System and method for creating and rendering DICOM structured clinical reporting via the internet

1. A method for implementing a structured clinical reporting system over the Internet, the structured clinical report having a DICOM Structured Reporting format, and the Internet adapted to work in conjunction with hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) for connecting a server and multiple workstations via the Internet, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) providing communication between a workstation and the server via the Internet;

(b) providing a reporting engine in operative communication with the workstation, an image viewer-editor, and the server;

(c) using the workstation to create the structured clinical report, sign the structured clinical report, render the structured clinical report, transmit the structured clinical report to and from the server, or combinations thereof;

(d) using a conversion engine to perform data recognition on input files to produce the structured clinical report using a plurality of software plug-ins that identify a plurality of data comprising: modality; vendor; DICOM tags; DICOM structured report data comprising partial, incomplete, or non-standard reports; DICOM data; images; or combinations thereof, wherein performing the data recognition comprises:

determining whether the plurality of software plug-ins include at least one plug-in usable to perform value object extraction on one or more files;

receiving input files which contain measurement data, report pages, images, DICOM Structured Report data, DICOM data, or combinations thereof;

using said at least one plug-in to extract a data structure from the input files;

extracting portions segments of preselected images, or DICOM data from the input files which contain information to be extracted and converted;

performing value object extraction on the segments portions to form value objects; and

determining a structured report template to be created and converting the value objects and the data structure to a standard DICOM Structured Report format;

providing a reporting engine in communication with the conversion engine, wherein the reporting engine comprises a report transformer having a plurality of transformations;

searching the plurality of transformations to determine at least one transformation usable to produce a structured report from the standard DICOM Structured Report format;

permitting selection of said at least one transformation by a user, thereby defining a requested report type; and

creating the requested report type from said at least one transformation, forming a report with autopopulated values;

(e) providing a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) server, in communication with a database server, a viewer, and the workstation and transmitting the value objects to the PACS server;

(f) providing communication between the PACS server and an imaging modality using a DICOM interface, such that the PACS server is in operative communication with imaging modalities via a DICOM protocol and is in operative communication with the database, whereby the workstation and the conversion engine are in operative communication with the PACS server via the Internet using the HTTP protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image viewer-editor is a DICOM viewer having rich client characteristics.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the workstation provides the automatic downloading, installing and running of the rich-client viewer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image viewer-editor is a rich client capable of being installed remotely.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image viewer-editor is a DICOM viewer automatically downloaded and installed.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conversion engine is implemented in WWW-based, thin-client technology.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conversion engine comprises a study list comprising a graphical user interface for displaying patient exams, studies and information listed by category including chronological order, patient name, study creation date, accession number, study status with preliminary report completed, study status with final report completed, study status without any report and combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein access to the database is from a remote workstation to the PACS server such that database traffic between the remote workstation and the database server is tunneled over secure HTTP protocol.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a DICOM object is downloaded from the PACS server to the interface viewer using WADO protocol.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising Web Services for providing communication between the PACS server and a client-side, rich-client viewer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the workstation is a computer.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the workstation comprises a central processor unit and a random access memory.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the picture archive communication systems (PACS) comprises a central data storage device.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the clinical reports are stored and transmitted using a DICOM Structured Report format.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of performing value object extraction on the segments to form value objects further comprises implementing algorithms to perform value object extraction on the segments to form value objects for extracting data from bitmap images, reporting pages, DICOM data, or a combination thereof further comprises performing optical character recognition.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conversion engine is implemented as a standalone DICOM entity.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conversion engine is implemented as part of a server.