Remote interpretation of medical images

• US 7,505,614 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2000
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Original Assignee: Carl Zeiss Microimaging Ais, Inc. (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Inventors: De La Torre-Bueno, Jose
• Primary Examiner(s): Carter; Aaron W
• Application Number:
  US09/542,091
• Time in Patent Office: 3,270 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/130, 382/131, 382/132, 382/235, 600/437, 709/219
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/217 Interfaces allowing access to a single user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/99 involving fractal coding

Abstract

A remote view station is communicatively coupled to an image server and receives a compressed version of source medical images. The remote view station uncompresses and displays the received medical image. A medical professional, such as a pathologist, can select a region of the displayed medical image. Region information is transmitted back to the image server that applies image analysis operations on a region of the source medical image that corresponds to the selected region of the compressed medical image. In this manner, the data loss that occurs during image compression does not effect the image analysis operations. As such, the image analysis operations produce more accurate results than if the operations were applied by remote view station to the uncompressed image.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, at a first location, an original medical image representing medical information to be evaluated by an evaluating person;

compressing the original medical image to form a compressed medical image, at the first location;

sending the compressed medical image from the first location to a second location, at which second location the evaluating person is located;

allowing selection of a region of the compressed medical image at the second location, which region is less than the entire compressed medical image, and sending an indication of that region to the first location; and

carrying out a medical analysis of only the region of the medical image at said first location, said medical analysis being based on the contents of the original medical image that are within the region selected by the evaluating person.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sending the compressed medical image includes transmitting the compressed medical image over a global packet-switched network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said second location includes a remote view station and further including transmitting said indication from the remote view station to an image server, wherein the region information defines the selected region of the displayed medical image.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the indicator is transmitted as a series of pixel coordinates.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said allowing selection selecting the region of the compressed medical image includes receiving input from a pointing device controlled by a user to outline the region of the compressed medical image.

12. The system as in claim 1, wherein said carrying out a medical analysis comprises using the computer to automatically process the original medical image at its original location.

13. The system as in claim 12, wherein said carrying out a medical analysis comprises automatically forming a score indicative of the image, and sending said score to the second location.

6. A system comprising:

an image server, at a first location, obtaining an original medical image representing medical information to be evaluated by an evaluating person;

said image server including an image compression part which compresses the image to form a compressed medical image, and including a network communicating part which communicates the compressed medical image over a network;

a remote view station at a second location, including a network communicating part receiving said compressed medical image, a viewing part enabling said image to be viewed, and enabling a region of said image to be selected, where information indicative of said region is sent back to the image server; and

wherein the image server also includes a medical analysis part at said first location, which enables carrying out a medical analysis of only the region of the medical image, based on the contents of the original medical image, that are within the region that was selected.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the remote view station transmits region information separate from the compressed medical image from the remote view station to the imaged server, wherein the region information-includes a plurality of pixel coordinates outlining the selected region the compressed image.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the image server applies the image analysis operations to generate a score and communicate the score to the remote view station for display.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the image server includes a database associating a diagnosis received from the remote view station with the source medical image.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the remote view station includes a pointing device controllable by a user to outline the region of the compressed medical image.

11. The system as in claim 8, wherein said medical analysis part is a computer which automatically processes the original medical image to calculate said score.