Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-07
2004-11-23
Smith, Ruth S. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
C600S425000, C382S283000, C345S626000, C128S920000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06823203
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present disclosure relates to diagnostic image analysis. More particularly, systems and methods for diagnostic image management are disclosed.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The human body is composed of tissues that are generally opaque. In the past, exploratory surgery was one common way to look inside the body. Today, doctors can use a vast array of imaging methods to obtain information about a patient. Some non-invasive imaging techniques include modalities such as X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer-aided tomography (CAT), ultrasound, and so on. Each of these techniques has advantages that make it useful for observing certain medical conditions and parts of the body. The use of a specific test, or a combination of tests, depends upon the patient's symptoms and the disease being diagnosed.
Generally, a trained technician performs a number of tasks to record information required to diagnose one or more medical conditions using a diagnostic imaging system. The technician collects and may even edit portions of the recorded information to identify reference points in the anatomy. Regardless of the underlying image acquisition modality, the images may be recorded on videotape, fixed disk drives, or other data storage devices for later analysis by a physician.
For example, images acquired and recorded during an ultrasound exam may be exported to a networked storage device and saved for later evaluation. Because current image acquisition devices do not have the ability to remove patient information from the images prior to export, the possibility of a patient confidentiality breach exists each time diagnostic images are transferred across a network and/or stored in a network accessible data storage device.
To avoid a breach of confidentiality, patient information must be removed from the exported diagnostic images before these images can be used in presentations, training programs, and other such public demonstrations. Image manipulation after export is both error prone and labor intensive. In the case of long duration and/or high frame rate image loops, it may be necessary to remove patient information from each individual frame of the loop. Additionally, hard copy representations of diagnostic images must be partially defaced to protect sensitive patient information that appears on the hard copy media.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
From the above, it will be appreciated that it is desirable to provide a system and method for selectively removing patient information from diagnostic images to protect patient confidentiality. It will be further appreciated that it is desirable to have a system and method that removes only patient specific identifiers from diagnostic images to enable the exported and recorded images to be used for educational purposes and/or public presentations. It will also be appreciated that a system and method capable of selectively removing patient information from diagnostic images prior to export from an image acquisition device will greatly reduce the chance that patient confidentiality could be compromised. In addition, removal of patient specific information can be accomplished more efficiently within an image management software application or within the image acquisition device than could be done after image export altogether.
Briefly described, in architecture, an image enhancer capable of removing or masking sensitive data can be implemented with a user interface, an input device, and an image editor. Using the image editor, a user may apply one or more masks to obscure sensitive data from both still images and image loops. In addition, the image enhancer can be configured to mask sensitive data in multiple image display formats.
A method for removing sensitive data from one or more images generally includes acquiring one or more diagnostic images, identifying sensitive information, modifying the appropriate images, and exporting the modified images to a data storage device.
Other features and advantages of the system and method for removing sensitive data will become apparent to one skilled in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages included herein are protected by the accompanying claims.
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