Patent ID: 7958225

Claim:
A method of facilitating transmission of medical images on a data communications network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving requests, by a medical image transport service from a client application, for transmission of medical images from data sources to data targets on the data communications network, the data sources including at least modalities, storage resources, and processing resources connected to the data communications network, the data targets including at least storage resources, processing resources, and viewing terminals connected to the data communications network, the client application providing a user interface to the medical image transport service through which users are able to submit the requests to the medical image transport service for transmission of the medical images from the data sources to the data targets; monitoring, by the medical image transport service, medical image network transactions between the data sources and data targets on the data communication network, said data communication network including a plurality of network elements interconnected by communication links and configured to pass protocol data units between each other by utilizing the communication links, said medical image network transactions relating to the delivery of the medical images over a dynamically determined route on the data communication network as the medical images are transported by exchanging protocol data units between the network elements over the communication links as the medical images are transferred between the data source and data target within the data communication network; and notifying the client application as to the status of the medical image network transaction within the communication network, or of an estimated time of delivery of the medical image to the data target, if the medical image network transaction is delayed by one or more network elements of the communication network.