MEDICAL DISC PUBLISHER
First Claim
1. A method of labeling a computer-readable medium for storing a medical output produced by a medical modality, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
- receiving a transmission comprising the medical output from a host computer over a communication network, wherein a portion of the medical output comprises label information that is to appear in a label region on the portable computer-readable medium, and is received substantially at a beginning portion of the transmission;
storing the medical output as it is received, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium;
preparing the label information to appear in the label region from the portion of the medical output comprising the label information; and
applying the label information within the label region on the portable computer-readable medium responsive to preparing the label information, wherein applying the label information within the label region is initiated in parallel with receiving a remaining portion of the transmission comprising the medical output.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for storing on a portable computer-readable medium, a study comprising at least one medical output produced by a medical modality and formatted in a standard medical format used by specialized computers configured for viewing outputs produced by medical modalities, and optionally labeling the portable computer-readable medium. The method includes receiving a transmission comprising the medical output that is formatted according to the standard medical format, at least temporarily storing the medical output as it is received in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium, and storing the medical output from the buffer memory onto the portable computer-readable medium.
75 Citations
106 Claims
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1. A method of labeling a computer-readable medium for storing a medical output produced by a medical modality, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving a transmission comprising the medical output from a host computer over a communication network, wherein a portion of the medical output comprises label information that is to appear in a label region on the portable computer-readable medium, and is received substantially at a beginning portion of the transmission; storing the medical output as it is received, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium; preparing the label information to appear in the label region from the portion of the medical output comprising the label information; and applying the label information within the label region on the portable computer-readable medium responsive to preparing the label information, wherein applying the label information within the label region is initiated in parallel with receiving a remaining portion of the transmission comprising the medical output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving a transmission from a host computer over a communication network, the transmission comprising the medical output that is formatted in the standard medical format; storing the medical output as it is received, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory operatively connected to a computer-readable medium publisher to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium; establishing a delay between a time when a portion of the medical output is received and a time when the portion of the medical output is stored on the portable computer-readable medium; subsequent to said delay, storing the portion of the medical output on the portable computer-readable medium in parallel with receiving the transmission from the host computer over the communication network. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving over a communication network a transmission comprising information to be used to establish a communication session over the communication network with a host computer; responsive to receiving the transmission, transmitting an instruction to the host computer to compress the medical output into a compressed medical output before the medical output is transmitted over the communication network to be stored on the portable computer-readable medium; receiving the compressed medical output over the communication network; storing the compressed medical output, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory operatively connected to a computer-readable medium publisher to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium; and subsequent to completion of compression, storing the compressed medical output on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving over a communication network a transmission comprising information to be used to establish a communication session over the communication network with a host computer; responsive to receiving the transmission, receiving the medical output in an uncompressed format over the communication network from the host computer; locally compressing the medical output into a compressed medical output; storing the medical output, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored onto the portable computer-readable medium; and subsequent to completion of compression, storing the compressed medical output on the portable computer-readable medium, wherein storing the compressed medical output on the portable computer-readable medium requires less time than storing the medical output uncompressed on the portable computer-readable medium, wherein a delay incurred by locally compressing the medical output is less than a difference between a time required to store the medical output uncompressed on the portable computer readable medium and a time required to store the compressed medical output on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 39)
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34. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving over a communication network a transmission comprising information to be used to establish a communication session over the communication network with a host computer; predicting that compression of the medical output will shorten a total length of time required to store the medical output on the portable computer readable medium relative to a total length of time required to store the medical output uncompressed on the portable computer-readable medium; responsive to said predicting that compression of the medical output will shorten the total length of time, predicting whether locally compressing the medical output subsequent to receiving the medical output over the communication network or instructing the host computer to compress the medical output prior to transmission of the medical output over the communication network will be a preferred compression that requires less time to complete; initiating the preferred compression; receiving the medical output over the communication network from the host computer; storing the medical output received over the communication network, at least temporarily, in a local buffer memory location to be subsequently stored on the portable computer-readable medium; and subsequent to completion of the preferred compression, storing the medical output in a compressed format as a compressed medical output on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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estimating a size of the medical output to be stored, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory and subsequently on the portable computer-readable medium; allocating a contiguous block of memory locations of the buffer memory for storing the medical output at least temporarily, wherein the contiguous block of memory locations dedicated is approximately equal in size to the size of the medical output that was estimated; at least temporarily storing the medical output in the contiguous block of memory locations of the buffer memory allocated for storing the medical output before storing the medical output on the portable computer-readable medium; retrieving the medical output from the contiguous block of memory locations of the buffer memory to be stored onto the portable computer-readable medium; and storing the medical output on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A computer-readable medium publisher for storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the computer-readable medium publisher comprising:
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a recording bay for writing the medical output that is formatted in the standard medical output formatting standard onto the portable computer-readable medium, wherein the medical output comprises at least a first portion and a second portion; a first buffer memory for storing, at least temporarily, the first portion of the medical output received from a host computer over a communication network to be subsequently stored on the portable computer-readable medium; a second buffer memory for storing, at least temporarily, the second portion of the medical output received from the host computer over the communication network to be subsequently stored on the portable computer-readable medium, wherein the second buffer memory is accessible independent of the first buffer memory; a controller operatively connected locally to the computer-readable medium publisher for storing, at least temporarily, the first portion of the medical output in the first buffer memory and the second portion of the medical output in the second buffer memory, wherein the controller is operable to control reading of the first and second portions of the medical output in parallel from the first and second buffer memories to be stored as the medical output on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59)
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60. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving identification information from a host computer over a communication network and entering into a communication session with the host computer, wherein the medical output is to be transmitted from the host computer over the communication network and the identification information is received during an early portion of the communication session; receiving a transmission over the communication network, said transmission comprising the medical output that is formatted in the medical formatting standard; establishing that the medical output is to be automatically recorded onto the portable computer-readable medium without operator intervention once at least a portion of the medical output has been received; selecting an appropriate type of the portable computer-readable medium to be used to store the medical output, wherein selecting the appropriate type of the portable computer-readable medium occurs before receiving the transmission comprising the medical output is complete; responsive to selecting the appropriate type of the portable computer-readable medium, transporting the appropriate type of portable computer-readable medium to a destination as part of a publication process for storing the medical output onto the portable computer-readable medium, wherein transporting the appropriate type of portable computer-readable medium is accomplished automatically, without operator intervention; locally storing the medical output, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored on the appropriate type of portable computer-readable medium; and storing the medical output from the buffer memory onto the appropriate type of portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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75. A method of performing a job that includes storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving a transmission according to a transmission protocol employed in a medical network, said transmission comprising the medical output that is compliant with the medical output formatting standard; at least temporarily storing the medical output as it is received in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored on a portable computer-readable medium, wherein the portable computer-readable medium is one of a plurality of different portable computer-readable media available to a computer-readable media publisher utilized for storing the medical output on the portable computer-readable medium; selecting a first portable computer-readable medium as an appropriate portable computer-readable medium to be used to store the first medical output; responsive to selecting the first portable computer-readable medium as the appropriate portable computer-readable medium, determining an availability of the first portable computer-readable medium from among a plurality of portable computer-readable media available to the computer-readable media publisher for storing medical output; sensing that the first portable computer-readable medium is unavailable; responsive to said sensing, queuing the job comprising storing the medical output on the first portable computer-readable medium until the first portable computer-readable medium becomes available to the computer-readable media publisher; and initiating another job that includes storing another medical output on a second portable computer-readable medium that is available to the computer-readable media publisher while the job is queued. - View Dependent Claims (76, 77, 78, 79)
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80. A computer readable medium publisher for receiving a medical output produced by a medical modality over a communication network and storing said medical output onto a portable computer readable medium, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the computer readable medium publisher comprising:
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a network interface for communicating with and receiving the medical output from a host computer storing the medical output over the communication network; a first recording bay for storing the medical output received over the communication network onto the portable computer readable medium; at least one of;
an automated feeder for transporting the portable computer readable medium to the first recording bay, and a printer for applying label information to a label region;a control unit for controlling transmission of the medical output to the first recording bay to be stored on the portable computer readable medium and operation of the at least one of the automated feeder and the printer; a first connector extending and establishing communication between the control unit and the first recording bay, wherein the medical output is to be transmitted to the first recording bay by the first connector to be stored on the portable computer readable medium; and a second connector that is electrically independent of the first connector, said second connector extending and establishing communication between the control unit and the at least one of the automated feeder and the printer for transmitting control signals to the at least one of the automated feeder and the printer. - View Dependent Claims (81, 82, 83, 84)
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85. A method of storing a medical output produced by a medical modality on a portable computer-readable medium, the medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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communicating with a host computer storing the medical output over a communication network to establish a communication session with the host computer; receiving a transmission over the communication network, wherein the transmission comprises the medical output formatted in the standard medical output formatting standard; storing the medical output, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently read from the buffer memory and stored on the portable computer-readable medium; establishing a referential link between the medical output in the buffer memory and a desired arrangement of the medical output on the portable computer readable medium on which the medical output is to be stored; referring to the referential link to read the medical output from the buffer memory to be stored on the portable computer-readable medium; transmitting the medical output read from the buffer memory to a recording bay; and storing the medical output on the portable computer readable medium according to the referential link. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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96. A method of publishing a portable computer-readable medium for storing a medical output produced by a medical modality, said medical output being formatted in compliance with a medical output formatting standard, the method comprising:
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receiving an identifying attribute from a host computer over a communication network and entering into a communication session with the host computer; associating a parameter set with the identifying attribute, wherein the parameter set comprises a parameter that defines an operational function of a portable computer-readable medium publisher for storing the medical output onto the portable computer-readable medium to minimize a length of time required to complete publication of the portable computer-readable medium; receiving a transmission over the communication network, said transmission comprising the medical output to be stored on the portable computer-readable medium; locally storing the medical output, at least temporarily, in a buffer memory to be subsequently stored on the portable computer-readable medium; and storing the medical output from the buffer memory on the portable computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106)
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Specification