System and method for creating and rendering DICOM structured clinical reporting via the internet

• US 20110166885A1
• Filed: 03/10/2011
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vidistar LLC (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Steven Devann, Kostrzewa, Michal, Walker, Craig Allan
• Granted Patent: US 8,200,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

Methods for implementing a structured clinical reporting system employing a DICOM Structured Reporting (SR) software database engine that maps clinical report data into a clinical structured reporting data format are disclosed. A workstation is used to create, sign, render, or transmit a structured clinical report. A conversion engine performs image recognition on the structured clinical report, which includes identifying data therein, segmenting the report, using a library to perform value object extraction on the segments, and converting the value objects to a DICOM format. A PACS server is usable to communicate with the conversion engine, workstation, and database. Various software plug-ins are usable, such that different methods of acquiring user input may be implemented.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a structured clinical reporting system over the Internet, the structured clinical report having a DICOM Structured Reporting format, and the Internet adapted to work in conjunction with hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) for connecting a server and multiple workstations via the Internet, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) providing communication between a workstation and the server via the Internet;

(b) providing a reporting engine in operative communication with the workstation, an image viewer-editor, and the server;

(c) using the workstation to create the structured clinical report, sign the structured clinical report, render the structured clinical report, transmit the structured clinical report to and from the server, or combinations thereof;

(d) using a conversion engine to perform data recognition on input files to produce the structured clinical report, wherein performing the data recognition comprises;

identifying files which contain measurement data, report pages, images, or combinations thereof;

extracting portions of preselected images from the input files which contain information to be extracted and converted;

performing value object extraction on the portions to form value objects; and

converting the value objects to a standard DICOM Structured Report format;

(e) providing a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) server, in communication with a database server, a viewer, and the workstation and transmitting the value objects to the PACS server;

(f) providing communication between the PACS server and an imaging modality using a DICOM interface, such that the PACS server is in operative communication with imaging modalities via a DICOM protocol and is in operative communication with the database, whereby the workstation and the conversion engine are in operative communication with the PACS server via the Internet using the HTTP protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image viewer-editor is a DICOM viewer having rich client characteristics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation provides the automatic downloading, installing and running of the rich-client viewer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image viewer-editor is a rich client capable of being installed remotely.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the image viewer-editor is a DICOM viewer automatically downloaded and installed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion engine is implemented in WWW-based, thin-client technology.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion engine comprises a study list comprising a graphical user interface for displaying patient exams, studies and information listed by category including chronological order, patient name, study creation date, accession number, study status with preliminary report completed, study status with final report completed, study status without any report and combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein access to the database is from a remote workstation to the PACS server such that database traffic between the remote workstation and the database server is tunneled over secure HTTP protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a DICOM object is downloaded from the PACS server to the interface viewer using WADO protocol.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising Web Services for providing communication between the PACS server and a client-side, rich-client viewer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation is a computer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation comprises a central processor unit and a random access memory.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the picture archive communication systems (PACS) comprises a central data storage device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the clinical reports are stored and transmitted using a DICOM Structured Report format.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing value object extraction on the portions to form value objects further comprises performing value object extraction on the portions to form value objects for extracting data from bitmap images, reporting pages or a combination thereof further comprises performing optical character recognition.