KR100720665B1 - System and method for refering medical images using medial image history - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a medical image retrieval system using a medical image history. The medical image retrieval system includes a medical image database for storing and managing all medical image information and identification information for each medical image for patients, and a medical image for the corresponding patient from the medical image database according to a medical image request for a specific patient. A medical image retrieval server for retrieving image information and medical image identification information and displaying a search result on a screen, wherein the medical image retrieval server displays medical image information and medical image identification information included within a predetermined period on a screen. . The medical image retrieval server compresses the medical image and stores the medical image in the medical image database, and increases the storage efficiency of the medical image database by recompressing and storing the medical image after a predetermined period. The medical image retrieval server may display medical image identification information and a reduced thumbnail image for medical image information corresponding to a period selected by the user according to a medical image inquiry request of the user.

Medical Image History, PACS, Medical Image Lookup

Description

System and method for refering medical images using medial image history}

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a conventional medical image retrieval system as a whole.

2 is a block diagram showing an overall embodiment of a conventional medical image retrieval system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for searching for an image of a patient in a PACS, which is a conventional medical image retrieval system.

4 is a block diagram schematically showing an internal configuration of a medical image retrieval system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a sequence of operations of an inquiry unit of a medical image inquiry system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

6 and 7 are diagrams exemplarily illustrating screens implemented by an image retrieval unit of a medical image retrieval system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

40: Medical Image Lookup System

400: image capture unit

410: video inquiry unit

420: DB update unit

430 DB backup unit

440: Medical Imaging Database

The present invention relates to a medical image retrieval system, and more particularly to a medical image retrieval system and method using the medical image history (Medical Image History) for each patient.

Recently, with the development of medical imaging technology, the medical environment, and the change of national insurance policy, many medical institutions are rushing to introduce the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). . In addition to these PACSs, hospitals are implementing integrated management of medical information. In the integrated management of such medical information, it is important to share information with the Hospital Information System (HIS), which manages all information related to the patients in the hospital, but in this aspect, the most important thing to consider is the user side. As most of the PACS solutions provided in the past consider excessive aspects of the manager's operation, there are many regrets that the user's convenience is not properly exhibited.

In general, three aspects are considered in the introduction of the PACS system: economic, engineering and clinical aspects. The initial adoption process will focus on assessing the value of investments in management. As a result, the clinical value judgment is not differentiated by the collective judgment that the base of technology is expanded.

Most hospitals except new hospitals suffer from the coexistence of film and digital medical images from the PACS system. Hereinafter, a conventional PACS system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. First, referring to FIG. 1, a design and operation system of medical image storage among PACS is as follows. In general, storage devices are classified into short-term storage devices and long-term storage devices. Short-term storage devices generally use disk arrays, and are configured to maintain the integrity of stored data in the event of physical or mechanical disk failures using a technique called redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID). At this time, the most important configuration requirement of the system is the capacity of the disk array, which is directly related to the installation cost of the system. The initial dose composition of the PACS system includes the rate of outpatient re-visit and inpatient average length of stay and long-term inpatients, the average number of shots taken per test and the number of tests taken by the patient on the day, and the number of inquiries in the past. And so on. Basically, small and medium hospitals keep images before reading and estimate the capacity to store at least 2-3 months. The calculated disk array capacity must be connected on-line and connected to the server by SCSI or Fiber Channel to service the terminal according to the needs of the reading room of the clinical clinic or diagnostic radiology department. Make sure you are always ready by creating optimal conditions to respond quickly and aggressively to your needs.

In this case, two methods are required. In the server-disk array structure that has been commonly used, when many users simultaneously request video information service, the server becomes a bottleneck rather than a disk array and cannot respond quickly. Results. In order to solve this problem, a method for configuring a disk array using a NAS (Network Attached Storage) method which can be accessed by directly interworking on a network has been proposed. 2 is a conventional server area network (SAN) system, which is a system modified to minimize the load of a network that is used in common and to enable smooth service and transmission between a server and a storage device.

The patient inquiry in the PACS having the above-described configuration is mainly performed in the worklist, which inquires the medical image of the patient according to certain laws required by the hospital. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a screen for inquiring an image of a patient in a conventional PACS system by way of example. In the case of a disaster, the patient's past medical images are large, so according to the promised rules, pre-fetching the first and last medical examinations and the day before and after the last examination from the long-term storage device to the short-term storage device ( pre-fetch). Pre-fetched images are managed in short-term storage and display images on the screen as required by the treating physician. Since the medical department frequently makes inquiries about past images, the display speed is also very important. In the related art, since a disk array having fast input / output of images is very expensive, long-term storage devices are separated and operated in different media.

On the other hand, the medical department of the hospital is frequently inquiries of the past image and the display speed is also very important factor. However, the conventional PACS system operating as described above takes a long time to pre-fetch specific images from the long-term storage device to the short-term storage device, which causes a problem that it takes a long time until the image is displayed on the screen. .

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide a medical image retrieval system that can quickly and simply screen the medical image for a particular patient.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a medical image retrieval method for quickly and simply screening medical images of a specific patient.

A feature of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem relates to a medical image retrieval system using a medical image history, the medical image retrieval system

A medical image database for storing and managing all medical image information about the patients and identification information for each medical image;

A medical image inquiry server configured to search for medical image information and medical image identification information of the corresponding patient from the medical image database and display a search result on a screen according to a medical image request for a specific patient;

The medical image inquiry server displays medical image information and medical image identification information included within a predetermined period on a screen.

The medical image retrieval server of the medical image retrieval system having the above-mentioned characteristics compresses the medical image and stores the medical image in a medical image database, and separates the medical image into the short term medical image and the long term medical image, and the short term medical image and the long term medical image. Different compression ratios for the images may be stored in the medical image database.

In addition, the medical image inquiry server displays a selection menu for each period according to a medical image inquiry request of a user, and displays medical image identification information and a reduced thumbnail image for medical image information corresponding to the selected period. It is preferable.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a medical image retrieval method uses a medical image database storing medical images of a patient and identification information of each image.

(a) reading image identification information of medical images of a specific patient from the medical image database;

(b) extracting an initial test date and a recent test date from the image identification information, creating a time table using the extracted first test date and the latest test date, and displaying the time table on the screen;

(c) displaying on the screen image identification information of medical image information for a period selected by a user in the time table;

(d) displaying a medical image on the screen corresponding to the image identification information selected by the user among the image identification information;

Equipped with, to easily search and compare the desired medical images on one screen.

The medical image inquiry method having the above-mentioned characteristics includes (e) checking the storage period of the medical images in the medical image database, and recompressing and storing the medical image when the storage period of the medical image passes a predetermined period. In addition, it is desirable to improve the storage efficiency of the database by increasing the compression rate of the long-term medical image.

Medical image retrieval system according to another aspect of the present invention,

A medical image database for storing and managing medical images of each patient and identification information of each medical image;

An image capture unit which scans analog medical images, converts them into digital information, compresses them, and stores them in the medical image database;

A DB update unit for checking a storage period of the medical images stored in the medical image database and recompressing and storing the corresponding image when the storage period has passed the first predetermined period,

In response to a request from a user, a medical image search unit for retrieving medical images of a specific patient from the medical image database and generating and displaying a medical image history on the screen is provided. Allows you to query or analyze

Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of a medical image retrieval system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail. 4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a medical image retrieval system 40 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, the medical image retrieval system 40 according to the present embodiment includes an image capture unit 400, an image retrieval unit 410, a DB update unit 420, a DB backup unit 430, and a medical image database. 440. Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of each component described above will be described in detail.

The image capturing unit 400 converts the medical image information obtained from the medical examination apparatus into a digital form and compresses the medical image information by a predetermined compression method and stores it in the medical image database 440. In this case, identification information and medical treatment information of the patient of the medical image are also stored.

The medical image database 440 stores and manages medical image information about each patient, identification information about the patient, medical information, and the like.

The DB update unit 420 checks the storage period for the medical images stored in the medical image database 440, and classifies the medical image as a medical image when the storage period for the medical images passes a predetermined period. Recompress and save. As described above, by compressing different compression methods and compression ratios for short-term medical images and long-term medical images and storing them in one medical image database, the medical image database 440 may be efficiently used to increase storage capacity. As a result, more medical images can be stored.

The DB update unit 420 checks the storage period for the medical images stored in the medical image database 440, and the storage period for the medical images passes a statutory storage period, for example, 5 years or more. It can be deleted from the medical image database 440.

The DB backup unit 430 is to back up the information stored in the medical image database, to prepare for an emergency.

The image inquiry unit 410 displays the medical image history of a specific patient on the screen using the medical image database according to a request from a user. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a sequence of operations of the image inquiry unit 410 described above. Hereinafter, the operation of the image inquiry unit 410 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 5, when a patient who wants to search for a medical image is selected or input by a user (step 500), medical image information about the corresponding patient is searched from the medical image database (step 510). The first test date and the latest test date are extracted using the retrieved information (step 520), and a time table is generated for each predetermined management period using the extracted dates (step 530). In this case, the management period may be classified into the last three months, six months, one year, two years, three years, four years, five years, and the like, and may be changed as necessary.

Next, when a management period is selected from the user, the patient care information and the medical image information for the selected management period are retrieved (step 540), and a thumbnail image is generated using the retrieved medical image information (step 550). ), A medical image history is generated using the retrieved patient medical information, medical image information, and the generated small image (step 560), and the medical image history is displayed on the screen (step 570).

6 and 7 are diagrams exemplarily illustrating screens implemented by an image retrieval unit of a medical image retrieval system. Referring to FIG. 6, the image inquiry screen implemented by the image inquiry unit according to the present invention may be viewed in connection with not only the inquiry of the past medical image but also related tests, images of the same date, and other studies of the same site. By displaying a link program or the like, the medical image of the individual patient is managed. As such, the medical image retrieval system according to the present invention can be viewed by viewing the individual inspection cycle at a glance, the relevant inspection contents can be retrieved at the same time, and the general information and treatment information for the inquired patient directly displayed on the monitor By being able to do so, the examination of the patient can be made very easily.

FIG. 7 is an image inquiry screen according to an embodiment of the medical image inquiry system configured to make the most of the legal retention period of five years of an individual's medical image history according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the system according to the present embodiment has seven stages of three months, six months, one year, two years, three years, four years, and five years, based on an examination date of a management period of an individual medical image. Save it as At this time, it is natural that the management period is modified and modified as necessary. The system according to the present embodiment first shows a medical image of the last three months for the patient, and the other period is configured to be selectable by the user. The above three month period is the period for the most frequent re-care and re-examination, and the medical image inquiry during this period makes it possible to determine whether or not the patient has been examined at what interval. In addition, according to the present invention, the doctor of the clinic of the hospital can easily grasp the examination cycle of the patient, and the comparative analysis of the medical contents and the medical image can be easily performed.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, this is merely an example and is not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art do not depart from the essential characteristics of the present invention. It will be appreciated that various modifications and applications which are not illustrated above in the scope are possible. And differences relating to such modifications and applications should be construed as being included in the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims.

Hereinafter, a medical image retrieval method using a medical image retrieval system according to the present invention and a conventional medical image retrieval method are compared and evaluated. The subjects and methods of this comparative evaluation were 12 for two radiologists working in general hospitals and small hospitals, three medical specialists, two orthopedic specialists, three general surgeons, and two radiologists. The medical image retrieval method and the conventional medical image retrieval method according to the present invention were evaluated by using the same condition. The comparative evaluation items are five items: accessibility of medical images, value of clinical usefulness, convenience of outpatient care, convenience of image management, and preference.

First, accessibility of a medical image refers to a degree of time and effort that is saved when a user is inquiring about another image related to the medical image or an image of another time at the moment of viewing a specific medical image. The value of clinical usefulness refers to the extent to which it is helpful to provide more information for medical treatment or reading, and the convenience of outpatient care is the extent to which the images of many patients are continuously viewed and to help the outpatient decision making in a short time. The convenience of image management refers to how efficiently a practitioner, reader, or manager can use this program to manage it, and how short the procedure to go through the program to view the image is. The preference of the image history is to determine whether the integrated management is well performed in the whole program or system as compared with the conventional one.

In addition, the evaluation method of evaluation was evaluated based on three criteria: ① very superior ② identical to ③ conventionally not as a worklist inquiry method.

As the service to the hospital's customers has recently increased, the service to the external customers is also important, but the importance of the internal customers, who are both internal customers and responding to external customers, is increasing. Medical image retrieval system according to the present invention was made for the purpose of providing satisfaction to a doctor, such as an internal customer, and providing excellent medical services to patients, such as an external customer. In fact, to compare the effects of the medical image retrieval system and clinical adaptability according to the present invention, a total of five items were compared with the conventional image retrieval system, and the results are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. In Tables 1 and 2 below, MIH is an abbreviation of Medical Image History and represents an image inquiry system according to the present invention, and OW is an abbreviation of Old Worklist and represents an image inquiry system according to the prior art.

As shown in Table 1 and Table 2, the evaluation of the accessibility of a medical image firstly shows that, while the conventional image retrieval system takes a waiting time for reading an image in a long-term storage place at the time of image retrieval, Image retrieval system according to the invention can be retrieved as well as easy to quickly retrieve the video without waiting time.

Item MIH> OW MIH = OW MIH <OW Medical Image Accessibility 11 One 0 Clinical utility 12 0 0 Convenience in Outpatient Care 10 2 0 Ease of Image Management 9 3 0 Overall preference of MIH 11 One 0

Sub-specialty MIH> OW MIH = OW MIH <OW physician (3) 3 0 0 Orthopedist (3) 2 One 0 General surgeon (2) One One 0 Radiologist (2) 2 0 0 Radiological technologists (2) 2 0 0

Next, in terms of clinical usefulness, the image retrieval system according to the present invention can be easily provided with more information in a short time during medical examination or reading, and it is convenient to grasp the examination result or progress status and examination cycle of other dentists. Has

In addition, in terms of convenience of outpatient treatment, the conventional image retrieval system should explain the medical image to the patient sufficiently in a medical environment dealing with many patients within a short time, but due to the time taken to read the image from the long-term storage location, On the other hand, the image retrieval system according to the present invention has an advantage that can be described by querying the medical image with the patient because the medical image of the patient can be retrieved quickly.

In addition, in view of ease of image management, the image retrieval system according to the present invention has an advantage in that all digital medical images of an individual patient can be integrated and managed on a time basis.

Claims (11)

A single medical image database for storing and managing all medical image information for the patients and identification information for each medical image; According to the medical image request for a specific patient, the medical image inquiry server retrieves the medical image information and the medical image identification information of the patient from the medical image database and displays the search result on the screen. The medical image inquiry server compresses and stores a medical image in a medical image database, but separates the medical image into the short term medical image and the long term medical image, and the compression rate of the short term medical image and the long term medical image is different. Stored in a single medical imaging database, The medical image inquiry server reads the medical image information and the medical image identification information included within a predetermined period from the medical image database and displays the requested patient on the screen. The medical image retrieval server checks the storage period for the medical image stored in the medical image database at regular intervals, and if the first period of the storage period has elapsed, the stored image is stored according to the preset compression ratio. And recompresses and stores the image in the medical image database, and if the second period of the storage period has elapsed, the corresponding stored image is deleted from the medical image database. delete delete delete The medical image retrieval server of claim 1, wherein the medical image retrieval server displays a selection menu for each period according to a user's medical image retrieval request, and medical image identification information and a reduced thumbnail for medical image information corresponding to the selected period. Medical image inquiry system using a medical image history, characterized in that for displaying the image. A medical image retrieval method using a medical image database storing medical images of a patient and identification information of each image, (a) reading image identification information of medical images of a particular patient from the medical image database; (b) extracting an initial test date and a recent test date from the image identification information, and creating and displaying a time table on the screen by using the extracted first test date and the latest test date; (c) displaying image identification information of medical image information for a period selected by a user in the time table on a screen; (d) displaying a medical image on the screen corresponding to the image identification information selected by the user among the image identification information; And (e) Checking the storage period for the medical images of the medical image database at a predetermined period, and if the storage period of the medical image has passed the first predetermined period, recompresses it according to the predetermined first compression ratio. Storing the medical image in the medical image database, and deleting the medical image from the medical image database if the storage period of the medical image has passed the second predetermined period. And improving the storage efficiency of the database by increasing the compression rate of the long-term medical image, and quickly and easily searching and comparing the desired medical images on a single screen. delete delete delete delete delete

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