Method and computer readable medium for merging studies

• US 8,015,031 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2001
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Filteau, Sheila, Collamore, Brian, Banta, Christina, Luszcz, Joseph M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cobanoglu; Dilek B
• Application Number:
  US09/876,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20020188475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,743 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 714/48, 707/8, 707/104.1, 715/523, 600/425, 709/219
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

A method and a computer readable medium for merging two or more separate unique studies based upon context-specific content, and merging the two or more separate studies, each with a unique identifier, into a composite study containing artifacts of the two or more merged studies, with the composite study having a single unique identifier.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented medical information merging method, comprising:

identifying a patient'"'"'s first collection of medical information with a first collection identifier, and a logically related or similar second collection of medical information with a second collection identifier, the first collection identifier being different from the second collection identifier;

with a computer merging the patient'"'"'s first collection of medical information with the second collection of medical information, to create a composite collection of medical information;

during the merging, with the computer reconciling the first and second collection identifiers of the first and second collections of medical information;

during said merging, with the computer automatically adding medical information, according to a protocol attribute, of the first or second collection of medical information into the other of the first or second collection of medical information in the creating of said composite collection of medical information; and

at least one of displaying the composite collection of medical information on a display or storing the merged collection of medical information in a non-transitory computer memory.

2. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein the medical information is at least one of medical images, patient measurements, findings, comments, waveforms, Doppler audio, and a medical study report.

3. The medical information merging method of claim 2, further comprising computing patient measurement information of the first collection of medical information, based on the patient measurements in the second collection of medical information, upon said merging.

4. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein said adding comprises adding stage information of the second collection of medical information to the first collection of medical information according to a protocol attribute of the second collection of medical information.

5. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein the first and second collections of medical information include unique identifiers according to a lexicon of Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM).

6. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein said adding comprises adding a series instance identifier, for a series of the second collection of medical information, to the first collection of medical information without generating a new series instance identifier in the first collection of medical information for said series of the second collection of medical information.

7. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein said adding comprises adding new medical information of the second collection of medical information to the composite collection of medical information based on the new medical information including a collection identifier of the second collection of medical information.

8. The medical information merging method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the first and second collections of medical information, wherein said merging is initiated from a terminal remote from a storage unit containing either of the first and second collections of medical information.

9. The medical information merging method of claim 1, wherein the study identifiers of the first and second medical studies are unique among studies in a database having the distinct database entity.

10. A computer-implemented study merging method, comprising:

identifying a patient'"'"'s first medical study, which first medical study includes a first study identifier, and a logically related or similar second medical study, which second medical study includes a second study identifier;

in response to a user request, with a computer merging the patient'"'"'s first medical study with the second medical study to create a merged study, such that medically context-specific information stored in at least one of the first and second medical studies is merged based upon a protocol of at least one of the first and second studies, the protocol being indicated by an attribute of at least one of the first and second studies;

with the computer saving respective identifiers of the first and second studies;

with the computer deleting a distinct database identity for at least one of the first and second studies;

with the computer assigning a unique study identifier to the merged study; and

at least one of displaying the merged study on a terminal and storing the merged study in a non-transitory computer storage medium.

11. The study merging method of claim 10, wherein the medically context specific information is stage information.

12. The study merging method of claim 10, wherein the medically context specific information is measurement information.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium in which is embodied a program having instructions executable by a computer to perform acts, said acts comprising:

identifying a patient'"'"'s first collection of medical information with a first collection identifier, and a logically related or similar second collection of medical information with a second collection identifier;

merging the patient'"'"'s first collection of medical information with the second collection of medical information, to create a composite collection of medical information;

wherein said merging includes reconciling the first and second collection identifiers of the first and second collections of medical information; and

wherein said merging includes automatically according to a protocol attribute, adding medical information, of the first or second collection of medical information into the other collection of medical information in the creating of said composite collection of medical information.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the medical information is at least one of medical images, patient measurements, findings, comments, waveforms, Doppler audio, and a medical study report.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said automatically adding comprises computing patient measurement information of the first collection of medical information, based on the patient measurements in the second collection of medical information, upon said merging.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said automatically adding comprises adding stage information of the second collection of medical information to the first collection of medical information according to a protocol attribute of the second collection of medical information.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the first and second collections of medical information include unique identifiers according to a lexicon of Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM).

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said automatic adding comprises adding a series instance identifier, for a series of the second collection of medical information, to the first collection of medical information without generating a new series instance identifier in the first collection of medical information for said series of the second collection of medical information.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said automatic adding comprises adding new medical information of the first or second collections of medical information to the composite collection of medical information based on the new medical information including a collection of medical information identifier of either of the first or second collections of medical information.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein said acts further comprise controlling the computer to notify a user when said adding of the new medical information is performed.

21. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising controlling the computer to delete a distinct database identity of the second collection of medical information.

22. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said acts further comprise controlling the computer to identify the first and second collections of medical information, wherein said merging is initiated from a terminal remote from a storage unit containing either of the first and second collections of medical information.

23. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the study identifiers of the first and second medical studies are unique among studies in a database having the distinct database entity.

24. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium in which is embodied a program having instructions executable by a computer to perform acts, said acts comprising:

merging a patient'"'"'s first medical study which includes a first study identifier with a logically related or similar second medical study which includes a second identifier to create a merged study, such that medically context-specific information stored in at least one of the first and second medical studies is merged based upon a protocol of at least one of the first and second studies, the protocol being indicated by an attribute of at least one of the first and second studies;

saving respective identifiers of the first and second studies;

deleting at least one of the first and second study identifiers; and

assigning a unique study identifier to the merged study.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the medically context-specific information is stage information.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the medically context-specific information is measurement information.

27. A computer-implemented medical study merging method, comprising:

identifying, in accordance with a lexicon of Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM), a patient'"'"'s related first and second medical studies to be merged, the first medical study having a first identifier and the second medical study having a second identifier different from the first medical study identifier;

with one or more processors, merging the first medical study with the second medical study, according to a protocol attribute, to create a resultant composite study having a study identifier different from at least one of the first and second identifiers of the first and second medical studies, wherein, in accordance with said lexicon, the merging includes an automatic, processor-implemented adding of a series of the second medical study to the composite study, the series of the second medical study having a series identifier identical to a pre-merge corresponding series identifier, with the series of the second medical study including at least an artifact with an artifact identifier identical to a pre-merge corresponding artifact identifier, such that the composite study includes series and corresponding series identifiers from both the premerged first and second medical studies; and

at least one of generating a human viewable display on a display device of the composite study and storing the composite study in a non-transitory computer storage device.

28. The medical study merging method of claim 27, wherein the composite study is assigned a unique study identifier of the first medical study.