METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSISTING DETERMINATION OF A MEDICAL CONDITION

• US 20170220860A1
• Filed: 02/26/2015
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Grain Ip Co.
• Original Assignee: Grain Ip Co.
• Inventors: VAN HOE, Lieven
• Granted Patent: US 9,977,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/414 Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for assisting a user in determining a medical condition in a subject from one or more medical images by presenting the user with a list of questions, LOQ, about the subject that are to be answered with an affirmative indication (Y), a negative indication (N) or an unknown indication (X) by input by the user. In response to receiving an answer to one question, the method presents the user with a ranked list of conditions, LOC, and also with an updated LOQ wherein at least the answered question has been removed i.e. the LOQ iteratively collapses or reduces in length. An earlier step of selecting a foundation observation, FO, about the subject reduces the initial LOQ and the possible conditions.

Claims

1. A method for assisting a user in determining a medical condition in a subject from one or more medical images, the method comprising the steps:

i) outputting from a database (FIG. 7, A2) a list of foundation observations (FIG. 7, A1), LFO, corresponding to a set of foundation observations, SFO, which SFO is a predefined subset of a multitude of observations, MO, each observation in the MO corresponding to a description of a medical-image- or subject-related observation,

ii) receiving an input (FIG. 7, B1) of a selection of at least one foundation observation from the LFO,

iii) generating;

a set of conditions, SC, linked to the selected FO in the database (FIG. 7 B2),

a set of rules, SR, linked to the selected FO in the database (FIG. 9 A2), and

from the MO, a set of observations, SO, linked the SR in the database (FIG. 9 B2),

iv) generating and outputting a list of conditions LOC from the SC (FIG. 10 A3) and a list of questions LOQ from the SO (FIG. 10 A1),

v) receiving an input (FIG. 10 A1) as to the status of one question in the LOQ, whereby the status is an indication of the presence, absence or unknown status in regard of the subject,

vi) updating and outputting;

the LOC (FIG. 10 B3, C3, D3, E3, F3), wherein likelihood(s) for condition(s) linked to the rules satisfied by status received in step (v) are provided, and

the LOQ (FIG. 10 B1, C1, D1, E1, F1), wherein at least the question corresponding to the observation status received in step (v) is removed,

vii) repeating steps v) to vi) optionally until there are no more questions in the LOQ (FIG. 10 G1).

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of conditions in the SC is linked to a plurality of foundation observations in the SO by discrete a priori ratings, APRs, wherein each foundation observation is linked to the corresponding condition by one APR (FIG. 7 A2).

4. Method according to claim 3, wherein the number of categories of discrete a priori ratings is between 3 and 5, preferably 3.

5. Method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein:

each condition in the LOC in step iv) is initially assigned the corresponding a priori rating according to the at least one FO selected from the LFO in step ii) and the links between the plurality of conditions in the SC and plurality of foundation observations in the SFO of claim 3 (FIG. 10 A3), and

the likelihood(s) for condition(s) provided in step vi) replace the a priori rating initially assigned to the same condition (FIG. 10 D3, E3, F3).

6. Method according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein a satisfied rule indicates one or more specified conditions each at a specified likelihood on the one hand, and a specified absence or presence of one or more specified observations on the other hand.

7. Method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the conditions in the LOC are ordered according to likelihood.

8. Method according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the observations in SFO are pre-defined patterns in the one or more medical images.

9. Method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the number of discrete likelihoods is between 4 and 8, preferably 6.

10. Method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein two or more observations in the SPO constitute a subset of observations, SSO, such that the presence or absence of one observation of the SSO is indicative of the presence or absence of the remaining observations in the SSO.

11. Method according to claim 10, wherein the revised LOQ in step vi) is devoid of all questions enquiring as to the status of the observations in the SSPO, when the answer received in step ii) is an indication of the status of one observation of the SSPO.

12. Method according to any of claims 1 to 11, wherein two or more observations in the SPO constitute a linked set of observations, LSO, associated to a status of a linking observation, which LSO is used to generate a corresponding linked set of questions LSOQ enquiring as to the status of the LSO, such that an indication of a status of the linking observation initiates outputting the LSOQ enquiring as to the status observations of the LSPO.

13. Method according to any of claims 1 to 12, wherein step ii) further comprise the step of presenting the user with a series of choices, arranged in increasing specificity, to guide the user towards a selection of an indication of the FO present in the patient.

14. Method according to any of claims 1 to 13, wherein

the medical image-related observations comprise the recognition of a morphological pattern from a medical image and/or

the patient-related observations comprise age, gender, symptoms, medical history, laboratory results, or a combination thereof.

15. A computer program, or a computer program product directly loadable into the internal memory of a computer, or a computer program product stored on a computer readable medium, or a combination of such computer programs or computer program products, configured for performing the method according to any of claims 1 to 14.

2. A method for assisting a user in determining a medical condition in a subject from one or more medical images, the method comprising the steps:

i) outputting to the user a list of foundation observations (FIG. 7 A1), LFO, from a database (FIG. 7 A2), wherein the database contains;

a multitude of observations, MO, each corresponding to a description of a medical-image- or subject-related observation,

a set of foundation observations, SFO, corresponding to a predefined subset of the MO, and used to generate the LFO,

a multitude of conditions, MC, each linked to at least one foundation observation,

a multitude of rules, MR,

wherein each rule in the MR links a discrete likelihood of at least one condition with the absence or presence of at least one observation,

ii) receiving an input (FIG. 7 B1) of a selection of at least one FO from the LFO,

iii) generating;

a set of conditions, SC, from the MC, wherein conditions not linked to the selected FO are excluded (FIG. 7 B2),

a set of rules, SR, from the MR, wherein rules that are not linked to the presence of the selected FO are excluded (FIG. 9 A2), and

a set of observations, SO, from the MO, wherein observations not linked to rules present in the SR are excluded (FIG. 9 B2),

iv) generating and outputting a list of conditions LOC from the SC (FIG. 10 A3), and a list of questions, LOQ from the SO (FIG. 10 A1),

v) receiving an input (FIG. 10 A1) as to the status of one question in the LOQ whereby the status is an indication of the presence, absence or unknown status in regard of the subject,

vi) updating and outputting;

the LOC (FIG. 10 B3, C3, D3, E3, F3), wherein likelihood(s) for condition(s) linked to the rules satisfied by status received in step (v) are provided, and

the LOQ (FIG. 10 B1, C1, D1, E1, F1), wherein at least the question corresponding to the observation status received in step (v) is removed,

vii) repeating steps v) to vi) optionally until there are no more questions in the LOQ (FIG. 10 G1).