Systems and methods for remote viewing of patient images

• US 8,059,297 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2009
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Merge Healthcare Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tipirneni, Kishore
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, II; Jerome
• Application Number:
  US12/321,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20090204683A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 358/403, 358/1.14, 358/1.12, 358/1.15, 358/1.9, 358/1.5, 358/2.1, 358/405, 358/504, 358/468, 379/217, 379/219, 709/217, 709/219
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226

Abstract

A digital camera containing patient images is connected to an uploader computer and the patient'"'"'s name or history is entered into the uploader computer. The uploader computer then connects to the Internet, connects to the secure host server, uploads the images to the host server and shuts down the Internet connection. After the physician selects a medical facility and the system verifies the physician'"'"'s user I.D. and password, the host server constructs an HTML web page which includes a list of patients whose images were previously uploaded by the medical facility and are available for viewing The physician simply selects the name of a patient and the host server displays the patient information and images on the physician'"'"'s computer. The system is password-protected at all levels and the operator for each medical facility determines who may have access to the medical facility images.

Claims

1. A system for secure transmission of data from a facility to a centralized host server for remote viewing from a person computer, said system comprising:

a camera device;

an uploader device configured to acquire information from said camera device, said uploader device configured to automatically transmit information over a network, said host server configured to communicate with a plurality of said uploader devices through said network; and

, said personal computer configured to communicate with said host server.

2. A computer-implemented method for providing remote viewing of data, the method comprising:

receiving, at a host server, a data file including image data captured by an image acquisition device from an uploader device over at least one network, wherein the host server is configured to communicate with a plurality of uploader devices over the at least one network;

receiving a request for information acquired by the image acquisition device from at least one computer; and

transmitting the information acquired by the image acquisition device from the host server to the at least one computer in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the uploader device automatically obtains the image data from the image acquisition device and generates the data file.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the image data includes at least one of a radiological image, an x-ray, a MR image, a CT image, a direct picture of patient pathology, lab data, and EKG data.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the uploader device automatically transmits the data file to the host server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the uploader device automatically transmits the data file to the host server by automatically connecting to the at least one network, automatically uploading the data file to the host server over the at least one network, and automatically disconnecting from the at least one network.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving verification information from the at least one computer at the host server.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising verifying the verification information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the information from the host server to the computer in response to the request includes transmitting the information after verifying the verification information.

10. A system for providing remote viewing of data, the system comprising:

a host server configured to communicate with a plurality of uploader devices over at least one network, receive a data file including image data captured by an image acquisition device from one of the plurality of uploader devices over the at least one network, receive a request for information acquired by the image acquisition device from at least one computer remote from the host server, and transmit the information to the at least one computer in response to the request.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the image data includes at least one of a radiological image, an x-ray, a MR image, a CT image, a direct picture of patient pathology, lab data, and EKG data.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising the uploader device, the uploader device configured to automatically obtain the image data from the image acquisition device and generate the data file.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the uploader device is further configured to automatically transmit the data file to the host server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the uploader device is configured to automatically transmit the data file to the host server by automatically connecting to the at least one network, automatically uploading the data file to the host server over the at least one network, and automatically disconnecting from the at least one network.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the host server is further configured to receive verification information from the at least one computer and to verify the verification information.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the host server is configured to transmit the information to the at least one computer after verifying the verification information.

17. Non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions for providing remote viewing of data, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions for:

receiving a data file from one of a plurality of uploader devices over at least one network, the data file including image data captured by an image acquisition device;

receiving a request for information acquired by the image acquisition device from at least one computer; and

transmitting the information to the at least one computer in response to the request.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions for receiving verification information from the at least one computer and verifying the verification information.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the image data includes at least one of a radiological image, an x-ray, a MR image, a CT image, a direct picture of patient pathology, lab data, and EKG data.