METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CHECKING THE DIAGNOSTIC QUALITY OF A MEDICAL SYSTEM

• US 20110110565A1
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Sharma, Navin Kumar, H.D., Chetan, Patz, Tabb Alan, Jones, Cheryl Ruth, Chandrashekarappa, Arun Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,016 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system and a method are provided that may be used to determine the suitability of a client for use in medical diagnosis. Multimedia content may be presented on the client and used to elicit responses from a user indicative of the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis. The elicited responses may be used to determine the suitability of the client for medical diagnosis.

Claims

1. A method for investigating diagnostic properties of a system:

on the system;

presenting an image indicative of diagnostic image quality;

collecting user input based on the presented image; and

, determining the diagnostic suitability of the system based on the collected user input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image indicative of diagnostic image quality comprises a grayscale image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the grayscale image comprises an image capable of displaying grayscale differences, fine grayscale detail, varying grayscale, aspect ratio, resolution, continuity, monitor issues, or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image indicative of diagnostic image quality comprises a color image.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising presenting at least one of a video or a waveform indicative of diagnostic video quality or of diagnostic waveform quality, and collecting user input based on the presented video or waveform.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising presenting an audio signal indicative of diagnostic audio quality, and collecting user input based on the presented audio signal.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising configuring the system to automatically check at least one of a hardware component or a software component in order to determine the suitability of the system for use medical diagnosis.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determination of suitability of the system for use medical diagnosis comprises comparing the hardware component or software component against a minimum baseline specification.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the diagnostic suitability of the system based on the collected user input comprises at least one of communicatively connecting to a medical server to download software or installing software from a computer readable medium, and utilizing the software to collect the user input and to analyze the user input.

10. A method comprising:

on a client;

communicatively connecting to a medical server;

downloading an image from the medical sever;

utilizing the image to determine the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the utilizing the image to determine the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis comprises executing a set of computer instructions to present an image indicative of diagnostic image quality, to collect user input based on the presented image, and to use the collected input to determine the diagnostic suitability of the client.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the utilizing the utilizing the image to determine the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis comprises executing a set of instructions to automatically check hardware or software components of the client.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the downloaded image comprises a grayscale image.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the grayscale image comprises an image capable of displaying grayscale differences, fine grayscale detail, varying grayscale, aspect ratio, resolution, continuity, monitor issues, or a combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the utilizing the utilizing the image to determine the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis comprises executing a set of computer instructions to present a video indicative of diagnostic video quality, to collect user input based on the presented video, and to use the collected input to determine the diagnostic suitability of the client.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the utilizing the utilizing the image to determine the suitability of the client for use in medical diagnosis comprises executing a set of computer instructions to present at least one of an audio signal or a waveform, collect user input based on the presented audio signal or waveform, and use the collected input to determine the diagnostic suitability of the client.

17. A tangible computer-readable medium comprising code adapted to:

present an image on a client communicatively coupled to the medical server;

collect user responses indicative of the quality of the image presented on the client; and

determine the diagnostic capabilities of the client based on the responses from the user.

18. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the image comprises a grayscale image capable of displaying grayscale differences, fine grayscale detail, varying grayscale, aspect ratio, resolution, continuity, monitor issues, or a combination thereof.

19. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, comprising code adapted to automatically execute a component check of at least one of a hardware component or a software component, wherein the component check results are used to determine the diagnostic capabilities of the client.

20. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, comprising code adapted to download at least one of a video, audio signal, or waveform from the medical server;

present the video, the audio signal, or the waveform to a user;

collect responses from the user indicative of the video quality, the audio signal quality, or the waveform quality; and

determine the diagnostic capabilities of the client based on the responses from the user.