Integrated medical information system formed of text-based and image-based databases, and display thereof

• US 6,434,569 B1
• Filed: 06/05/1997
• Issued: 08/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Nishihara, Eitaro, Toshimitsu, Akihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore, Reba I.
• Application Number:
  US08/869,777
• Time in Patent Office: 1,895 Days
• Field of Search: 705/3, 707/2, 707/100, 707/101, 707/8, 707/102, 707/104, 345/1, 345/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A medical information system has a terminal device of a hospital information system for retrieving and displaying an examination list and a reading report and an image display terminal device for displaying an image. Both terminal devices are arranged to mutually transfer the identification information of an examination to enable their displayed contents to be changed interlockingly. Therefore, medical information, such as charts, medical images, reading reports and results of examinations, required to perform a diagnosis is formed into electronic data and electronic data is displayed on a screen to provide information for a doctor.

Claims

1. A medical information system comprising:

a first database configured to store medical documents formed of text and corresponding to respective identification data;

a first command input device configured to input a first rage display command and a first document display command, both of the first commands including the identification data;

a first database controller configured to retrieve and display a medical document from said first database based on the first document display command;

a second database configured to store medical images corresponding to the medical documents;

a second command input device configured to input a second image display command and a second document display command, both including the identification data;

a second database controller configured to retrieve and display a medical image from said second database based on the second image display command;

wherein said first database controller is configured to transmit the first image display command to said second database controller so that said second data controller retrieves and displays a medical image from said second database based on the first image display command and said second database controller is configured to transmit the second document display command to said first database controller so that said first database controller retrieves and displays a medical document from said first database on the second document display command, whereby a medical document and a medical image corresponding to the displayed medical document are interlockingly displayed.

2. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein said first database controller comprises a first display configured to display the retrieved medical document and said second database controller comprises a second display configured to display the retrieved medical image and said first and second displays are provided close to each other.

3. A medical information system according to claim 1, in which said identification data is examination identification data.

4. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein said first or second database controller transmits the first image display command or the second document display command to said second or first database controller when the identification data is changed.

5. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein patient identification data is input by one of said first and second command input devices after a patient has been hospitalized.

6. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein patient identification data is input by one of said first and second command input devices after a patient has been discharged from a hospital.

7. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein patient identification data is input by one of said first and second command input devices after a consultation department for a patient has been changed.

8. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein patient identification data is input by one of said first and second command input devices after a consultation room for a patient has been changed.

9. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein patient identification data is input by one of said first and second command input devices after a hospital ward for the patient has been change.

10. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein when patient identification data is included in a command transmitted to one of said first and second database controller, the other of said first and second database controllers retrieves such data from one of said first and second databases that satisfies a predetermined condition.

11. A medical information system according to claim 10, in which said predetermined condition is that data is marked as important data.

12. A medical information system according to claim 10, in which said predetermined condition is that the data relates to an examination marked as an important examination.

13. A medical information system according to claim 10, in which said predetermined condition is an unviewed image which is not referred by a doctor.

14. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which the unviewed image is an image collected in an examination performed between a previous consultation day and a present consultation day for a patient.

15. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which existence of the unviewed image for a patient is detected based on existence of an examination scheduled on a present consultation day.

16. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which existence of the unviewed image for a patient is detected based on existence of an examination registered to said medical information system on a present consultation day.

17. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which existence of the unviewed image for a patient is detected based on existence of an examination ordered on a previous consultation day.

18. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which the unviewed image is an image which is not provided with a flag indicating a fact that the image has been displayed.

19. A medical information system according to claim 13, in which the unviewed image is an image provided with a flag indicating a fact that the image has not been displayed.

20. A medical information system according to claim 10, in which the medical image which satisfies the predetermined condition is an image which has been read by a reading doctor but has not been referred by a consultation doctor.

21. A medical information system according to claim 20, in which whether or not the image has been read is determined based on whether or not a flag indicating that the image has been read exists.

22. A medical information system according to claim 20, in which whether or not the image has been read is determined based on whether or not a flag indicating that the image has not been read does not exist.

23. A medical information system according to claim 20, in which whether or not the image has been read is determined based on existence of a reading report of the image.

24. A medical information system according to claim 1, in which said identification data represents a type of examination and a date of examination.

33. A medical information system according to claim 1, wherein said second database comprises a low-speed large capacity storage device configured to store all of the medical images and a high-speed small capacity storage device configured to store some of the medical images.

25. A display apparatus of a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) which stores medical images and is configured to be connected to a hospital information system (HIS) which stores examination documents comprising text data and includes au (HIS) display apparatus for displaying an examination document, comprising:

a PACS display;

an interface configured to receive a image display command from said HIS, the image display command including identification data identifying an examination corresponding to the examination document displayed on the HIS display apparatus; and

a display controller configured to retrieve an image relating to the examination identified by the identification data received by said interface and to supply a retrieved image to the PACS display so that the medical image displayed by the PACS display is changed interlockingly with changes in the examination document displayed by the HIS play apparatus.

26. A display apparatus according to claim 25, further comprising an input device for changing the image displayed to another image relating to another examination by inputting identification data identifying the other examination.

28. A display terminal apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising:

a display for displaying a list of examination information in response to input of patient identification data;

a selector for selecting an examination from the list of examination information; and

a display for displaying a detail of the examination information of the selected examination.

29. A display terminal apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising:

a controller for retrieving predetermined examination information for a patient in response to input of identification data of a patient; and

a display for displaying the predetermined examination information retrieved by said controller.

30. A display terminal apparatus according to claim 28, in which said controller retrieves examination information corresponding to a medical image which has been read by a reading doctor but has not been referred to by a consultation doctor.

31. A display terminal apparatus according to claim 28, in which said controller retrieves examination information marked as important examinations or examination information corresponding to an image marked as an important image.

32. A display terminal apparatus according to claim 28, in which said controller retrieves all examination information of the patient in a case where the input of the patient identification data is a first input after a consultation group in a hospital for the patient has been changed.

27. A display apparatus of a hospital information system (HIS) which stores examination documents comprising text data and is configured to be connected to a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) which stores medical images and includes a PACS display apparatus for displaying a medical image, comprising:

an HIS display;

an interface configured to receive a document display command from said PACS, the document display command including identification data identifying an examination corresponding to the medical image displayed on the PACS display apparatus; and

a display controller configured to retrieve an examination document relating to the examination which is identified by the identification data received by said interface from said PACS and to supply a retrieved examination document to the HIS display so that the examination document displayed by the HIS display is changed interlockingly with changes in the medical image displayed on the PACS display apparatus.