PACS optimization techniques

1. A method for transferring medical images through an image optimization module from a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) to one or more different display devices, the method comprising:

receiving a medical image in a first platform dependent format of the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) that is accessible by a first format compliant device, the first format compliant device comprising platform dependent resources for decoding said first format;

receiving a request for the medical image for viewing on a second format compliant device having one or more image display settings;

searching, in response to the request, a file store in the image optimization module for a header associated with the medical image in the second format;

if a header for the medical image in the second format is found in the file store:

retrieving the medical image in the second format from a database in the image optimization module; and

passing the medical image in the second format to the second format compliant device;

if a header for the medical image in the second format is not found in the file store:

transforming the medical image on the image optimization module from the first format to the second format based on the one or more image display settings of the second format compliant device;

generating a header associated with the medical image in the second format;

passing the medical image in the second format to the second format compliant device for viewing;

storing, in the database in the image optimization module, the medical image in the second format; and

storing the generated header in the file store.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of transforming comprises down sampling the medical image based on image display settings of the second format compliant device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of, if a header for the medical image in the second format is not found in the file store, compressing the medical image in the second format before passing it to the second format compliant device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of, if a header for the medical image in the second format is not found in the file store, first retrieving the medical image in the first format from the PACS.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving a medical image in a first platform dependent format comprises receiving a plurality of medical images in the first platform dependent format; and the method further comprising:

identifying a plurality of known image settings corresponding a plurality of devices that display medical images;

transforming each of the plurality of received medical images from the first format to a plurality of transformed medical images having formats corresponding to the plurality of known image settings;

generating a header for each transformed medical image;

storing each transformed medical image in the database of the image optimization module; and

storing each generated header in the file store.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein passing the transformed medical image comprises passing image data associated with the transformed medical image and the generated header to the second format compliant device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second format compliant device does not include the platform dependent resources for decoding the first format.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second format compliant device comprises a standard browser for viewing the transformed image that is passed to the device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second format compliant device comprises a standard image viewing application for viewing the transformed image that is passed to the device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first format is the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second format is the Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of passing the transformed medical image comprises passing less data than passing the medical image in the first format.

13. A system for transferring medical images from a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) to one or more different display devices, comprising:

an image store containing a plurality of digital medical images in a first format; and

an image optimization device communicatively coupled to the image store, comprising:

a file store;

one or more databases

one or more processors; and

software stored in the device for execution by the one or more processors for:

receiving a request for one of the plurality of digital medical images for viewing on a second format compliant device having one or more image display settings;

searching, in response to the request, the file store for a header associated with the requested medical image in the second format;

retrieving the requested medical image in the second format from the one or more databases if a header for the requested medical image in the second format is found in the file store;

retrieving the requested medical image from the image store if a header for the requested medical image in the second format is not found in the file store;

transforming the requested medical image from the first format to the second format based on the one or more image display settings of the second format compliant device;

generating a header associated with the requested medical image in the second format;

storing the requested medical image in the second format in the one or more databases;

storing the generated header associated with the requested medical image in the second format in the file store; and

passing the requested medical image in the second format to the second format compliant device for viewing.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first format is platform dependent.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the platform dependent first format is the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the second format is platform independent.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the platform independent second format is Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

18. The system of claim 13 , further comprising software stored in the device for execution by the one or more processors for:

identifying a plurality of known image settings corresponding a plurality of devices that display medical images;

transforming each of the plurality of digital medical images from the first format to a plurality of transformed medical images having formats corresponding to the plurality of known image settings;

generating a header for each transformed medical image;

storing each transformed medical image in the one or more databases of the image optimization module; and

storing each generated header in the file store.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more image display settings of the second format compliant device include a display resolution and the software transforms the requested medical image by down-sampling a resolution of the requested medical image to the display resolution of the second format compliant.

20. The system of claim 19 , further comprising software stored in the device for execution by the one or more processors for compressing the requested medical image in the second format before passing it to the second format compliant device.

21. The system of claim 13 further comprising a server communicatively coupled to the the image store and the image optimization device, said server adapted to pass new images received from one or more image acquisition devices to the image store for storage.