Method and system for in-service monitoring and training for a radiologic workstation

• US 7,366,676 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2001
• Issued: 04/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: MeVis BreastCare GmbH & Co. KG (Varex Imaging Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MeVis BreastCare GmbH & Co. KG (Varex Imaging Corporation)
• Inventors: Evertsz, Carl J. G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; C. Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): TOMASZEWSKI, MICHAEL
• Application Number:
  US09/870,388
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,527 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3, 434/262, 600/408
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

In a method and a computer system for screening of medical cases known proven positive and/or known proven normal cases are inserted in the flow of cases during the screening. On a user'"'"'s option the known cases can be infiltrated in the case stream in accordance with a fixed pattern or on a random basis. When the radiologist makes a misdiagnosis of a known case this is recognized by the system and a corresponding output message is provided to the radiologist. Further the system has a database for tracing all user actions, including the diagnostic findings for the purposes of generating a user action report, quality control and assurance, and support in litigation.

Claims

1. A computer system for in-service monitoring of a user screening medical cases comprising:

a case stack of undiagnosed real cases to be reviewed by the user;

a library of known cases;

a user interface component for requesting a consecutive case, for display of the consecutive case, and for entering a diagnosis of the consecutive case;

a program component for receiving a request for the consecutive case from the user interface, the program component selecting the consecutive case from the case stack of real cases and the library of known cases for the display and the diagnosis; and

feedback component for outputting a message to the user if the user diagnosis of the selected known case is incorrect.

2. A computer system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a pseudo-random component for generation of a pseudo-random number, the program component being coupled to the pseudo-random component for determining the selection of the consecutive case from the case stack of real cases or the library of known cases based on the output of the pseudo-random component.

3. A computer system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a session preparation component for initializing the case stack and for specifying an absolute number or a percentage of known cases to be selected by the program component during the screening of the case stack by the user.

4. A computer system as set forth in claim 3 wherein the session preparation component enables specifying a category for the known cases.

5. A computer system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a user action component for tracing of user input actions and of the feedback component.

6. A computer system as set forth in claim 5 further comprising a user action report generation component being coupled to the user action component for generating a user action report for the purposes of quality monitoring and assurance.

7. A computer system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a mode selection component for selecting a random mode or a fixed mode for the operation of the program component.

8. A computer system for in-service monitoring of a user screening medical cases, comprising:

a case stack of undiagnosed real cases to be reviewed by the user;

a library of known cases having verified diagnoses;

a user interface component for requesting a consecutive case, for displaying the consecutive case, and for entering a diagnosis of the consecutive case;

a program component for receiving a request for the consecutive case from the user interface to be displayed and diagnosed, the program component selecting the consecutive case from the case stack of real cases and the library of known cases; and

a feedback component for outputting a message to the user when a threshold of the known cases have been misdiagnosed per a given number of the real cases preceding the misdiagnosis.

9. The computer system according to claim 8, wherein said threshold is one.

10. The computer system according to claim 8, wherein said given number is a total number of the real cases.

11. The computer system according to claim 8, further comprising a timer, said timer preventing the user from making further diagnoses for a given amount of time after the threshold has been reached.