Medical image management system

• US 7,668,835 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Heart Imaging Technologies LLC (Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Heart Imaging Technologies LLC (Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kim, Raymond J., Chen, Enn-Ling, Judd, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stevens; Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/069,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20050251012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/2, 707/9, 707/10, 600/407
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• 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: Y10S 707/915 Image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/941 Human sciences
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A method of managing medical information is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of receiving medical information in a format incompatible with the World Wide Web and converting the medical information to a format compatible with the World Wide Web. Further, the medical information is physically stored at a single location.

Claims

1. A method of managing medical information comprising:

de-identifying medical information of a patient, comprising replacing an identity of the patient with a unique identifier;

converting the de-identified medical information into a format compatible with viewing in an Internet web browser;

posting the de-identified medical information on a web server for access from the Internet web browser;

informing a web database of the posting of the de-identified medical information to form a web database record pointing to the posted and de-identified medical information, wherein informing a web database comprises sending to the web database an electronic message comprising an Internet address of the posted and de-identified medical information; and

associating a plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient, comprising querying a plurality of web database records for the unique identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message further comprises at least one of a modality type of the de-identified medical information, the unique identifier, and a date that the medical information is first acquired of the patient.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising encrypting the unique identifier to form an encrypted identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient residing on a plurality of servers, comprising querying the plurality of web database records for a plurality of unique identifiers corresponding to the patient.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a plurality of health care providers post the plurality of de-identified medical information on the plurality of web servers, wherein each of the plurality of health care providers assigns a different one of the plurality of unique identifiers to the patient than the other of the plurality of health care providers.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising providing user access from the Internet web browser to the associated plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient corresponding to the plurality of unique identifiers, wherein the plurality of de-identified medical information is accessible to the user in one of a de-identified format where an identity of the patient is inaccessible or an identified format where the identity of the patient is accessible.

7. A method of managing medical information comprising:

encrypting a unique identifier associated with de-identified medical information of a patient;

converting the de-identified medical information into a format compatible with viewing in an Internet web browser;

posting the de-identified medical information on a web server for access from the Internet web browser;

informing a web database of the posting of the de-identified medical information to form a web database record pointing to the posted and de-identified medical information, wherein informing a web database comprises sending to the web database an electronic message comprising an internet address of the posted and de-identified medical information; and

associating a plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient, comprising querying a plurality of web database records for the encrypted identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein encrypting a unique identifier comprises replacing the unique identifier with an encrypted identifier.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein a plurality of encrypted identifiers correspond to the patient.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient is posted on a plurality of web servers.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating the plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient, comprising querying the plurality of web database records for the plurality of encrypted identifiers corresponding to the patient.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing user access from the Internet web browser to the associated plurality of de-identified medical information of the patient corresponding to the plurality of encrypted identifiers, wherein the plurality of de-identified medical information is accessible to the user in one of a de-identified format where an identity of the patient is inaccessible or an identified format where the identity of the patient is accessible.