INTERPRETATION SUPPORT SYSTEM

• US 20080249807A1
• Filed: 04/02/2008
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: NIWA, Kenichi, MINAKUCHI, Maki
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,075 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

A medical image storage unit stores medical image. A medical image observation terminal adds interpretation information for medical image and the creator name for interpretation information to the supplementary information of medical image. A reference terminal obtains medical image from the medical image storage unit in order to display medical image. An evaluation management unit instructs the reference terminal to display an evaluation input screen for medical image to allow an evaluation to be entered if the interpretation information has been added to the supplementary information of medical image obtained in the reference terminal, and it then adds evaluation to the supplementary information of medical image stored in the medical image storage unit after receiving an input from the reference terminal and transmits evaluation to the destination for the evaluation that corresponds to the creator name added to the supplementary information of medical image.

Claims

1. An interpretation support system, comprising:

a medical image storage unit configured to store a medical image including supplementary information such as patient information and image information as well as interpretation information such as comments or annotations for said medical image; and

an evaluation management unit configured to add said evaluation to the supplementary information, based on inputs of an evaluation of the interpretation information.

2. An interpretation support system according to claim 1, wherein the medical image storage unit is configured to use the information for specifying the interpretation information such as the comments or the annotations in order to manage each item.

3. An interpretation support system according to claim 1, further comprising

a destination management unit configured to add information for specifying the destination for evaluation results that corresponds to each item of interpretation information, such as the comments or the annotations, to the supplementary information.

4. An interpretation support system, comprising:

a medical image storage unit configured to store a medical image including supplementary information, such as patient information and image information, as well as information related to the medical image;

an interpretation report storage unit configured to store the interpretation report that is the interpretation result for the medical image; and

an evaluation management unit configured to add said evaluation to the supplementary information of the medical image that is specified by specific information, based on inputs of an evaluation of the interpretation report, wherein the specific information is added to said interpretation report.

5. An interpretation support system according to claim 4, further comprising

a destination management unit configured to add to the supplementary information the information for specifying the destination for evaluation results that corresponds to each interpretation report.

6. An interpretation support system, comprising:

a medical image storage unit configured to store a medical image including supplementary information such as patient information as well as image information that has been captured by a medical image-capturing device;

a medical image observation terminal configured to add, to the supplementary information, interpretation information such as comments or annotations for said medical image, as well as the name of the creator of said interpretation information;

a reference terminal configured to obtain the medical image from the medical image storage unit according to an instruction from an operator and then to display it; and

an evaluation management unit configured to execute following processes when the interpretation information has been added to the supplementary information obtained in the reference terminal;

instructing the reference terminal to display an evaluation input screen for said medical image to allow an evaluation to be entered;

adding said evaluation or said evaluation'"'"'s storage destination to the supplementary information of said medical image stored in the medical image storage unit, in response to an input from the reference terminal; and

transmitting a report related to said evaluation to a destination for the evaluation that corresponds to the creator name added to said supplementary information.

7. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation management unit is configured to receive from the medical image storage unit the information indicating that the interpretation information has been added to the supplementary information of the medical image obtained in the reference terminal in order to determine if the interpretation information has been added.

8. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation management unit is configured to analyze the medical image obtained in the reference terminal, and if the interpretation information is present, the evaluation management unit determines whether the interpretation information has been added to the supplementary information of said medical image.

9. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein:

the medical image observation terminal, in response to an input of a destination for the evaluation that corresponds to the creator name, configured to add said destination for the evaluation to the supplemental information of the stored medical image; and

the evaluation management unit is configured to transmit a report regarding the evaluation to the destination for the evaluation that has been added to the supplementary information.

10. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein:

the evaluation management unit is configured to perform followings;

referring to a preliminarily recorded table showing the creator names and the corresponding destinations for the evaluation;

extracting the destination for the evaluation based on the creator name added to the supplementary information of the medical image; and

transmitting a report regarding the evaluation to said destination for the evaluation.

11. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the reference terminal is configured to display a warning if a preliminarily recorded specific period has passed within the time since displaying the evaluation input screen in the reference terminal until the time of receiving an input of the evaluation.

12. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation management unit is configured to transmit to the destination for the evaluation result the information indicating that the period has passed without receiving any input of the evaluation, if a preliminarily recorded specific period has passed within the time since displaying the evaluation input screen in the reference terminal until the time of receiving an input of the evaluation.

13. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the destination of the evaluation is encrypted.

14. An interpretation support system according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation management unit is configured to add to the supplementary information the evaluation or the evaluation'"'"'s storage destination as well as the information for specifying the person who performed said evaluation.