Abstract:
Systems and methods according to the present invention address this need and others by providing images to a remote user through the use of instant messaging techniques.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     The ability to review data-intensive images is a useful tool, e.g., in the medical profession. Many of the issues involving patient health can only be seen or verified by some of the imaging techniques that exist today and cannot be reliably diagnosed by an external exam alone. For example, if a patient&#39;s symptoms led a physician to believe that the patient had a cracked rib an x-ray of the area could be used to verify the physician&#39;s belief. Often, for many types of medical images, a patient would go to a location remote from the physician&#39;s office and have an image taken. 
     As technology develops, improvements to communication systems and computers have created the ability to transfer large amounts of data relatively quickly over large distances. At the same time, the types of medical images and the amount of data these images contain has continued to grow. Some of the types of medical images currently used by physicians for patient diagnostics include: x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), electrocardiogram (ECG), ultrasonography, nuclear medicine and digitized radiography. A standard format for medical images is the Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format. This format allows a common image format to be used among a multitude of different imaging equipment. 
     With the advances in medical science, more options for medical imagery now exist that a physician can use to assist in patient diagnostics. Sometimes people are sent to multiple locations in order to have different types of images taken. The image would be taken, processed at the location, and then a report would be generated. The report would get back to the physician days later through one or more of a number of different channels such as: the patient returning to the imaging location(s) to pick-up and deliver the image film(s) and report(s) to their physician or the imaging location specialist mailing the report and/or film(s) to the physician. These methods are slow and inefficient. 
     Teleradiology (which term refers generally to the transmission of digitized medical images) improved upon these purely manual delivery methods in part, by allowing many types of image taking devices to send their images to a central processing station. For example, as shown in  FIG. 1 , a patient is referred by a physician to imaging center  102 . Depending upon the imaging requested, the patient could get an x-ray taken in x-ray imaging room  104 , a magnetic resonance image (MRI) taken in MRI room  106  and an ultrasound in ultrasound room  108 . These medical images are then forwarded electronically to the film processing lab  110  for processing. Upon completion of this process, the image films and any associated information either needs to be picked up and hand carried or mailed to a physician&#39;s office  112 . Thus teleradiology techniques initially allowed a patient to get all of the imaging needed performed in one location, as well as getting the reports generated at one location, but did not improve the steps involved with image report delivery to the patient&#39;s physician. 
     A next logical step in the usage of medical images is to allow remote access to images and their associated reports for physicians and/or patients. Some of the advantages associated with such an improvement would be a faster turn around time on diagnosing patient problems and cost reductions. Some challenges associated with this step of allowing remote access are privacy/security concerns, format of the medical image, quality of the image, notification and ensuring that the remote station had the correct capabilities to view the image(s). 
     In conjunction with remote medical image viewing, notification to the physician and/or patient that report delivery occurred is also desirable. One method of notification has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,698 B2 filed on Dec. 20, 2000, entitled “Medical Image Management System” and which is hereafter referred to as the “698 application”. In the 698 application, upon completion of the computations related to the image, an email notification is sent to the person submitting the request or via a text message to a physician&#39;s pager. However, some limitations still exist when using the systems or methods described in this patent. For example, if the physician was not close to his computer he could not view the images immediately. Moreover, there is limited to no ability to interact with the sender of the notification to query the status of other requests. Additionally, the difficulties associated with remotely viewing medical images also arise in other fields, e.g., geology, astronomy, and aerial imaging in which data-intensive images are recorded and analyzed. 
     Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient systems and methods for both viewing data-intensive images at remote locations and supplying notification of the readiness of such images for viewing to the relevant individuals. 
     SUMMARY 
     Systems and methods according to exemplary embodiments address this need and others by providing techniques for processing medical images and their associated notifications. 
     According to one exemplary embodiment, a device for processing images comprising: a server for receiving a notification indicating that an image is available for transmission to the device from a remote location, transmitting a request for the image, and receiving the image; and a display for displaying the image and the notification. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a method for processing an image comprising the steps of: receiving a notification which indicates that an image is available for transmission from a remote location; transmitting a request for the image; and receiving the image for display. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed on a computer, perform the steps of: receiving a notification which indicates that an image is available for transmission from a remote location; transmitting a request for the image; and receiving the image for display. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a system for processing medical images comprising: a first server in communication with a database, wherein the database contains medical images, a second server in communication with the first server, wherein the second server contains protocols for transmitting the medical images and the second server contains protocols for sending notifications, and an electronic device in communication with the second server, the electronic device comprising: a processor, wherein the processor receives and processes the images and the notifications, and a display for displaying the images and the notifications. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  depicts the conventional method for processing medical images to be received by a physician; 
         FIG. 2  depicts a system for processing and transmitting images according to an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a method to distinguish between processed and unprocessed images according to an exemplary embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  shows a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting images according to an exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings identify the same or similar elements. Also, the following detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims. 
     In order to provide some context for this description, an exemplary environment in which exemplary embodiments can be employed will now be described with respect to  FIG. 2 . The description that follows focuses on medical images for ease of illustration. It should be appreciated, however, that the invention is also applicable to other types of data-intensive images, e.g., geological images, astronomical images, satellite images, etc. Using medical images as an example, in one embodiment a patient can have a variety of medical images taken in different locations or labs, referred to herein as “rooms”, such as, x-rays in x-ray room  202 , MRIs in MRI room  204  and ultrasounds in ultrasound room  206 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is equally applicable to other types of medical images, e.g., computed tomography, electrocardiogram, nuclear medicine images, digitized radiography, etc., and that the examples depicted in  FIG. 2  are shown for illustrative purposes. The images taken in these rooms may be transmitted to a central location such as, film processing lab  208 , for processing. When the images are received in film processing lab  208 , pertinent information such as patient name, physician name and/or type of image are entered into the system and transmitted to database  210 . This allows the server  212  to create a list or database of images indexed based on patients and/or physician of images that are being processed. Alternatively, other identification methods could be used. The images can be processed into physical films for pickup or distribution, or processed into a transmittable and viewable electronic format, such as DICOM and/or joint photographics expert group (JPEG). Additionally, a local technician may write up a report with his or her evaluation of the images. Like the images themselves, these reports can also be rendered in electronic form for transmission and subsequent viewage by, e.g., a physician and/or patient, as described below. 
     As an alternative to the transmission of images to the film processing lab, images may be digitally recorded and processed in each of the rooms  202 - 206 . In yet another embodiment, different kinds of images may be recorded and stored in one or more digital imaging/processing device(s)  207 . In either scenario, the digitally recorded images may be processed and the report generated in the device  207  and delivered directly to the database  210 . 
     Upon completion of the image processing and the report write up, the processed images and report are relocated to a database  210 . According to an exemplary embodiment, the DICOM images are stored in a photosharing section of database  210 , while the JPEG images are stored in a filesharing section of database. Upon sending the images from the film processing lab  208  to the database  210 , a notification signal is sent to server  212  by database  210 . The server  212  then processes the notification message, matches it to information stored in database  210  and retrieves contact information for the relevant physician(s) (and/or patient). Notification of a viewable image is then sent from server  212  through a network, such as the Internet  214 , to another server  216  and a notification device  218  (multiple notification devices (not shown) could be used based on user preferences). While the Internet  214  is shown as an example of a network useful for notifications, it should be appreciated that any other suitable network may be used. 
     Upon receipt of the notification, the user has the ability to view the image on the notification device  218  or upon display  220 . In some cases, notification device  218  might only be capable of viewing the image a particular format, such as the JPEG format, so the user has the option of using display  220  (e.g., part of a personal computer in the physician&#39;s office or hospital) which is in communication with server  216  to view the higher quality image (DICOM image in this example) if desired. Additionally, there may be two-way communications between server  212  and both notification device  218  and server  216 , which allow the user to query server  212  to determine the status of images to be viewed as will be described in more detail below. 
     Notification devices according to exemplary embodiments can be any electronic device capable of both receiving notification messages from a server and then being able to also view the referenced image in at least one of the image formats in which the medical image is stored in database  210 . For example a notification device could be a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone capable of receiving and displaying digital images, such as JPEG images, or any other electronic device capable of receiving and displaying the desired images. According to one exemplary embodiment, the notification message allows the user to see which image is currently ready for viewing as well as other images in the queue. For example, if a physician had two patients that had undergone both x-rays and MRIs, the physician could use her or his notification device to determine the status of the images. Then, the images ready for viewing could be listed on a display of the notification device  218  in a manner which is visually distinguishable from those images that were still being processed as shown in  FIG. 3 . In  FIG. 3 , images ready for viewing are displayed in capital letters  302 , and images still being processed are displayed in lower case letters  304 . 
     Additional or alternative visual techniques could be used to differentiate viewable images from images that are still being processed, such as black lettering for viewable images and grayed out lettering for images that are still being processed. The manner in which the notification device  218  is updated can vary as well. For example, according to one exemplary embodiment, the server  212  can “push” status updates to the notification device  218  as new images become available for viewing. Alternatively, the notification device  218  can query the server  212  when the user actuates an update command. Similarly, instead of a three-step process, i.e., notification, request, image delivery, the notification message could contain the medical image and/or report itself so that the physician could immediately view the image without first requesting it from server  212 . 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a method for processing an image is illustrated in the flowchart of  FIG. 4 . Again, for illustrative purposes, the images described with reference to  FIG. 4  are medical images. The first activity is storing a medical image in a database at step  402 . The medical image can be one of image types listed above or any medical image that would benefit from these techniques. Next, a notification is sent to a user&#39;s device in step  404 . This notification could be as described above or come in alternate forms, such as sound or voice. This is followed by transmitting a request from the user&#39;s device in step  406 . This request may be, for example, a request for the processed image to be sent to the user&#39;s device. For those embodiments in which the image(s) are attached to the notification, the request could also be a status update on other images. Additionally, the user could direct the image to be sent to a different device than is currently being used. Next, the medical image is sent to the user&#39;s device in step  408 . Lastly the medical image is output for display on the user&#39;s device in step  410 . 
     According to one exemplary embodiment, notification messages are sent out through instant messaging. Referring back to  FIG. 2 , the notification messages may be sent from server  212 . Server  212  may be a type of server that supports instant messaging to notification device  218  and/or server  216 . For example, server  212  could be a Jabber server that uses a messaging and presence protocol, such as the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), which supports instant messaging. Additionally, a publish and subscribe (pub/sub) system that utilizes persistent or future searching could be combined with the instant messaging setup to send out notification messages when images are ready for transmittal to a user. Another issue of concern during the transmission of images is security. According to an exemplary embodiment, the images are kept in a secure database, accessed by only authorized personnel and transmitted in a secure fashion. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, images can be displayed and manipulated on an electronic device that is also used as the notification device  218 . For example, after a notification message has been received by a notification device  218  (in this example, a cell phone), the user sends back the request to server  212  to have the image sent to her or his cell phone. The cell phone receives the image and the user, e.g., the physician, decides to manipulate the image, e.g., to see features of the medical image which are significant to diagnose the patient. Exemplary image manipulation options may be to use various buttons to perform functions such as zooming, panning or rotating the image in order to better view the area of interest to assist in quick and timely patient diagnosis. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment, the server  212  knows the capabilities of the notification device  218 , e.g., by retrieving pre-stored capabilities data from the database  210  indexed, e.g., by physician. Alternatively, for those embodiments where a request message is explicitly transmitted by the user of the notification device  218 , the request message can include device capabilities information therein. In either event, the server  212  knows what format notification device  218  is capable of receiving images in, e.g., both DICOM and JPEG images or just JPEG images, and transmits the requested image(s) in those format(s) which the requesting device is capable of handling. 
     The above-described exemplary embodiments are intended to be illustrative in all respects, rather than restrictive, of the present invention. Thus the present invention is capable of many variations in detailed implementation that can be derived from the description contained herein by a person skilled in the art. All such variations and modifications are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the following claims. No element, act, or instruction used in the description of the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items.