Selective display of medical images

• US 9,501,617 B1
• Filed: 05/24/2016
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: DR Systems Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Reicher, Murray A., Fram, Evan K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ansari, Tahmina
• Application Number:
  US15/163,600
• Time in Patent Office: 182 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2576/00 Medical imaging apparatus involving image processing or analysis A61B1/00009, A61B6/52 and A61B8/52 take precedence; image processing per se G06T; details of algorithms for analysing medical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7271 Specific aspects of physiological measurement analysis A61B5/316, A61B5/349 and A61B5/374 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2101/00 Indexing scheme relating to the type of digital function generated
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/41 Medical
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 : characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards

Abstract

Systems and methods that allow transfer criteria to be defined based on one or more of several attributes, such as a particular user, site, or device, as well as whether individual images and/or image series are classified as thin slices, and applied to medical images in order to determine which images are downloaded, viewed, stored, and/or any number of other actions that might be performed with respect to particular images.

Claims

1. A method of selecting medical images of an image series for display, the method comprising:

by a computing device executing software, performing operations comprising;

accessing a plurality of user-defined criteria including;

first user-defined criteria associated with a first value of an image series attribute, wherein the first user-defined criteria indicate a first maximum image slice thickness, and

second user-defined criteria associated with a second value of the image series attribute, wherein the second user-defined criteria indicate a second maximum image slice thickness that is different from the first maximum image slice thickness;

applying the first user-defined criteria to a first image series having the first value of the image series attribute by;

selecting a group of medical images of the first image series, wherein each medical image of the group of medical images of the first image series has an image slice thickness less than the first maximum image slice thickness; and

initiating display of the group of medical images of the first image series at a first computing device, wherein medical images of the first image series that are not in the group of medical images of the first image series are not displayed at the first computing device; and

applying the second user-defined criteria to a second image series having the second value of the image series attribute by;

selecting a group of medical images of the second image series, wherein each medical image of the group of medical images of the second image series has an image slice thickness less than the second maximum image slice thickness; and

initiating display of the group of medical images of the second image series at the first computing device, wherein medical images of the second image series that are not in the group of medical images of the second image series are not displayed at the first computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user-defined criteria include rules for displaying medical images at the first computing device based on one or more of:

a bandwidth associated with the first computing device, one or more characteristics of a viewer, one or more characteristics of a site of the first computing device, one or more characteristics of a connection with the first computing device, or one or more characteristics of a medical exam associated with the image series.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user-defined criteria indicate that medical images of the group of medical images of the first image series are displayed on the computing device by default.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a second plurality of user-defined criteria including;

third user-defined criteria associated with the first value of the image series attribute, wherein the third user-defined criteria indicate a third maximum image slice thickness, and

fourth user-defined criteria associated with the second value of the image series attribute, wherein the fourth user-defined criteria indicate a fourth maximum image slice thickness that is different from the third maximum image slice thickness;

applying the third user-defined criteria to the first image series by;

selecting a second group of medical images of the first image series, wherein each medical image of the second group of medical images of the first image series has an image slice thickness less than the third maximum image slice thickness; and

initiating display of the second group of medical images of the first image series at a second computing device, wherein medical images of the first image series that are not in the second group of medical images of the first image series are not displayed at the second computing device; and

applying the fourth user-defined criteria to the second image series by;

selecting a second group of medical images of the second image series, wherein each medical image of the second group of medical images of the second image series has an image slice thickness less than the fourth maximum image slice thickness; and

initiating display of the second group of medical images of the second image series at the second computing device, wherein medical images of the second image series that are not in the second group of medical images of the second image series are not displayed at the second computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting for access the first and second user-defined criteria based on an association of the first and second user-defined criteria with a user of the first computing device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting for access the first and second user-defined criteria based on an association of the first and second user-defined criteria with a site associated with the first computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user-defined criteria are selected on a per-user and a per-site basis, wherein conflicts in user-defined criteria associated with a particular user and the user-defined criteria associated with a particular site are resolved based on a predetermined hierarchy of user specific and site specific user-defined criteria.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating display of the group of medical images of the first image series and initiating display of the group of medical images of the second image series are performed by the first computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating display of the group of medical images of the first image series and initiating display of the group of medical images of the second image series are performed by a second computing device that has local access to the medical images of the first and second image series.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the image series attribute is associated with at least one of:

a modality, a series type, an exam type, a clinical indication, a DICOM header attribute, a series description, a reconstruction algorithm, or a computer aided diagnosis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the image series attribute is a modality attribute and values of the image series attribute for respective image series indicate respective modalities of the image series.

12. A method comprising:

by a computing device comprising hardware, performing operations comprising;

accessing first user-defined criteria associated with a first value of an image series attribute, wherein the first user-defined criteria indicate a first maximum image slice thickness;

accessing second user-defined criteria associated with a second value of an image series attribute, wherein the second user-defined criteria indicate a second maximum image slice thickness;

selecting a first set of medical images that are associated with the first value of the image series attribute and that satisfy the first user-defined criteria including the first maximum image slice thickness;

selecting a second set of medical images that are associated with the second value of the image series attribute and that satisfy the second user-defined criteria including the second maximum image slice thickness;

displaying the first set of medical images and not displaying medical images that are associated with the first value of the image series attribute and that do not satisfy the first user-defined criteria including the first maximum image slice thickness; and

displaying the second set of medical images and not displaying medical images that are associated with the second value of the image series attribute and that do not satisfy the second user-defined criteria including the second maximum image slice thickness.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said displaying the first set of medical images comprises, in response to a user preference, automatically displaying images of the first set of medical images in 3D renderings.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said displaying the first set of medical images comprises, in response to a user preference, automatically displaying images of the first set of medical images with reconstructions in multiple planes.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the image series attribute includes at least one of:

a modality, a series type, an exam type, a clinical indication, a DICOM header attribute, a series description, a reconstruction algorithm, or a computer aided diagnosis.

16. A method of selecting medical images of an image series for display, the method comprising:

by a computing device executing software, performing operations comprising;

accessing first user-defined criteria associated with a first user for determining whether respective medical images of an image series are classified as first thin slice images, wherein the first user-defined criteria indicate a first maximum thickness of a particular medical image for classification of the particular image as a first thin slice image;

accessing second user-defined criteria associated with a second user for determining whether respective medical images of the image series are classified as second thin slice images, wherein the second user-defined criteria indicate a second maximum thickness of a particular medical image for classification of the particular image as a second thin slice image, wherein the second maximum thickness is different from the first maximum thickness;

selecting a first group of medical images of the image series that are first thin slice images as indicated by the first thin slice criteria;

selecting a second group of medical images of the image series that are second thin slice images as indicated by the second thin slice criteria;

initiating display of the first group of medical images to the first user, wherein medical images of the image series that are not in the first group are not displayed to the first user; and

initiating display of the second group of medical images to the second user, wherein medical images of the image series that are not in the second group are not displayed to the second user.