Systems and methods for matching, naming, and displaying medical images

• US 9,542,082 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2014
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: DR Systems Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Reicher, Murray A., Fram, Evan K., Greim, Steven M., Schumacher, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Seth, Manav
• Application Number:
  US14/244,431
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0007 Image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30012 Spine; Backbone
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2004 Aligning objects, relative positioning of parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/30 Determination of transform parameters for the alignment of images, i.e. image registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/38 Registration of image sequences
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A method of matching medical images according to user-defined matches rules. In one embodiment, the matched medical images are displayed according user-defined display rules such that the matched medical images may be visually compared in manner that is suitable to the viewer'"'"'s viewing preferences.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

one or more hardware computer processors; and

one or more software modules including computer executable instructions and configured for execution by the one or more computer processors to cause the computing system to;

access a plurality of images including images of one or more series of medical images;

analyze the plurality of images to determine, for each image of the plurality of images;

a respective value of a first characteristic of the image, wherein the first characteristic comprises at least one of;

modality, exam type, or any DICOM header attribute; and

a respective value of a second characteristic of the image;

identify, based on similarities in the respective determined values of the first characteristic, a plurality of sets of images, wherein each set of images comprises two or more images of the plurality of images that are similar;

for each set of images of the plurality of sets of images;

determine, based on respective determined values of the second characteristic, a display order of images of the set of images; and

display, one at a time and in a single image pane of a user interface, images of the plurality of sets of images in the respective determined display orders.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein for each image of the plurality of images, the first characteristic further comprises at least one of orientation, contrast use, thickness of slices, field of view, or MRI tissue contrast weighting.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein for each image of the plurality of images, the respective value of the first characteristic of the image is contained in a header file of the image.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the images of the plurality of sets of images are displayed sequentially in the determined display order in response to a user input.

5. A method comprising:

accessing, by a computing system having one or more hardware processors executing computer executable instructions, a plurality of images including images of one or more series of medical images;

analyzing the plurality of images to determine, for each image of the plurality of images;

a respective value of a first characteristic of the image, wherein the first characteristic comprises at least one of;

modality, exam type, or any DICOM header attribute; and

a respective value of a second characteristic of the image;

identifying, by the computing system, based on similarities in the respective determined values of the first characteristic, a plurality of sets of images, wherein each set of images comprises two or more images of the plurality of images that are similar;

for each set of images of the plurality of sets of images;

determining, by the computing system, based on respective determined values of the second characteristic, a display order of images of the set of images; and

displaying, by the computing system, one at a time and in a single image pane of a user interface, images of the plurality of sets of images in the respective determined display orders.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

Identifying another set of images, by the computing system, based on similarities in the respective determined values of a third characteristic, wherein the other set of images comprises two or more images of the plurality of images and wherein the third characteristic comprises one or more of name, modality, plane, contrast, and/or width of respective images;

determining, by the computing system, a second display order of the other set of images, wherein the second display order is determined based on the third characteristic of respective images of the other set of images; and

updating, by the computing system, the user interfaces to display the other set of images in the determined second display order.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing software code that, when executed by a computer system, configures the computer system to perform operations comprising:

accessing a plurality of images including images of one or more series of medical images;

analyzing the plurality of images to determine, for each image of the plurality of images;

a respective value of a first characteristic of the image, wherein the first characteristic comprises at least one of;

modality, exam type, or any DICOM header attribute; and

a respective value of a second characteristic of the image;

identifying, based on similarities in the respective determined values of the first characteristic, a plurality of sets of images, wherein each set of images comprises two or more images of the plurality of images that are similar;

for each set of images of the plurality of sets of images;

determining, based on respective determined values of the second characteristic, a display order of images of the set of images; and

displaying, one at a time and in a single image pane of a user interface, images of the plurality of sets of images in the respective determined display orders.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the images of the plurality of sets of images are displayed sequentially in the determined display order in response to a user input.