Routing medical images within a computer network

• US 20020023172A1
• Filed: 07/24/2001
• Published: 02/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Acuo Technologies, LLC (Kofax Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Acuo Technologies, LLC (Kofax Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kingsbury, Dale Philip, Romatoski, Jeffrey Allen, Gendron, David Pierre, Sitka, Larry Robert
• Application Number:
  US09/911,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20020023172A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/26 Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A router includes a computer-readable medium storing routing information mapping destinations to routes within a medical imaging network, and storing a set of routing rules. A routing module executing within an operating environment provided by the router selects a route from the routing information based on destination information of a network communication and a comparison of medical imaging data of the network communication to the set of routing rules. The module parses the medical imaging data to identify a set of DICOM tags and corresponding data; and assesses the routing rules based on the DICOM tags and corresponding data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing routing information mapping destinations to routes within a network;

storing a set of routing rules;

receiving a network communication comprising destination information and data;

comparing at least a portion of the data to the set of routing rules;

selecting a route from the routing information based on the destination information of the network communication and a result of the comparison; and

forwarding the network communication according to the selected route.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a medical imaging network and the network communication complies with the DICOM protocol, and further wherein storing routing information comprises storing routing information mapping Application Entity Names (AENames) to routes within the medical imaging network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting a route from the routing information comprises comparing an AEName defined within the network communication to the AEName defined within the routing information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network communication complies with the DICOM protocol, and further wherein comparing at least a portion of the medical imaging data comprises:

parsing the medical imaging data to identify a set of DICOM tags and corresponding data; and

assessing a routing rule from the set of routing rules based on the DICOM tags and corresponding data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing a set of routing rules comprises storing an XML-based set of rules, wherein the rules conform to a user-defined grammar for routing the medical imaging data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising presenting an interface for receiving user input that defines the user-defined grammar.

7. A router comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing routing information mapping destinations to routes within a medical imaging network, and storing a set of routing rules; and

a routing module that selects a route from the routing information based on destination information of a network communication and a comparison of medical imaging data of the network communication to the set of routing rules.

8. The router of claim 7, wherein the routing information maps DICOM Application Entity Names (AENames) to routes within the medical imaging network.

9. The router of claim 7, wherein the routing module parses the medical imaging data to identify a set of DICOM tags and corresponding data, and assesses the routing rules based on the DICOM tags and corresponding data.

10. The router of claim 7, wherein the set of rules includes rules defined by the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and which conform to a user-defined grammar for routing the medical imaging data.

11. The router of claim 10, further comprising a user interface for presenting an interface for receiving user input that defines the user-defined grammar and the rules.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further storing a set of routing rules, wherein the set of rules includes rules defined by the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and which conform to a user-defined grammar for routing the medical imaging data.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the network communication complies with the DICOM protocol, and further wherein the instructions cause the processor to store routing information mapping Application Entity Names (AENames) to routes within the medical imaging network.

16. The computer-readable of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause the processor to compare an AEName defined within the network communication to the AEName defined within the routing information.

17. The computer-readable of claim 16, wherein the instructions cause the processor to:

parse the medical imaging data to identify a set of DICOM tags and corresponding data; and

assess the routing rules based on the DICOM tags and corresponding data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the user input defines a grammar for routing medical images within a medical imaging environment.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the user input defines tags including a patient identifier, an imaging modality.

12. A computer-readable medium storing data comprising routing information mapping destinations to routes within a medical imaging network, wherein the routing information maps DICOM Application Entity Names (AENames) to routes within the medical imaging network.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions thereon to cause a programmable processor to:

store routing information mapping destinations to routes within a medical imaging network;

store a set of routing rules;

receive a network communication comprising destination information and medical imaging data;

compare at least a portion of the medical imaging data to the set of routing rules;

select a route from the routing information based on the destination information of the network communication and a result of the comparison; and

forward the network communication according to the selected route.

18. A method comprising:

receiving user input defining routing information;

generating a rule in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format based on the routing information;

storing the XML-based rule in a rule set;

receiving a network communication comprising medical imaging data;

assessing the XML-based rule based on at least a portion of the medical imaging data; and

routing the network communication based on the assessment of the XML-based rule.

22. A method comprising:

detecting medical imaging application information for a first domain within a medical imaging network;

receiving a network message having a destination within the first domain;

translating application information within the network message to the application information for the first network domain; and

forwarding the network message to the destination.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein detecting medical imaging application information includes establishing a temporary association with a medical imaging device within the first domain.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein detecting the medical imaging application information includes detecting an Application Entity Title (AETitle), a DICOM version and a unique identifier (UID).

25. The method of claim 22, wherein translating the application information includes parsing data within the network message to identify the application information of network message.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein retrieving the medical imaging data comprises issuing move commands requesting the identified storage systems move the medical imaging data to a destination device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the destination device comprises a medical imaging modality.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein retrieving the medical imaging data comprises:

scheduling a pre-fetch operation based on the exam information; and

issuing move commands based on the scheduled pre-fetch operation.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising issuing queries to the identified storage systems to locate storage assets relating to a patient.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein issuing queries comprises issuing CFIND commands according to the DICOM protocol.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising selecting at least on of the storage systems based on characteristics of a network link between the selected storage system and a destination device.

26. A method comprising:

receiving examination information for a patient;

examining routing information within a network router to identify storage systems within a network; and

retrieving medical imaging data from the identified storage systems prior to an examination of the patient.

33. A router comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing routing information mapping destinations to routes within a medical imaging network; and

a patient management module to receive examination information for a patient, and to retrieve medical imaging data prior to an examination of the patient based on the routing information.

34. The router of claim 34, wherein the patient management module examines the routing information to identify storage systems within the medical imaging network.

35. The router of claim 34, wherein the patient management module schedules a pre-fetch operation based on the examination information, and issues move commands based on the scheduled pre-fetch operation.

36. The router of claim 35, wherein the patient management module issues queries to the identified storage systems to locate storage assets relating to a patient.

37. The router of claim 36, wherein the patient management module issues CFIND commands according to the DICOM protocol.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving a new storage asset from a medical imaging modality; and

assigning the global unique identifier (GUID).

40. The method of claim 38, wherein selectively retrieving the requested asset comprises issuing a DICOM MOVE command to one of the storage systems.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein selectively retrieving the patient information comprises selecting one of the storage systems based on a characteristic of a connection between the storage system and a requesting device.

38. A method comprising:

receiving a request for an asset;

determining a global unique identifier (GUID) associated with the requested asset;

examining routing information to identify storage systems within a network;

issuing queries to the storage system to determine which storage systems have a local copy of the requested asset, wherein the queries include the associated GUID; and

selectively retrieving one of the local copies of the requested asset.