Patent ID: 8140350

Claim:
A system for integrating electronic patient information with an electronic medical image file, the system comprising: at least one computer processor operatively coupled to non-transitory processor readable media; at least one database accessible to the at least one computer processor, wherein the at least one database stores at least: electronic Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (“DICOM”) tag information that includes data representing a plurality of patients; and medical images representing medical examinations respectively associated with the electronic DICOM tag information; and a communication device that is operatively connected to the at least one computer processor and that transmits and receives electronic information over a communication network, wherein the non-transitory processor readable media further stores instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one computer processor to: receive, via the communication device and over the communication network, a first electronic DICOM file that comprises at least one DICOM tag and at least one image, wherein the first electronic DICOM file represents a medical study for a patient, and further wherein the at least one DICOM tag is in conformance with DICOM as existing on Feb. 22, 2005; copy the at least one DICOM tag from the first electronic DICOM file; store, in the at least one database, the at least one DICOM tag copied from the first electronic DICOM file; generate, from the at least one DICOM tag copied from the electronic DICOM file, a barcode that represents one or more of the at least one DICOM tag copied from the first electronic DICOM file; transmit, via the communication device and over the communication network, the barcode to at least one computing device; receive, via the communication device and over the communication network from the at least one computing device, electronic patient information that includes the barcode, and further includes at least some information representing the patient that was not included in the first electronic DICOM file, and further wherein the electronic patient information is formatted as an image file; read, from the barcode received from the at least one computing device, the one or more of the at least one DICOM tag copied from the first electronic DICOM file; generate a second electronic DICOM file that includes a combination of at least the DICOM tag that was read from the barcode received from the at least one computing device and the at least some information representing the patient that was not included in the first electronic DICOM file; and store the second electronic DICOM file in the at least one database.