Framework for modeling collections and their management

1. A method comprising:

specifying search criteria for a plurality of datastores;

retrieving, from the plurality of datastores, location information for each medical document of a plurality of medical documents, wherein the location information for each medical document comprises a uniform resource locator (URL), a unique record identifier, a file path, or a search string applicable to one of the plurality of datastores;

aggregating the location information for the plurality of medical documents into a virtual collection stored at a virtual collection server, the virtual collection relating to a patient, a study, or an exam and the location information being applicable to access each of the plurality of medical documents from the plurality of datastores;

indexing the virtual collection by metadata of the virtual collection;

storing the indexed virtual collection at a collection index;

accessing an annotation template, the annotation template identifying at least one annotation type for the virtual collection; and

providing the virtual collection to a user for annotation based on the annotation template.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of medical documents comprises an image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of medical documents comprises a textual document.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search criteria specify a complete medical document study.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search criteria specify medical documents from multiple medical document studies.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the directory structure reflects the hierarchy of the virtual collection.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata of the virtual collection includes name, label, source, comments, or size.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving an annotation from the user;

routing the annotation to one of the plurality of datastores.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

presenting the annotation to a peer for review.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

providing the virtual collection in response to the search query.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a second virtual collection from the virtual collection.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of datastores comprises a file system, a Vendor Neutral Architecture (VNA), or a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual collection is represented by a node in a directory structure.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is a web interface.

15. A system comprising:

a computing node comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor of the computing node to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

specifying search criteria for a plurality of datastores;

retrieving from the plurality of datastores location information for each medical document of a plurality of medical documents, wherein the location information for each medical document comprises a uniform resource locator (URL), a unique record identifier, a file path, or a search string applicable to one of the plurality of datastores;

aggregating the location information for the plurality of medical documents into a virtual collection stored at a virtual collection server, the virtual collection relating to a patient, a study, or an exam and the location information being applicable to access each of the plurality of medical documents from the plurality of datastores;

indexing the virtual collection by metadata of the virtual collection;

storing the indexed virtual collection at a collection index;

accessing an annotation template, the annotation template identifying at least one annotation type for the virtual collection; and

providing the virtual collection to a user for annotation based on the annotation template.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the medical documents is an image.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the annotation is presented to a peer for review.

18. A computer program product for medical document collection management, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

specifying search criteria for a plurality of datastores;

retrieving from the plurality of datastores location information for each medical documents of a plurality of medical documents, wherein the location information for each medical document comprises a uniform resource locator (URL), a unique record identifier, a file path, or a search string applicable to one of the plurality of datastores;

aggregating the location information for the plurality of medical documents into a virtual collection stored at a virtual collection server, the virtual collection relating to a patient, a study, or an exam and the location information being applicable to access each of the plurality of medical documents from the plurality of datastores;

indexing the virtual collection by metadata of the virtual collection;

storing the indexed virtual collection at a collection index;

accessing an annotation template, the annotation template identifying at least one annotation type for the virtual collection; and

providing the virtual collection to a user for annotation based on the annotation template.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the medical documents is an image.