Reconciling assets within a computer network

• US 20020038381A1
• Filed: 07/24/2001
• Published: 03/28/2002
• 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:
  US09/911,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20020038381A1
• 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 for destination within a network. A verification module executing within an operating environment provided by the router validates data of a network communication. A reconciliation manager displays a user interface for reconciling any invalid data. A routing module forwards the network communication to a destination according to the routing information.

Claims

1. A router comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing routing information for destination within a network;

a verification module to validate data of a network communication;

a reconciliation manager that displays a user interface for reconciling any invalid data; and

a routing module to forward the network communication to a destination according to the routing information.

2. The router of claim 1, wherein the data comprises medical data, and the reconciliation manager comprises a patient manager.

3. The router of claim 2, wherein the medical imaging data comprises patient information, session information and study information

4. The router of claim 1, wherein the verification module semantically and syntactically validates the data, and issues a reconciliation event to the reconciliation manager based on the validation.

5. The router of claim 1, wherein the routing module forwards the network communication upon reconciliation by the reconciliation manager.

6. The router of claim 1, wherein the verification module issues a reconciliation event to the reconciliation manager based on the validation.

7. The router of claim 6, wherein the user interface displays an event list listing reconciliation events received from the verification module.

8. The router of claim 6, wherein for each reconciliation event, the user interface displays an identifier for the corresponding invalid data, a source medical imaging modality producing the network communication, and a date and time of the event.

9. The router of claim 8, wherein for each reconciliation event, the user interface further displays, an event identifier, a patient identifier, a study identifier, a series identifier, and an image identifier.

10. The router of claim 8, wherein the user interface provides an input area by which an operator can edit the data of the network communication prior to forwarding the network communication.

11. The router of claim 1, wherein the reconciliation manager queries the destinations of the network based on the routing information to reconcile the invalid data.

12. The router of claim 1, further including a Hospital Information System/Radiology Information System (HIS/RIS) interface, and further wherein the reconciliation manager queries the HIS/RIS to reconcile the invalid data.

13. The router of claim 1, wherein the reconciliation manager displays information received from the HIS/RIS for selection by a user.

14. The router of claim 1, wherein the verification module maintains a database of tags defined by the data of the network communication.

15. The router of claim 14, wherein for each tag, the verification module stores a source medical imaging modality producing the network communication, and a unique identifier for the tag.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving a network communication comprises receiving a network communication according to the DICOM protocol.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying invalid data comprises semantically and syntactically validating the data.

19. The method of claim 16, further including issuing a reconciliation event based on the identification.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein displaying a user interface includes displaying a list of reconciliation event.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying a user interface includes displaying an identifier for the corresponding invalid data, a source medical imaging modality producing the network communication, and a date and time of network communication.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying a user interface includes displaying a patient identifier, a study identifier, a series identifier, and an image identifier.

23. The method of claim 16, further including:

receiving input from a user via the user interface; and

updating the data of the network communication prior to forwarding the network communication.

24. The method of claim 16, further including:

querying destinations of the network based on the routing information; and

updating the data of the network communication based on responses to the queries.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein querying destinations of the network comprises querying a Hospital Information System/Radiology Information System (HIS/RIS).

26. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving a network communication includes receiving a network communication according to the DICOM protocol, the method further including maintaining a database of DICOM tags defined by the data of the network communication.

27. The method of claim 26, further including storing in the database a source medical if imaging modality producing the network communication.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the network communications include assets having routing information, original medical imaging data, and patch data, and further wherein the debug software displays the assets in hexadecimal format as wells as corresponding DICOM commands decoded into an English-readable format.

16. A method comprising:

storing routing information describing routes within a network;

receiving a network communication comprising data and destination information;

identifying invalid data of the network communication;

displaying a user interface for reconciling the invalid data;

upon reconciling the data, forwarding the network communication according to the routing information.

28. A system comprising:

router that receives network communications according to the DICOM protocol, and routes the network communication, wherein the router includes a tracing module to buffer the network communications to a computer-readable medium; and

a debug software module executes on a computing environment to receive the buffered network communications from the router, wherein the debug software module displays data encapsulated by the network communications and corresponding DICOM commands.