Medical image capture system and method

• US 7,257,832 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Issued: 08/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agfa Healthcare Corporation (Agfa-Gevaert N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Heartlab Incorporated (Agfa-Gevaert N.V.)
• Inventors: Beane, John A., Heminger, Larry J., Stone, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): WONG, ALLEN C
• Application Number:
  US09/974,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20020073429A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,135 Days
• Field of Search: 725/105, 348/61, 348/143, 348/159, 348/161, 358/1.14, 715/719, 705/3
• US Class Current: 725/105
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

As patient video images are captured in a lab, they are converted into an uncompressed data set and stored locally on a hospital site server, where they are immediately viewable by diagnosticians in the hospital. The hospital site server generates a plurality of compressed data sets for use by the Internet Data Center. Additionally, the uncompressed data set and a plurality of compressed data sets are stored permanently on a centralized Internet Data Center, from which they can be searched out and displayed by any client device running web-browser software. A client is provided with immediate access to the uncompressed images when pausing and requesting the images of interest from the server. The patient video images are automatically delivered to any authorized Clinical Research Organizations, they are delivered back to the treating hospital when the patient returns for subsequent visits, and are viewable through in-hospital viewing stations over a private high-speed network.

Claims

1. A system for processing patient video images, comprising:

a medical services site that includes an acquisition station, a review station, a site sever, and a local network for transporting the patient video images between the acquisition station, review station, and site server;

said acquisition station for collecting the patient video images;

said site sever for receiving the patient video images from said acquisition station over the local network and storing the patient video images;

the review station for retrieving patient video images from the site server over the local network and displaying the patient video images to a diagnostician;

an internet data center in communication with said site sewer and receiving the patient video images transmitted by the site server over an internet communication network;

said internet data center including a web server and a database server;

said database server storing the patient video images; and

a web-based client for receiving said patient video images from the web server of said internet data center over said internet communication network;

wherein the web server transmits frames of the patient video images to the web-based client in which intervening frames of the patient video images have been skipped, the web-based client displaying the received frames, and then later the web server transmits the skipped frames of patient video images, which the web-based client then displays with the previously received frames.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the site server generates different compressed video files having different levels of compression.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said internet data center includes means for detecting a bandwidth of the web-based client and then transmits the patient video images with a compression determined in response to the detected bandwidth.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a backup data system that comprises at least one storage facility for storing said patient video images.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said multi-media server receives said patient video images from said backup data system and delivers them to the web-based client as streaming media.

6. The system of claim 1,

wherein said internet data center further comprises a backup data system, the backup data system automatically transferring patient video images to the site server in response to a corresponding patient returning to the medical services site.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said site server is configured to create a thumbnail image of said patient video, wherein said thumbnail image is derived from a median frame in said patient video.

8. The system of claim 7, including an image backup data system that is configured to retrieve a specified patient file upon request.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising instructions for receiving the patient video image file upon selection of the thumbnail image by a user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the site server and/or the database server store both lossless patient video images and video images that have been compressed using a lossy compression.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the site server transmits the patient video images to the internet data center at night and on weekends.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the site sewer and/or the internet data center transmit the patient video images to a clinical research organization.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said acquisition station is located in a cardiac catheterization lab to receive images from a catheterization camera.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said acquisition station is located in a catheterization lab to receive images from an x-ray angioplasty machine.