Medical intelligent server architecture

• US 7,751,604 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Chang, JaeJung
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US11/606,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,314 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/129, 382/130, 382/131, 382/132, 382/133, 382/134, 378/901, 600/300, 600/407, 600/410, 600/425, 707/104.1, 725/4, 725/82, 725/91, 725/96, 725/103, 128/920, 128/922
• US Class Current: 382/128
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed is medical intelligent server architecture for computer aided detection that is capable of scaling up for increasing number of patients, and that facilitates modifications and additions of detection services based on various modalities. The architecture is a dedicated server configuration capable of providing services for detecting diseases upon being provided a set of medical images. The architecture is capable of being integrated into existing medical information systems. The architecture for computer aided detection is adaptable to variations in demand for computer aided detection serves, is easily expandable to include new or modified detection services, and is scaleable to accommodate an increasing number of patients and patient images of various types.

Claims

1. A medical intelligent server for computer aided detection (CAD), comprising:

a dispatcher for receiving one or more cases, each case including a set of medical image files, and distributing the files;

an image processing server performing medical computer aided detection based on the set of medical image files using plug-in CAD components, the image processing server registering the plug-in CAD components with the dispatcher, the dispatcher distributing the medical image files based on the workload of the image processing server and the registered plug-in CAD components;

the medical intelligent server further comprising

a plurality of image processing servers, wherein at least one image processing server of the plurality of image processing servers registers its plug-in CAD components upon startup, and wherein said dispatcher distributes image files of a case to an image processing server that is selected based on current work load and CAD components that have been registered with the dispatcher.

2. The medical intelligent server for computer aided detection of claim 1, wherein said image processing server executes script files which invoke processing by plug-in CAD components in order to perform computer aided detection based on the medical image files.

3. The medical intelligent server for computer aided detection of claim 2, wherein the image processing server determines if a script file has been pre-compiled or has been modified, if the script file has been modified, the image processing server determines if there is compiled version of the script, and if not, compiles the script file and executes the compiled script.

4. The medical intelligent server for computer aided detection of claim 1, wherein each of the medical image files contains a header including patient data, and image data.

5. The medical intelligent server for computer aided detection of claim 1, wherein the image processing server comprises an image service administrator and a script runner, the image server administrator registering plug-in CAD components with the dispatcher, and provided that the CAD components have been registered, creates a separate detection service process to manage execution of a script file based on the CAD components and receives image files from the dispatcher.

6. The medical intelligent server for computer aided diagnostic of claim 5, wherein the medical image files are based on modality and body part, and a script file is selected for conducting computer aided detection processing based on the type of modality.

7. The medical intelligent server for computer aided detection of claim 5, wherein the image service administrator comprises a service associate that maintains a queue of detection service processes to be executed, and upon submitting a detection service process for execution obtained from the queue, informs the dispatcher of the change of workload status of the image processing server based on the number of detection processes currently in the queue and the number of detection processes being executed.

8. The medical intelligent server for computer aided diagnostic of claim 1, wherein if a plug-in CAD component is upgraded or newly added in an image processing server, the image processing server is re-started and registers the new set of CAD components with the dispatcher.