Method and system for in-service monitoring and training for a radiologic workstation

• US 20020194019A1
• Filed: 05/29/2001
• Published: 12/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MeVis BreastCare GmbH & Co. KG (Varex Imaging Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MeVis BreastCare GmbH & Co. KG (Varex Imaging Corporation)
• Inventors: Evertsz, Carl J. G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

In a method and a computer system for screening of medical cases known proven positive and/or known proven normal cases are inserted in the flow of cases during the screening. On a user'"'"'s option the known cases can be infiltrated in the case stream in accordance with a fixed pattern or on a random basis. When the radiologist makes a misdiagnosis of a known case this is recognized by the system and a corresponding output message is provided to the radiologist. Further the system has a database for tracing all user actions, including the diagnostic findings for the purposes of generating a user action report, quality control and assurance, and support in litigation.

Claims

1. A computer system for screening of medical cases comprising:

(a) a case stack of cases to be reviewed by a user;

(b) a user interface component for requesting a consecutive case, for display of the consecutive case, and for entering a diagnosis of the consecutive case;

(c) a program component for receiving a request for a consecutive case from the user interface, the program component selecting the consecutive case or a known case for the display and the diagnosis; and

(d) a feedback component for outputting a message to the user if the user diagnosis of the known case is incorrect.

2. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a pseudo-random component for generation of a pseudo-random number, the program component being coupled to the pseudo-random component for determining the selection of the consecutive case or the known case based on the output of the pseudo-random component.

3. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a session preparation component for initialising the case stack and for specifying an absolute number or a percentage of known cases to be selected by the program component during the screening of the case stack by the user.

4. The computer system of claim 3 wherein the session preparation component enables specifying a category for the known cases.

5. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a user action component for tracing of user input actions and of the feedback component.

6. The computer system of claim 5 further comprising a user action report generation component being coupled to the user action component for generating a user action report for the purposes of quality monitoring and assurance.

7. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a mode selection component for selecting a random mode or a fixed mode for the operation of the program component.

8. A method for screening of medical cases comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a case stack of cases to be reviewed by a user;

(b) requesting the display of a consecutive case;

(c) selecting the consecutive case or a known positive case for display;

(d) entering a diagnosis of the displayed case; and

(e) providing a feedback to the user if the diagnosis of the known case is incorrect.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of selecting the case to be displayed based on a pseudo-random number.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of selecting the case to be displayed based on a predefined fixed sequence.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of preparing a screening session by specifying an absolute number or percentage of known cases to be selected for display during the screening of the case stack.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of specifying a category of a known case to be displayed during the session preparation.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of tracing of the user input operations and of the diagnosis entered by the user.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of generating a report for the purposes of training or quality control and assurance based on a user action database.

15. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of selecting a random or a fixed mode for the selection of a case for display.

16. A computer program product stored on a computer usable medium, the computer program comprising program components for carrying out the following steps, when the program is run on the computer:

a. providing a case stack of case to be reviewed by a user;

b. requesting the display of a consecutive case;

c. selecting the consecutive case or a known case for display;

d. entering a diagnosis of the displayed case; and

e. providing a feedback to the user if the diagnosis of the known case is incorrect.