Systems and methods for matching, naming, and displaying medical images
A method of matching medical images according to user-defined matches rules. In one embodiment, the matched medical images are displayed according user-defined display rules such that the matched medical images may be visually compared in manner that is suitable to the viewer's viewing preferences.
1. A computing system comprising:
one or more hardware computer processors;
one or more software modules configured for execution by the one or more hardware computer processors to cause the computing system to:
receive a first imaging series including images of a first modality from a first imaging center;
receive a second imaging series including images of the first modality from a second imaging center;
receive at least one user-defined naming rule for images of the first modality based on DICOM attributes of each of the images of the first modality; and
replace existing names of respective images of the first and second imaging series, or append to existing names of the images of the first and second image series, with updated names according to the at least one user-defined naming rule, wherein the updated names are based on one or more DICOM attributes of respective images.
2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more software modules are further configured for execution by the one or more hardware computer processors to cause the computing system to find matching related images using the updated names.
3. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more software modules are configured to find the matching related images using the updated names via one or more matching rules.
4. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more matching rules are defined for at least one selected from a group consisting of a particular user, a particular machine, or a group or class of users.
5. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more matching rules find the matching related images by matching images based on at least one selected from a group consisting of modality, exam type, archive status, assigned physician, exam age, patient page, and an item in a DICOM header file.
6. The computing system of claim 5 , wherein the item in the DICOM header file includes at least one selected from a group consisting of orientation, contrast use, thickness of slices, field of view, and tissue contrast weighting.
7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the one or more software modules are configured for execution by the one or more hardware computer processors to cause the computing system to analyze a pulse sequence and at least one imaging parameter of an image to determine the tissue contrast weighting and subcategorize the image into weighting categories or weighting names.
8. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more matching rules match images in the same or different medical series.
9. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more matching rules match images such that like views amongst each of a plurality of different series are grouped together for subsequent viewing.
10. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more matching rules are defined using one or more search expressions.
11. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more software modules are further configured for execution by the one or more hardware computer processors to cause the computing system to name the matching related images collecting or individually using the at least one user-defined naming rule.
12. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more software modules are further configured for execution by the one or more hardware computer processors to cause the computing system to display the matching related images based on one or more display rules.
13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more display rules are user-defined.
14. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more display rules define at least one selected from a group consisting of timing, positioning, and size of the matching related images.
15. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more display rules include rules for selecting a subset of the matching related images to display.
16. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more display rules includes rules for interleaving images from different image series.
17. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more display rules include one or more triggers for warnings when a display rule is not satisfied.
18. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more DICOM attributes include at least one selected from a group consisting of patient name, an exam type, and a date of an image.
19. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the common naming format includes a categorization table that defines a particular name when one or more certain conditions are met.
20. The computing system of claim 19 , wherein the particular name is predetermined or based on data associated with an image.