Medical digital asset management system and method

• US 20060177114A1
• Filed: 03/16/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tesla 9 LLC
• Original Assignee: Tesla 9 LLC
• Inventors: Narra, Vamsidhar R., Tongdee, Trongtum
• Application Number:
  US11/081,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20060177114A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

A system and method for managing digital medical images includes retrieving one or more digital medical images from among a plurality of digital medical image files having medical images formatted in two or more different image file formats. A working copy image of each of the retrieved digital medical images is created, one or more working copy images are displayed, and one or more displayed images are edited responsive to an input from an operator such that the displayed images include the edits. Text data associated with one or more edited images is received. A directory is automatically created in a database associated with the one or more edited images and the text data and an XML file and an HTML file are automatically created and associated with the directory. The edited images, the text data, the XML file, and the HTML file are stored in the directory.

Claims

1. A method of managing digital medical images, the method comprising:

retrieving one or more digital medical images from among a plurality of digital medical image files, said plurality of digital medical image files having medical images formatted in two or more different image file formats;

creating a working copy image of each of the retrieved digital medical images;

displaying one or more working copy images;

editing one or more displayed images responsive to an input from an operator, said displayed images including the edits;

receiving text data associated with one or more edited images;

automatically creating a directory in a database associated with the one or more edited images and the text data;

automatically generating an XML file and an HTML file associated with the directory; and

storing the edited images, the text data, the XML file, and the HTML file in the directory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the text data includes at least one of patient data, case data, subject data, test data, diagnostic data, DICOM®

data, and research data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the medical images are images selected from the group consisting of an XRAY, an MRI, a CT scan, a Nuclear Medicine study, an ultrasound scan, a laser scan, a PET scan, an endoscope image, a microscope image, an electron microscope image, an electrocardiogram (EKG), an electro encephalogram (EEG), and electro myogram (EMG), audiometry/audiogram, and an optical scan.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the operator is associated with one or more of a radiologist, a radiation oncologist, a cardiologist, an oncologist, a surgeon, a dermatologist, a pathologist, an internist, a medical researcher, a pharmacist, a dentist, an ophthalmologist, a drug developer, a physician, and a student.

5. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein creating a working copy image includes converting at least one retrieved digital medical image to a working copy image in a JPEG format when the retrieved image is not a JPEG or DICOM®

formatted image.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein storing includes combining each of the common formatted working copy images into a single image, said single image being stored.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more digital medical image files include image file formats selected from the group of formats consisting of JPEG, PNG, PSD, BMP, TIFF, DICOM®

, DICOM®

secondary capture, PDF, Run-Length Encoding, Multiframe DICOM®

, and Microsoft PowerPoint®

.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a thumbnail image of an image within a stored image file prior to retrieving an image file containing the image.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching a database containing one or more DICOM®

images, wherein displaying includes previewing the DICOM®

images contained in the database as thumbnails without retrieving the associated DICOM®

image files.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the retrieved images includes displaying at least one working copy image as a thumbnail image as viewed in the database.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a storage system containing the plurality of digital medical image files and searching the storage system for the plurality of digital medical image files, wherein retrieving includes retrieving the one or more digital medical images from the storage system.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the storage system includes a database, said accessing and searching including querying the database.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising converting at least one working copy image from a first format to a second format.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the first format is at least one of JPG and TIFF and the second format is DICOM®

.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the first format is DICOM®

and the second format is at least one of JPG and TIFF.

17. The method of claim 1, further including watermarking at least one working copy image in response to operator input, wherein the watermark is separately added to the working copy image when the watermarked image is copied or exported.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the retrieved image files is a DICOM®

file, further comprising automatically extracting text data from the DICOM®

file tag, wherein receiving includes the received text data including the extracted text data from the DICOM®

file tag.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising linking at least a portion of the text data to an image or image file, wherein linking includes creating a separate file containing the linked text data and wherein storing includes storing a copy of the linked text data file in the directory.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising highlighting a portion of the linked text data and linking an image or image file to the highlighted text.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an HTML and XML version of the stored contents of the directory to simulate the contents as if viewed by an accessing web browser.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein storing includes encrypting, at least a portion, of the text data in the database as a function of an encryption key and storing the encryption method flag.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving a master file stored in a database, said master file including one or more digital medical image files, an XML file, and an HTML file, wherein displaying includes displaying at least a portion of the contents of the master file.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising exporting the directory to a web server for hosting a webpage containing an XML, XHTML, or HTML version of one or more of the files stored in the database.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising exporting one or more of the edited images or retrieved images to another application program.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the application program is PowerPoint®

by Microsoft®

.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein exporting includes at least one of exporting multiple displayed images and stacking the multiple exported images on a single PowerPoint®

slide.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving at least one of the images includes capturing an image viewed or associated with another application and importing the captured image as one of the retrieved images.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein capturing an image is selected from the group consisting of desktop capture, open window, region capture, fix region capture, drag and drop, video capture, webpage extraction, and URL extraction.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein retrieving includes separating out an image from text of a PowerPoint®

slide, stripping the image from a PowerPoint®

slide, and dragging and dropping the stripped image.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein retrieving includes dragging and dropping an image located on a PowerPoint®

slide to a window of a digital image management application in response to operator interaction.

32. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating to an email address one or more contents of the database.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a video movie file from the two or more single frame images, wherein storing includes storing the generated video movie file.

34. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a multi-media presentation file from the contents of the directory stored in the database.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein converting is at least one of converting an AVI file to MPEG1 or MPEG2, converting a MPEG1 file to AVI, and converting a MPEG2 file to AVI.

36. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the system license key including a decryption key via an email communication to an email address associated with the operator.

37. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of video capturing of the desktop of a display screen, video capturing of a software program, video capturing in real time of a video source, and video conferencing.

38. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving a digital video, wherein creating a working copy includes creating a working copy video from the retrieved digital video, displaying includes displaying the working copy video, and storing includes storing the working copy video in the database.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the digital video includes a video image having a format selected from the group consisting of GIF, AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG 4, and WMF.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein storing includes encrypting, at least a portion, of the text data in the database as a function of an encryption key and storing the encryption method flag.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the storing includes storing as a DICOM®

file and wherein encrypting includes encrypting at least a portion of the text data in the DICOM®

file.

42. A system for managing digital medical images, comprising:

a general purpose computing device; and

a computer program including program modules executable by the computing device, said program modules including;

a digital database module for automatically creating and maintaining a database containing a plurality of directories, each of the directories having a plurality of associated files including a digital medical image file containing one or more digital medical images, an XML file, and an HTML file, said plurality of directories having a plurality of digital medical images formatted in two or more different image file formats;

an image display and edit module for displaying at least one digital medical image retrieved from the digital database module, editing the at least one displayed image in response to input from an operator, and generating an output file including one or more of the edited images; and

a digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM®

) server module for reading and composing DICOM®

compliant formatted files, and retrieving and storing images and text contained therein.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein said general purpose computing device includes a processor, a storage device, a display, a user interface, and a communication interface, said storage device being configurable, at least in part, as a database.

44. The system of claim 42 wherein the one or more digital medical images are images selected from the group consisting of an XRAY, an MRI, a CT scan, a Nuclear Medicine study, an ultrasound scan, a laser scan, a PET scan, an endoscope image, a microscope image, an electron microscope image, an electrocardiogram (EKG), an electro encephalogram (EEG), and electro myogram (EMG), audiometry/audiogram, and an optical scan.

45. The system of claim 42 wherein the plurality of digital medical image files contained in the plurality of directories include two or more formats selected from the group of formats consisting of JPEG, PNG, PSD, BMP, TIFF, DICOM®

, DICOM®

secondary capture, PDF, Run-Length Encoding, Multiframe DICOM®

, and Microsoft PowerPoint®

.

46. The system of claim 42 wherein said multi-media digital database module includes a database search tool enabling a user to search the database for one or more images.

47. The system of claim 42 wherein the image display and editing module is configured to generate an output file or image compatible with PowerPoint®

.

48. A system for managing digital medical images, comprising:

a general purpose computing device including a display and user input device; and

a computer program including computer executable instructions configured for retrieving one or more digital medical images from among a plurality of digital medical image files, said plurality of digital medical image files having medical images formatted in two or more different image file formats, one of which is a digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM®

) formatted file, creating a working copy image of each of the retrieved digital medical images, displaying at least one digital medical images, editing one or more displayed images responsive to an input from an operator, receiving text data associated with one or more edited images including data from a DICOM®

formatted file, automatically creating a directory in a database associated with the one or more edited images and the text data, automatically generating an XML file and an HTML file associated with the directory, and storing the edited images, the text data, the XML file, and the HTML file in the directory.