Medical imaging and efficient sharing of medical imaging information

• US 10,331,852 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2016
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ArtSkills, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Arterys, Inc. (Tempus Labs, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dormer, Kyle, Patni, Hussein, Bidulock, Darryl, Axerio-Cilies, John, Taerum, Torin Arni
• Primary Examiner(s): Couso, Yon J
• Application Number:
  US15/363,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20170076043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

An MRI image processing and analysis system may identify instances of structure in MRI flow data, e.g., coherency, derive contours and/or clinical markers based on the identified structures. The system may be remotely located from one or more MRI acquisition systems, and perform: error detection and/or correction on MRI data sets (e.g., phase error correction, phase aliasing, signal unwrapping, and/or on other artifacts); segmentation; visualization of flow (e.g., velocity, arterial versus venous flow, shunts) superimposed on anatomical structure, quantification; verification; and/or generation of patient specific 4-D flow protocols. A protected health information (PHI) service is provided which de-identifies medical study data and allows medical providers to control PHI data, and uploads the de-identified data to an analytics service provider (ASP) system. A web application is provided which merges the PHI data with the de-identified data while keeping control of the PHI data with the medical provider.

Claims

1. A method of operating a medical analytics platform, the medical analytics platform comprising an analytics service provider (ASP) system and a protected health information (PHI) system, the method comprising:

storing, by at least one processor of the ASP system, de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the ASP system;

storing, by at least one processor of the PHI system, PHI data associated with the de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, a request for a PHI access token from a client processor-based device over at least one communications network;

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, an encrypted PHI access token to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a request for PHI data for the medical study from the client processor-based device, the request including the encrypted PHI access token;

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the encrypted PHI access token to the ASP system over the at least one communications network;

validating, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the received encrypted PHI access token;

notifying, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the PHI system that the PHI access token is valid;

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, PHI data for a requested medical study to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network responsive to the at least one processor of the PHI system receiving the validation notification from the ASP system; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, de-identified medical study data for the requested medical study to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the PHI system is communicatively coupled to a private network, the method further comprising:

verifying, by the at least one processor of the ASP system or the at least one processor of the PHI system, that the client processor-based device has access to the private network.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, medical study data which includes PHI data;

removing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the PHI data from the medical study data to generate de-identified medical study data;

storing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the PHI data in the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving medical study data which includes PHI data comprises receiving medical imaging data from a scanner.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein sending the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system comprises sending the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system using a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein removing the PHI data from the medical study data comprises:

removing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, fields which are allowed to be deleted; and

replacing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, data in fields which are not allowed to be deleted with obfuscated replacement data.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

associating, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a unique identifier with the medical study data for a medical study;

storing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the unique identifier in the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the unique identifier with the de-identified medical data for the medical study to the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the de-identified medical study data from the ASP system over the at least one communications network;

merging, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data and the de-identified medical study data to generate re-identified medical study data; and

presenting, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the re-identified medical study data to a user of the client processor-based device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, analytics data relating to the de-identified medical study data; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the generated analytics data to the PHI system over the at least one communications network.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, a request to generate analytics data from the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network,

wherein generating the analytics data is responsive to receiving the request to generate analytics data from the client processor-based device.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein generating analytics data comprises generating at least one of a report or a secondary capture object, and sending the generated analytics data to the PHI system comprises sending the at least one of the report or the secondary capture object to the PHI system over the at least one communications network for storage on the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium communicatively coupled with the PHI system.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a list of available studies to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network; and

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a selection of at least one of the available studies in the list from the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a check for updates to the ASP system over the at least one communications network;

determining, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, whether any updates to the PHI system are needed; and

responsive to determining that at least one update of the PHI system is needed, sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP, update data to the PHI system over the at least one communications network.

14. A method of operating an analytics service provider (ASP) system of a medical analytics platform, the medical analytics platform comprising the ASP system and a protected health information (PHI) system, the PHI system storing PHI data associated with de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system, the method comprising:

storing, by at least one processor of the ASP system, the de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the ASP system;

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, de-identified medical study data for a requested medical study to a client processor-based device over at least one communications network to be merged by the client processor-based device with PHI data received by the client processor-based device from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, a request for a PHI access token from the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network;

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, an encrypted PHI access token to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the encrypted PHI access token from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

validating, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the received encrypted PHI access token; and

notifying, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the PHI system that the PHI access token is valid.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the de-identified medical study data from the PHI system over the at least one communications network.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, analytics data relating to the de-identified medical study data; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, the generated analytics data to the PHI system over the at least one communications network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, a request to generate analytics data from the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network,

wherein generating the analytics data is responsive to receiving the request to generate analytics data from the client processor-based device.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein generating analytics data comprises generating at least one of a report or a secondary capture object, and sending the generated analytics data to the PHI system comprises sending the at least one of the report or the secondary capture object to the PHI system over the at least one communications network for storage on the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium communicatively coupled with the PHI system.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

periodically receiving, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, a check for updates from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

determining, by the at least one processor of the ASP system, whether any updates to the PHI system are needed; and

responsive to determining that at least one update of the PHI system is needed, sending, by the at least one processor of the ASP, update data to the PHI system over the at least one communications network.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, by at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the de-identified medical study data from the ASP system over the at least one communications network;

merging, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data and the de-identified medical study data to generate re-identified medical study data; and

presenting, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the re-identified medical study data to a user of the client processor-based device.

21. A method of operating a protected health information (PHI) system of a medical analytics platform, the medical analytics platform comprising the PHI system and an analytics service provider (ASP) system, the ASP system storing de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the ASP system, the method comprising:

storing, by at least one processor of the PHI system, PHI data associated with the de-identified medical study data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a request for PHI data for the medical study from a client processor-based device, the request including an encrypted PHI access token;

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the encrypted PHI access token to the ASP system over the at least one communications network for validation; and

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a notification from the ASP system that the PHI access token is valid; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, PHI data for a requested medical study to a client processor-based device over at least one communications network to be merged by the client processor-based device with de-identified medical study data received by the client processor-based device from the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, medical study data which includes PHI data;

removing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the PHI data from the medical study data to generate de-identified medical study data;

storing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the PHI data in the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein receiving medical study data which includes PHI data comprises receiving medical imaging data from a scanner.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein sending the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system comprises sending the de-identified medical study data to the ASP system using a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein removing the PHI data from the medical study data comprises:

removing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, fields which are allowed to be deleted; and

replacing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, data in fields which are not allowed to be deleted with obfuscated replacement data.

26. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

associating, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a unique identifier with the medical study data for a medical study;

storing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the unique identifier in the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium of the PHI system; and

sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the unique identifier with the de-identified medical data for the medical study to the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, analytics data relating to the de-identified medical study data from the ASP system over the at least one communications network; and

storing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, the received analytics data on at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium communicatively coupled with the PHI system.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

providing, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a list of available studies to the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network; and

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a selection of at least one of the available studies in the list from the client processor-based device over the at least one communications network.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

periodically sending, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, a check for updates to the ASP system over the at least one communications network; and

receiving, by the at least one processor of the PHI system, update data from the ASP system over the at least one communications network.

30. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, by at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data from the PHI system over the at least one communications network;

receiving, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the de-identified medical study data from the ASP system over the at least one communications network;

merging, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the PHI data and the de-identified medical study data to generate re-identified medical study data; and

presenting, by the at least one processor of the client processor-based device, the re-identified medical study data to a user of the client processor-based device.