. The review station 320 is a
computer workstation comprising a processor, a display device, and
a user interface. The review station 320 comprises image review
software that allows a user to retrieve a stored image and perform
measurements and other actions on that image. In this embodiment,
the image review software also comprises the functionality to input
acquisition time control settings and to automatically select
images based on those settings. For example, the review software
can display a control panel with soft buttons mimicking the look of
a control panel of an ultrasound system. After the user selects the
acquisition time control settings using this "virtual control
panel," the review software on the review station 320 can search
the stored images for the selected settings. Alternatively, a user
can use the review station 320 to type or otherwise enter the
acquisition time control settings into a search engine.
[0029] It should be noted that each of the acts in the method shown
in FIG. 1 can be performed by executing computer-readable program
code stored on computer-usable media (e.g., one or more memories or
disk drives). Further, the computer-readable program code can be
located in any suitable location in the network environment 300.
For example, the computer-readable program code implementing the
functionality of automatically selecting a set of medical images
based on acquisition time control settings can be stored in
computer-usable media in the ultrasound system 200, review station
320, image server 310, or other components (not shown) of the
network environment 300.
[0030] With the preferred embodiment described above, a desired
item is retrieved from a stored collection of items by manipulating
the same controls that would be used to generate the item. These
preferred embodiments can be applied to a variety of applications,
such as to ultrasound systems with very high acquisition rates.
Advances in ultrasound technology have the potential to produce
acquisition rates that far exceed the ability of display systems
(or sonographers) to process. For example, one might imagine
acquiring a data set that could be reconstructed to produce a
strip-type display (M-mode or Doppler) from any point in the field
of view. Since this amount of information cannot be viewed in
real-time, such a data set would have to be reviewed after the
fact. A very natural way for the sonographer to specify the
location of interest for after-the-fact reconstruction would be to
move a Cursor or Gate control to that location. The concept of
using acquisition time controls for quick access to acquired data
during review at a later time is also useful outside of medical
imaging context. Consider, for example, a set-top box (e.g., TiVo)
that records many shows from many channels. Currently, one selects
a particular show by scrolling through a list of recorded programs.
Applying these preferred embodiments to this scenario, a user would
select a channel and/or recording time using the standard buttons
on his remote (the acquisition time control) to get a shorter list
that contains only programs recorded from that channel and/or at
the specified time.
[0031] In one of the embodiments described above, acquisition time
control settings were stored in a DICOM tag attached to an image to
facilitate later selection of that stored image. More generally,
any type of data associated with a medical image can be stored in
the same file as the image to help facilitate later retrieval of
that image file. Image data may be a single 2-D image, a collection
of single 2-D images, a volume image, a collection of volume
images, or any combinations thereof. Image data may be black and
white, color, transparency, rendered, or any other image style and
may contain one or more overlays. With reference to FIG. 4, a
medical image file 400 comprises at least two components: a header
410 and image data 420. Typically, image data 420 describes pixel
values, and the header 410 contains attributes of the image data
420, such as grid information or a look-up table used to interpret
the pixel values in the image data 420. As used herein, the term
"header" refers to any portion of a stored file other than the
image data 420. Although the header is shown in FIG. 4 as preceding
the image data, it is important to note that a "header," as that
term is used herein, can be located before or after the image data.
Additionally, a header can be in the "middle" of image data, such
that image data both precedes and follows the header. Also, a
header can be present in contiguous storage locations or can be
distributed throughout an image file. A "header" can be a DICOM
header or any other separable portion of data associated with an
image that is part of a medical image file.
[0032] In this embodiment, instead of or in addition to containing
information used to display a medical image, the header comprises
medical-image-file retrieval information. As used herein, the term
"medical-image-file retrieval information" refers to any data or
reference information related to the medical image data that can be
used to later retrieve the medical image file from a plurality of
stored medical image files. Examples of medical-image-file
retrieval information include, but are not limited to, one or more
members of one or more of the following types: Patient Attributes,
Institution Attributes, Trial Attributes, Study Attributes,
Waveform Attributes, Modality Options, Processing Options, and User
Interface Options. Patient Attributes are identifiers such as, but
not limited to: patient's name, patient's birth date, patient's
birth time, patient ID (e.g., social security number, insurance
number, or any other identifying number), patient's sex, patient's
age, patient's size, patient's weight, ethnic group, occupation,
additional patient's history, patient comments, medical record
locator, admitting diagnosis or code sequence. Institution
Attributes are identifiers such as, but not limited to: institution
name, institutional department name, institution address, station
name, and device serial number. Trial Attributes are identifiers
such as, but not limited to: Sponsor Name, Protocol ID, Protocol
Name, Site ID, Site Name, Subject ID, and Subject Reading ID. Study
Attributes are identifiers such as, but not limited to: Instance
ID, date, time, referring physician's name, referring physician's
address, referring physician's telephone number(s), physician(s) of
record, performing physician's name, name of physician(s) reading
study, operator's name, accession number, study description, series
description, admitting diagnoses description, study ID, protocol
name, protocol sequence, referenced SOP (service-object pair)
instance UID (unique identifier), instance creator UID, service
date, and exam type. Waveform Attributes are identifiers such as,
but not limited to: probe used, frequency (e.g., TX or RX),
aperture, apodization, power, gain, MI, TI, PRF, frame rate, and
pulse shape or style. Modality Options are identifiers such as, but
not limited to: B-mode, color flow, spectral doppler, M-mode,
elasticity/strain, harmonic, acoustic streaming, acoustic
palpation, shear wave imaging or other imaging modes which may yet
to be developed. Processing Options are identifiers such as, but
not limited to: image processing performed (e.g., edge enhancement,
persistence, compounding, etc.), tissue equalization, line
interpolation, and pulse summation or subtraction with or without
gain. User Interface Options are identifiers such as, but not
limited to: other acquisition machine settings, exam type, viewing
window (zoom, pan, depth), focal zone settings, gain, diagnosis,
anomalies, measurements, and annotation. Identifiers in multiple
image data files may include indices to one or more identified
images within the file, whether the image is 2-D or 3-D.
Identifiers in volume data may include bookmarks or other
mechanisms for identifying the particular time or viewing
direction.
[0033] With reference to the flow chart 500 in FIG. 5, when a
medical image is stored in a storage location (e.g., in an
acquisition device, on removal storage media, or in a server in a
network), a medical image file is created comprising the image data
for the medical image and a header, where the header comprises
medical-image-file retrieval information (act 510). The storage
location can store a plurality of medical image files, and when a
user later wishes to retrieve one or more medical image files, the
user specifies medical-image-file retrieval information for the
files desired to be retrieved (act 520). Then, image retrieval
software automatically selects a set of medical image files from
the stored plurality of medical image files based on the specified
medical-image-file retrieval information (act 530). For example, if
the user specifies an annotation, the image retrieval software
examines the headers of the stored image files to automatically
select those image files having (or being closely associated with)
the specified annotation stored in their header, thereby filtering
out all other medical image files that do not have the specified
annotation to enable easy retrieval of the desired medical image
files. Instead of examining the headers of each stored medical
image file each time a search is performed, the image review
software can scan the headers of the stored medical image files to
extract medical-image-file retrieval information and place the
extracted information in an image retrieval database. From this
point on, medical image files can be automatically selected by
searching the database.
[0034] As with the embodiments described above, the results of the
automatic selection can be presented to the user in any suitable
manner. For example, a list of the automatically selected medical
image files can be presented to the user, and the user can select a
medical image file for viewing from this list. Instead of
presenting a list, the review software can automatically retrieve
and display the selected set of medical image files (e.g., in a
thumbnail format). Additionally, the functionality of "next image"
and "previous image" operations can be adjusted to skip over images
that do not match the specified medical-image-file retrieval
information.
[0035] If medical-image-file retrieval information is stored in a
DICOM tag, it is preferred that the information be stored in the
private element (private attribute) or standard element fields.
Regardless of where it is stored, the medical-image-file retrieval
information described above can be in ASCII or encrypted format,
and encrypted medical-image-file retrieval information can have one
or more levels of access. This can be a useful tool in restricting
access to protected information. For example, the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects certain types
of information, and protected information can be prevented from
being used as a search criteria for automatically selecting a
stored medical image file. For example, of the above-list of
examples of medical-image-file retrieval information,
HIPPA-protected information can include patient name, service date,
identification number, and birth date, while non-HIPPA-protected
information can include exam type, mode, PRF, probe used, protocol,
protocol sequence, frequency, depth, aperture, apodization, power,
gain, frame rate, MI, TI, pulse shape or style, image processing
performed, diagnosis, and annotation.
[0036] By allowing multiple levels of access, HIPPA-protected
medical-image-file retrieval information can be used as search
criteria by authorized personnel (e.g., the patient's physician),
while unauthorized personnel (e.g., a nurse) would be prevented
from using such information as search criteria. Additionally,
similar restrictions can be put into place to restrict retrieval of
HIPPA-protected medical-image-file retrieval information from a
header of a medical image file. In one implementation, a header is
organized into a plurality of medical-image-file retrieval
information fields, and each field is associated with an access
code or identifier. In operation, the medical image file retrieval
software determines if each field is private under HIPPA rules or
can be generally disclosed. Based on a need-to-know code privilege,
HIPPA private fields can be blocked for searching or retrieval. In
addition to or instead of restricting access to a particular field
(e.g., patient name) on an all-or-nothing basis, access can be
selectively restricted such that different people can access a
different amount of data from a given field. For example, the
"patient name" field in a header can be restricted such that some
users can access both the patient's first and last names, while
other users can access only the patient's first name. Additionally,
instead of using coded fields, annotations and other
medical-image-file retrieval information can be run through a
language identification tool to determine if privileged information
is present.
[0037] While HIPPA-protected information was used in the above
example, other standards for determining what information is
protected can be used. For example, any institution (e.g., a
hospital, a clinic, etc.) can establish its own rules as to who
does and does not have access to certain types of information. For
example, if several physicians have access to medical image files
stored on a shared server, the institution can ensure that only the
physician associated with a patient can access the
medical-image-file retrieval information stored in that patient's
image file.
[0038] It should be noted that each of the acts described above can
be performed by executing computer-readable program code stored on
computer-usable media (e.g., one or more memories or disk drives).
Further, the computer-readable program code can be, located in any
suitable location in a network environment. For example, the
computer-readable program code can be stored in computer-usable
media in an ultrasound system, a review station, an image server,
or any other components.
[0039] Finally, as noted above, although ultrasound images were
used to illustrate the preferred embodiments, any type of medical
image can be used. Medical images include still or moving images
("clips") generated from any imaging modality including, but not
limited to, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI), computed radiography, magnetic resonance,
angioscopy, color flow Doppler, cystoscopy, diaphanography,
echocardiography, fluoresosin angiography, laparoscopy, magnetic
resonance angiography, positron emission tomography, single-photon
emission computed tomography, x-ray angiography, computed
tomography, nuclear medicine, biomagnetic imaging, culposcopy,
duplex Doppler, digital microscopy, endoscopy, findoscopy, laser
surface scan, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, radiographic
imaging, thermography, and radio fluroscopy. The following claims
should not be limited to a specific type of medial image unless
explicitly recited therein.
[0040] It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be
understood as an illustration of selected forms that the invention
can take and not as a definition of the invention. It is only the
following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to
define the scope of this invention.
* * * * *