Grid Computing on Radiology Network

• US 20130058554A1
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Fang, Joseph Y., Battle, Xavier
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,066 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/563 involving image data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

A grid computing system and method is provided for medical data processing. The grid computing system comprises a software infrastructure, and an imaging device capable of interfacing with the software infrastructure over a distributed electronic network. Also included is a plurality of CPUs capable of interfacing with the software infrastructure over the network. The performance of the plurality of CPUs is dependent on balancing load. A large medical dataset is split onto several processing nodes of the plurality of CPUs, respectively, such that performance and power is increased. In the grid computing method, a grid is limited to a nuclear medicine or radiology network. A tight and easy configuration management of computing nodes, and a tight load balancing between standardized nodes are provided. An existing network of CPUs is utilized, such that the greatest benefit is provided at the lowest cost.

Claims

1. A method of processing medical data by a computing system, comprising steps of:

defining a plurality of computing nodes as computing nodes of the computing system;

determining which of the plurality of computing nodes is available for performing processing;

parsing medical data into a plurality of medical data subsets, the number of the medical data subsets based on the number of the available computing nodes;

processing each medical data subset at an associated one of the plurality of computing nodes;

transmitting the processed medical data subsets to a master node; and

generating a three dimensional data representation at the master node by combining the processed medical data subsets.

2. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, further comprising step of:

when the number of the available computing nodes changes, adjusting the number of the plurality of medical data subsets independent of reconfiguration; and

when data processing rate of a particular computing node is lower than a predetermined threshold, terminating transmitting medical data subsets to the particular computing node and adjusting the number of medical data subsets independent of reconfiguration.

3. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein medical data set is a two-dimensional data representation.

4. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein when a particular medical data subset of the plurality of medical data subsets is requested to be processed at the associated computing node, a medical data subset prior to the particular medical data subset and a medical data subset following the particular medical data subset, are transmitted to the associated computing nodes, respectively, independent of transmission of other medical data subsets.

5. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, further comprising steps of:

generating a plurality of three dimensional data representations at a plurality of different time points on temporal dimension; and

comparing the plurality of three dimensional data representations at the plurality of different time points.

6. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein

the three dimensional data representation is a dynamic data representation.

7. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein the medical data is captured by an imaging device, which is a combined imaging apparatus having at least two different imaging modalities.

8. The method of processing medical data according to claim 7, wherein said combined imaging apparatus is a positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging device.

9. The method of processing medical data according to claim 7, wherein said combined imaging apparatus is a single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT-CT) imaging device.

10. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein said imaging device is a single scanning device.

11. The method of processing medical data according to claim 10, wherein said single scanning device is a SPECT, PET, single photon planar, or X-ray imaging devices.

12. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein said computing nodes of the computing system consists of clusters and networks of workstations.

13. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein computing nodes of the computing system consists of clusters and networks of personal computers.

14. The method of processing medical data according to claim 1, wherein the parsing step further comprises:

parsing the medical data subsets so that the number of the medical data subsets is equal to the number of the available computing nodes.

15. A computing system for processing medical data, comprising:

a defining unit for defining a plurality of computing nodes as computing nodes of the computing system;

a determination unit for determining which of the plurality of computing nodes is available for performing processing;

a parsing unit for parsing medical data into a plurality of medical data subsets, the number of the medical data subsets being based on the number of the available computing nodes;

a processing unit for processing each medical data subset at an associated one of the plurality of computing nodes;

a transmitting unit for transmitting the processed medical data subsets to a master node; and

a generating unit for generating a three dimensional data representation at the master node by combining the processed medical data subsets.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the parsing unit parses the medical data subsets so that the number of the medical data subsets is equal to the number of the available computing nodes.