Systems and methods for remote viewing of patient images

• US 6,798,533 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2001
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Etrauma LLC
• Inventors: Tipirneni, Kishore
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, II, Jerome
• Application Number:
  US10/029,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20020109859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 358/400, 358/403, 358/1.15, 358/1.12, 358/1.14, 709/219, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/229
• 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 facilitating the transmission of data from a facility to a centralized host server for remote viewing from a computer, said system comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to acquire data;

an uploader device configured to receive said data from said data acquisition device, said uploader device configured to transmit said data over a network;

said centralized host server is configured to communicate with a plurality of said uploader devices through said network and said centralized host server is configured to automatically transmit to said facility a list of new passwords upon a request by said uploader device; and

said computer configured to communicate with said centralized host server, wherein said centralized host server is configured to construct and transmit to said computer a web page.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of said new passwords is at least one of a temporary password and temporary-permanent password.

3. A system for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility to a centralized host server for remote viewing from a computer, said system comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to acquire data;

an uploader device configured to receive said data from said data acquisition device, said uploader device configured to transmit said data over a network;

said centralized host server configured to communicate with a plurality of said uploader devices through said network; and

said computer configured to communicate with said centralized host server, wherein said centralized host server is configured to construct and transmit to said computer a web page wherein said web page contains a list of available facilities and a list of available images from each of said available facilities.

4. A method for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility via a centralized host server to a computer, said method comprising:

receiving, at said centralized host server, one or more images transmitted from an uploader device, wherein said receiving step further includes;

receiving a data file from said uploader device, wherein said data file includes at least one of said one or more images, text input at said uploader device and thumbnail image representations of said one or more images created at said uploader device,

wherein said text includes at least one of a patient identifier and a patient history,

wherein said one or more images have been counted by said uploader device, and

wherein said one or more images have been compressed by said uploader device if the size of said one or more images is greater than a predetermined threshold;

assembling a web page, including said one or more images, at said centralized host server in response to a request from said computer; and

,

transmitting said web page to said computer.

5. A method for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility via a centralized host server to a computer, said method comprising:

receiving, at said centralized host server, one or more images transmitted from an uploader device,

assembling a web page, including said one or more images, at said centralized host server in response to a request from said computer; and

,

transmitting said web page to said computer, wherein said steps of assembling a web page and transmitting said web page to said computer further include;

validating a user identification and a user password entered at said computer;

accessing, at said centralized host server, one or more patient folders associated with said facility, wherein said one or more patient folders include said one or more images;

populating, at said centralized host server, said web page with said one or more patient folders;

transmitting said web page from said centralized host server to said personal computer; and

transmitting at least one of said one or more patient folders to said computer.

6. A method for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility via a centralized host server to a computer, said method comprising:

receiving, at said centralized host server, one or more images transmitted from an uploader device,

assembling a web page, including said one or more images, at said centralized host server in response to a request from said computer;

transmitting said web page to said computer;

said method further comprising the steps of;

a) requesting, at said uploader device, a temporary-permanent password for said facility for a user of said computer;

b) distributing said temporary-permanent password to said user;

c) requesting, at said computer, entry of said temporary-permanent password by said user;

d) requesting entry, at said computer, of a new password;

e) replacing said temporary-permanent password with said new password;

f) repeating steps (a)-(e) for a different medical facility.

7. A system for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility to a centralized host server for remote viewing from a computer, said system comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to acquire data;

an uploader device configured to receive said data from said data acquisition device, said uploader device configured to automatically transmit said data over a network, wherein said network is at least one of a public, packet-switched Internet and an Ethernet;

said centralized host server is configured to communicate with a plurality of said uploader devices through said network and said centralized host server is configured to automatically transmit to said facility a list of new passwords upon a request by said uploader device; and

said computer configured to communicate with said centralized host server.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein each of said passwords is at least one of a temporary password and temporary-permanent password.

9. A system for facilitating the transmission of data from a facility to a centralized host server for remote viewing from a computer, said system comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to acquire data;

an uploader device configured to receive said data from said data acquisition device, said uploader device configured to automatically transmit said data over a network, wherein said network is at least one of a public, packet-switched Internet and an Ethernet;

said centralized host server is configured to communicate with a plurality of said uploader devices through said network and said centralized host server is configured to construct and transmit to said computer a web page containing a list of available facilities and a list of available images from each of said available facilities; and

said computer configured to communicate with said centralized host server.

10. A method for facilitating the accessing of data from a facility via a centralized host server for remote viewing on a computer, said method comprising:

establishing a network connection at said computer;

entering a network address for said centralized host server at said computer;

viewing a web page provided by said centralized host server;

in response to a request from said centralized host server, entering a user identification and password at said computer;

viewing a list of available facilities on said web page at said computer, wherein said list of available facilities is displayed based on said user identification and said user password;

selecting said facility from said list of available facilities at said computer;

viewing a list of images available from said facility;

selecting one or more images from said list of images at said computer; and

viewing said one or more images at said computer.