SYSTEMS, METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DISTRIBUTE IMAGES FOR QUALITY CONTROL

• US 20090016581A1
• Filed: 04/04/2008
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Hamadeh, Mohamed Ali
• Granted Patent: US 8,005,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/922 including image analysis

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an image acquisition station transmits images that have been identified as having inadequate diagnostic quality to a computer system of an image quality consultant. The image quality consultant may develop recommendations on how to improve the quality, and the recommendations are communicated to appropriate personnel.

Claims

1. A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support image quality consultation, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform:

receiving to a memory an identification of at least one image to be accessed by an engineering image quality expert;

anonymizing the at least one identified image in the memory;

providing access from the memory by the engineering image quality expert to the at least one anonymized image; and

receiving recommendations to the memory of image quality consultation from the engineering image quality expert in reference to the at least one anonymized image.

2. The computer-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein identification further comprises:

an identification performed by a medical imaging technician.

3. The computer-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein providing access to the at least one anonymized image further comprises:

transmitting the at least one anonymized image from the memory to the manufacturer of the imaging device that generated the at least one image.

4. The computer-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one anonymized image in the memory does not have the following patient information;

name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.

5. The computer-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein each of the recommendations in the memory further comprise:

at least one recommendation on how to image a subject of the at least one image again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the electronic image.

6. A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support medical image quality consultation by a manufacturer of a medical electronic imaging device, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform:

receiving to a memory an identification of an electronic image of a patient generated by the medical electronic imaging device to be accessed by an engineering medical image quality expert, the image further comprising confidential patient information;

anonymizing the confidential patient information in the electronic image in the memory;

transmitting the anonymized image from the memory to the manufacturer of the imaging device that generated the at least one image; and

receiving to the memory recommendations of an image quality consultation in reference to the anonymized image.

7. The computer-accessible medium of claim 6, wherein identification further comprises:

an identification performed by a medical imaging technician.

8. The computer-accessible medium of claim 6, wherein confidential patient information further comprise;

name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.

9. The computer-accessible medium of claim 6, wherein each of the recommendations further comprise:

at least one recommendation on how to image a subject of the at least one image again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the electronic image.

10. The computer-accessible medium of claim 6, wherein the medical electronic imaging device further comprises:

a magnetic resonance imaging device.

11. A method to support image quality consultation, the method comprising:

receiving to a memory an identification of an X-ray image to be transmitted to an online customer support system of a manufacturer that is associated with an engineering image quality expert;

anonymizing the identified X-ray image in the memory; and

transmitting the anonymized image from the memory to the online customer support system.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving to the memory at least one recommendation of image quality consultation in reference to the anonymized image from the online customer support system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one recommendation further comprises:

at least one recommendation on how to image the subject again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the electronic image.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification further comprises:

an identification performed by a medical imaging technician in the memory.

15. A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support image quality consultation, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform:

receiving access in a memory to at least one anonymized image;

wherein the at least one anonymized image does not have the following patient information;

name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.

receiving in the memory, recommendations of image quality consultation of the anonymized image; and

transmitting the recommendations from the memory.

16. The computer-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein the receiving further comprises:

receiving the recommendations from an engineering image quality expert.

17. The computer-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein each of the recommendations in the memory further comprise:

a recommendation on how to improve the quality of the electronic image.

18. The computer-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein the transmitting is performed through the Internet.

19. The computer-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein anonymized image does not have the following patient information;

name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.

20. The computer-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein each of the recommendations in the memory further comprise:

at least one recommendation on how to image a subject of the at least one image again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the electronic image.