Radiology image traffic metrics

• US 20070299945A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: L-Cubed Medical Informatics LLC
• Original Assignee: L-Cubed Medical Informatics LLC
• Inventors: Lunsford, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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

An embodiment of the present invention includes a system and method for detecting and monitoring confidential and DICOM image traffic on a computing device in a PACS network. Embodiments of the present invention protect patient confidentiality by preventing the simultaneous display of confidential images and patient identification information when measuring and displaying the image data. The system detects and measures the transfer of confidential images and stores and displays information included in only the non-confidential headers of the images. The system monitors and warns (such as via email and/or pagers) PACS administrators of system slowdowns as a result of the data gathered.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring performance of a medical data network without violating patient confidentiality comprising:

receiving a stream of data at a network interface of a computing device, the stream of data including image data, the image data comprising data for one or more confidential images, the data for an image including a non-confidential header portion, a patient identifier portion, and an image body portion, the stream of data being transferred between a medical data network and the computing device;

monitoring the stream of data at the network interface for non-confidential header portions of image data; and

generating, substantially immediately after detection of a non-confidential header portion, a graphical user interface on a display of the computing device, the graphical user interface displaying a current flowrate of images through the network interface as number of images received within a first period of time.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a image receipt database including receipt times associated with previously received non-confidential header portions;

recording, for each non-confidential header portion detected in the stream of data, a receipt time in the image receipt database associated with the non-confidential header portion; and

wherein generating the graphical user interface includes periodically revising the graphical user interface based on receipt times currently in the image receipt database.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

storing, from each non-confidential header portion received, the receipt time, a patient name contained within the patient identifier portion of the image, an amount of data received by the network interface since the previous receipt of a non-confidential header portion; and

a source identifier identifying the source transmitting the image data to the network interface.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring comprises:

monitoring the stream of data at the network interface for image data conforming to a DICOM standard header; and

upon detection of the DICOM standard header, recording that a confidential image has been received by the network interface.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein monitoring comprises:

monitoring the stream of data for at least 8 bytes of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

DICM”

.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

recording receipt of an image upon detection in the stream of data at the network interface of any one of;

at least 8 bytes of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

DICM”

;

at least one byte of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

DERIVED\PRIMARY”

;

at least one byte of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

ORIGINAL\SECONDARY”

;

at least one byte of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

ORIGINAL\PRIMARY”

; and

at least one byte of “

0”

data followed by bytes containing data corresponding to the characters “

DERIVED\SECONDARY”

.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying on the graphical user interface a second graphical representation, the second graphical representation being a graphical representation of an average number of images received per the first period during a second period.

8. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving from the graphical user interface a user command to display information regarding a received image; and

displaying the patent name contained within the patient identifier portion of the image associated with the received image.

9. A system for monitoring performance of a medical data network without violating patient confidentiality comprising:

a first image traffic monitoring system operating on a first computing device, the first image traffic monitoring system detecting the transfer of confidential images between the first computing device and the medical data network and storing non-confidential image traffic data, including non-confidential data copied from the confidential images and data describing the number of confidential images transferred over time;

a network traffic analysis system operating on a second computing device, the network traffic analysis system receiving image traffic data from the first image traffic monitoring system and generating warnings to an administrator of the medical data network if the image traffic data indicates that the transfer of confidential images between the first computing device and the medical data network falls below a threshold set by the administrator.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the network traffic analysis system further comprises:

a graphical user interface (GUI) engine adapted to generate GUIs on the second computing device, the GUIs displaying the number of confidential images transferred over time between the first computing device and the medical data network.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the first image traffic monitoring system detects non-confidential headers of the confidential images and transmits at least one copy of a non-confidential header to the network traffic analysis system and wherein the graphical user interface (GUI) engine is adapted to display the at least one copy of the non-confidential header.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the first image traffic monitoring system is adapted to detect current network interface settings of the first computing device and transmit the settings to the Enterprise network traffic analysis system.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the image traffic data is transmitted to the Enterprise network traffic analysis system substantially immediately upon detection of the transfer of a confidential image and the network traffic analysis system is further adapted to display substantially immediately upon receipt of the image traffic data at least a portion of the image traffic data.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the image traffic data includes at least one patient name associated with a confidential image and the network traffic analysis system is further adapted to display the patient name when displaying the image traffic data describing the number of confidential images transferred over time.

15. A graphical user interface comprising:

a first virtual gauge displaying the average number of images per first period of time received at a network interface over a second period of time; and

a live graph element displaying a graph of a number of images received at the network interface per first period of time for a third period of time.

16. The graphical user interface of claim 15 further comprising:

a display mode control for selecting an image display or a data display;

wherein the image display when selected causes the first virtual gauge to display the average number of images per second and the live graph element to display the average number of images per second received over the second period of time and the live graph element to display the number of images received at the network interface per first period of time for a third period of time, and

wherein the data display when selected causes the first virtual gauge to display an amount of data received at the network interface per second over the second period of time and the live graph element to display the amount of data received at the network interface per second for the third period of time.

17. The graphical user interface of claim 15 further comprising:

a network card settings area displaying network interface settings for the computing device, the network interface settings including a current network address for the computing device, a user selected network interface setting for the network interface and a negotiated setting for the network interface determined by the network interface'"'"'s interaction with a communications network.

18. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the live graph element displays a patient name associated with a confidential image when a pointing device is positioned over a portion of the live graph element representing receipt of the confidential image.

19. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the first virtual gauge is a selected one of a plurality of second virtual gauges simultaneously displayed in a different area on the graphical user interface.

20. The graphical user interface of claim 15 wherein the first virtual gauge and the live graph element are superimposed.