Imaging discovery utility for augmenting clinical image management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12347550-B2
Application number	US-202318480392-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2023
Priority date	Sep 8, 2020
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing an imaging discovery utility for augmenting clinical image management. In some embodiments, in response to receiving a request for a first medical image file(s) from a requesting device, a non-relational (“NoSQL”) data management system (“DMS”) may access a NoSQL database containing, inter alia, a plurality of medical image files that are mirrored copies of a plurality of medical image files stored in a relational (“SQL”) database, the medical image files each being organized in an image-centric hierarchy with image data being at a top level and patient information associated with the image data being at a lower level. Based on a successful search of the NoSQL database based on search terms in the request, the NoSQL DMS may identify a corresponding second medical image(s) in the SQL database, and may retrieve and send (to the requesting device) the identified second medical image(s).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining that contents of one of a non-relational (“NoSQL”) database, via a NoSQL data management system (“DMS”), or a relational (“SQL”) database, via a SQL DMS, have changed;
autonomously mirroring the changed contents in the other of the NoSQL database or the SQL database, via the respective DMS, based on the determination, the NoSQL database containing a plurality of medical image files, a plurality of metadata tags associated with each medical image file, and a plurality of artifact files associated with two or more of the plurality of medical image files, the NoSQL database containing mirrored copies of the plurality of medical image files that are stored in the SQL database, wherein the plurality of medical image files contained in the NoSQL database and in the SQL database are each organized in an image-centric hierarchy with image data being at a top level of the image-centric hierarchy and patient information associated with the image data being at a level below the top level of the image-centric hierarchy;
receiving, with the NoSQL DMS and from a requesting device, a request for the plurality of medical image files, the request comprising one or more search terms;
based on a determination that at least one metadata tag associated with the plurality of medical image files contains keywords that correspond to or match at least one search term among the one or more search terms:
identifying, with the NoSQL DMS, corresponding medical image files of the plurality of medical image files as stored in the SQL database;
retrieving, with at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS and from the SQL database, the plurality of medical image files; and
sending, with the at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS, the retrieved plurality of medical image files to the requesting device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, with the NoSQL DMS and from the requesting device, a request for at least one first medical image file, the request comprising one or more search terms;
accessing, with the NoSQL DMS, the NoSQL database that is managed by the NoSQL DMS; and
performing, with the NoSQL DMS, a search of the NoSQL database, by searching for each of the one or more search terms in the plurality of metadata tags associated with each medical image file among the plurality of medical image files in the NoSQL database.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
wherein identifying further includes identifying, with the NoSQL DMS, corresponding one or more second medical image files as stored in the SQL database, wherein the search of the NoSQL database serves as an index search of the SQL database;
wherein retrieving further includes retrieving, with at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS and from the SQL database, the one or more second medical image files; and
wherein sending further includes sending, with the at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS, the retrieved one or more second medical image files to the requesting device.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the requesting device comprises at least one of a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, or a web client.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving, with a computing system and from the requesting device, the request for the at least one first medical image file; and
querying, with the computing system, the NoSQL DMS for the requested at least one first medical image file, by relaying the request to the NoSQL DMS.

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
generating, with a model generation system, one or more three-dimensional (“3D”) models based on at least one thirteenth medical image file among the retrieved one or more second medical image files.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of metadata tags comprises flexible image tagging that is customizable to include one or more first medical image metadata and one or more second medical image metadata.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more first medical image metadata comprise one or more digital imaging and communications in medicine (“DICOM”)-compliant metadata.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, with the NoSQL DMS and from a requesting device, a request to modify a metadata tag associated with a medical image file that is stored and mirrored in each of the NoSQL database and the SQL database; and
presenting, via one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS, a user interface (“UI”) with options for dynamically modifying metadata tags associated with the medical image file.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the options to dynamically modify metadata tags includes at least one selected from the group consisting of dynamically adding group specific metadata tags to metadata fields of the medical image file, dynamically modifying group specific metadata tags in metadata fields of the medical image file, dynamically deleting group specific metadata tags in metadata fields of the medical image file, dynamically defining new group specific metadata fields of the medical image file, dynamically modifying group specific metadata fields of the medical image file, dynamically deleting group specific metadata fields of the medical image file, and dynamically linking a metadata field with one or more artifact files.

11. A method, comprising:
accessing, with a non-relational (“NoSQL”) data management system (“DMS”), a NoSQL database that is managed by the NoSQL DMS, the NoSQL database containing a plurality of medical image files, a plurality of metadata tags associated with each medical image file, and a plurality of artifact files associated with two or more of the plurality of medical image files, the NoSQL database containing mirrored copies of the plurality of medical image files that are stored in a relational (“SQL”) database that is managed by a SQL DMS;
performing, with the NoSQL DMS, a search of the NoSQL database, by searching for each of one or more search terms in the plurality of metadata tags associated with each medical image file among the plurality of medical image files in the NoSQL database; and
based on a determination that at least one metadata tag associated with one or more second medical image files among the plurality of medical image files contains keywords that correspond to or match at least one search term among the one or more search terms:
identifying, with the NoSQL DMS, corresponding one or more second medical image files as stored in the SQL database, wherein the search of the NoSQL database serves as an index search of the SQL database;
retrieving, with at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS and from the SQL database, the one or more second medical image files; and
sending, with the at least one of the NoSQL DMS or the SQL DMS, the retrieved one or more second medical image files to a requesting device.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
receiving, with a computing system and from a requesting device, a request for at least one first medical image file; and
querying, with the computing system, the NoSQL DMS for the requested at least one first medical image file, by relaying the request to the NoSQL DMS.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
presenting, with the computing system, a user interface (“UI”) via the requesting device;
wherein the request is received via the UI; and
wherein sending the retrieved one or more second medical image files to the requesting device includes displaying the retrieved one or more second medical image files in the UI.

14

Assignees

• Medtronic Inc

Inventors

• Palmer Mark
• Parman Kalvin
• Lahm Ryan P
• Samec Megan
• Varahoor Srinivasan S
• Nair Priya
• Spencer Julianne
• Baxter Walton W
• Myers Callie Cronin

Classifications

• G06F16/221

  Column-oriented storage; Management thereof · CPC title

• G16H30/40

  for processing medical images, e.g. editing · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G16H50/70

  for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients · CPC title

• G16H30/20 Primary

  for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS · CPC title