Precise UML modeling framework of the DICOM information model

• US 20040025110A1
• Filed: 08/01/2002
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Hu, Jingkun
• Granted Patent: US 7,373,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders

Abstract

A method for mapping a DICOM document into a UML document is disclosed and claimed by this invention. The method includes mapping each DICOM Information Entity in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document, mapping each DICOM IOD Module in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document, mapping each DICOM Macro in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document, and mapping each DICOM Attribute in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML attribute in the UML document. It also includes a UML profile for DICOM information model which guides the UML modeling for all the DICOM IODs. It can also guide the genertion of XML schemas and DTDs from UML models based on this profile.

Claims

1. A method for mapping a DICOM document into a UML document, comprising the steps of:

mapping each DICOM Information Entity in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document,

mapping each DICOM IOD Module in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document,

mapping each DICOM Macro in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document, and

mapping each DICOM Attribute in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML attribute in the UML document.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

each DICOM Information Entity has an IE name, and

each DICOM Information Entity is mapped into the corresponding UML class with a class name that corresponds to the IE name

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

each DICOM IOD Module has a module name, and

each DICOM IOD Module is mapped into the corresponding UML class with a class name that corresponds to the module name, except that space characters are removed from the class name.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

each DICOM Macro has a macro name having a “

Macro”

postfix, and

each DICOM Macro is mapped into the corresponding UML class with a class name that corresponds to the macro name.

X. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

aach DICOM Sequence has a name, and

each DICOM Sequence is mapped into a corresponding UML class with a UML class name that corresponds to a Sequence name. This class also has two UML attributes in XSDattribute stereotype representing its DICOM tag and DICOM name of this Sequence.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

each DICOM Attribute has a DICOM attribute name, and

each DICOM Attribute is mapped into the corresponding UML attribute with a UML attribute name that corresponds to the DICOM attribute name,

except that,

each upper case letter is replaced in the UML attribute name with a corresponding lower case letter,

each blank space is replaced in the UML attribute name with an underscore character,

each hyphen character is replaced in the UML attribute name with an underscore character,

each apostrophe character is removed from the UML attribute name, and

each bracket character is removed from the UML attribute name, and also,

each UML attribute has its associated types capturing its DICOM type, DICOM tag, and DICOM Name

6. An electronic document for processing via a computer system that corresponds to the UML document produced by the method of claim 1.

7. A computer program, configured to be executed on a computer system, that includes the UML document produced by the method of claim 1.

8. A method for mapping a DICOM atomic attribute into a UML class attribute, comprising:

copying each lower case letter from the atomic attribute to the class attribute,

copying each upper case letter from the atomic attribute to the class attribute as a corresponding lower case letter,

copying each blank space from the atomic attribute to the class attribute as an underscore character, and

copying each hyphen character from the atomic attribute to the class attribute as an underscore character.

9. A method for creating an DICOM-compatible representation that corresponds to a DICOM SR document, comprising:

mapping the DICOM document into a corresponding UML document, and

mapping the UML document into a corresponding DICOM document that forms the DICOM-compatible representation.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the corresponding DICOM document includes at least one DICOM Document Type Definition (DTD).

11. An electronic document for processing via a computer system that corresponds to the DICOM document produced by the method of claim 9.

12. A computer program, configured to be executed on a computer system, that includes the DICOM document produced by the method of claim 9.

13. A DICOM to Object-Oriented-representation converter, comprising:

an DICOM document to UML document converter that is configured to;

map each DICOM Information Entity in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document,

map each DICOM IOD Module in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document,

map each DICOM Macro in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML class in the UML document, and

map each DICOM Attribute in the DICOM document into a corresponding UML attribute in the UML document.

14. The converter of claim 13, further comprising:

a UML document to DICOM document converter that is configured to;

map each UML class in the UML document into a corresponding DICOM DTD element.

map each UML class attribute in the UML document into a corresponding DICOM DTD element,

map each UML association and uses relationship in the UML document into a corresponding DICOM DTD element, and

map each UML atomic attribute class in the UML document into a corresponding DICOM element.

15. The converter of claim 13, wherein

each UML atomic attribute is mapped to a corresponding DICOM Element with four attributes:

coding_scheme, code_id, type, and value.

16. The converter of claim 14, wherein the DICOM document to UML document converter is further configured to:

map each DICOM recursive element into a corresponding pair of UML elements that reference each other.

17. The inventive UML profile for DICOM information model is generated to

guide UML modeling for each DICOM IOD and make this process consistent through all IODs, and

guide the generation of XML schemas and DTDs for UML models based on the inventive UML profile, and

build the UML models for the new IODs, Macro, Sequence, and Attributes.