Patent ID: 8422377

Claim:
A method for operationally servicing medical diagnostic systems comprising: detecting an indicator of a serviceable condition in a serviced medical diagnostic system; automatically storing in the serviced medical diagnostic system snapshot data representative of a system configuration of the serviced medical diagnostic system upon detection of the indicator, wherein the system configuration comprises hardware configuration data and software configuration data for the serviced medical diagnostic system; automatically generating a request for service of the serviceable condition in the serviced medical diagnostic system; transmitting the service request and the snapshot data to a service provider; accessing a knowledge base including system data defining operational performance parameters of a plurality of serviced medical diagnostic systems, service data defining known serviceable conditions for the serviced medical diagnostic systems and potential indicators of the condition based upon the performance parameters, and response data defining a plurality of responses to the serviceable conditions; analyzing the snapshot data, wherein analyzing the snapshot data includes identifying associations between the snapshot data and the system data, service data, and response data accessed from the knowledge base; prioritizing a plurality of possible responses to the service request based upon the snapshot data and the response data, wherein the prioritization is adjusted based upon service contract data of the service data; and automatically generating a response to the service request based upon the prioritization of possible responses, wherein the response includes an indication of the priority of the response.