Method and system for facilitating selection of stored medical image files

• US 20040204965A1
• Filed: 04/30/2004
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: McCabe, Laurence S., Gueck, Wayne J.
• Application Number:
  US10/836,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20040204965A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating selection of stored medical image files are disclosed. In one preferred embodiment, a plurality of medical image files are stored. Each medical image file comprises image data and a header comprising medical-image-file retrieval information. During image review, a user specifies medical-image-file retrieval information for at least one medical image file desired to be retrieved from the stored plurality of medical image files. Then, a set of medical image files is automatically selected from the stored plurality of medical image files based on the specified medical-image-file retrieval information. Other preferred embodiments are provided, and each of the preferred embodiments can be used alone or in combination with one another.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating selection of stored medical image files, the method comprising:

(a) storing a plurality of medical image files, each medical image file comprising image data and a header comprising medical-image-file retrieval information;

(b) specifying medical-image-file retrieval information for at least one medical image file desired to be retrieved from the stored plurality of medical image files; and

(c) automatically selecting a set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical image files based on the medical-image-file retrieval information specified in (b).

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

extracting the medical-image-file retrieval information from the header of each medical image file; and

placing the extracted medical-image-file retrieval information in a database;

wherein the set of medical image files is automatically selected in (c) by searching the database for the medical-image-file retrieval information specified in (b).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information is in ASCII.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the medical-image-file retrieval information is encrypted.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the encrypted medical-image-file retrieval information comprises Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-protected information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises a plurality of fields.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one field is associated with an identifier that specifies whether that field can be used to automatically select a set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical image files.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one field is encrypted to provide more than one level of access to data stored in the at least one field.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises an annotation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises a measurement.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one of the following:

patient attributes, institution attributes, trial attributes, and study attributes.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one of the following:

waveform attributes, modality options, processing options, and user interface options.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the header comprises a DICOM tag.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the header comprises a private attribute of a DICOM tag.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the header comprises a standard attribute of a DICOM tag.

16. A system for facilitating selection of stored medical image files, the system comprising:

at least one storage device storing a plurality of medical image files, each medical image file respectively comprising image data and a header comprising medical-image-file retrieval information; and

computer-usable media storing computer-readable program code for automatically selecting a set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical image files based on specified medical-image-file retrieval information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer-usable media further stores computer-readable program code for:

extracting the medical-image-file retrieval information from the header of each medical image file; and

placing the extracted medical-image-file retrieval information in a database;

wherein the set of medical image files is automatically selected by searching the database for the specified medical-image-file retrieval information.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information is in ASCII.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein at least some of the medical-image-file retrieval information is encrypted.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the encrypted medical-image-file retrieval information comprises Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-protected information.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises a plurality of fields.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one field is associated with an identifier that specifies whether that field can be used to automatically select a set of medical image files from the stored plurality of medical image files.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one field is encrypted to provide more than one level of access to data stored in the at least one field.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises an annotation.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises a measurement.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one of the following:

patient attributes, institution attributes, trial attributes, and study attributes.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the medical-image-file retrieval information comprises at least one member of at least one of the following:

waveform attributes, modality options, processing options, and user interface options.

28. The system of claim 16, wherein the header comprises a DICOM tag.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the header comprises a private attribute of a DICOM tag.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the header comprises a standard attribute of a DICOM tag.