Patent ID: 8015032

Claim:
A method of protecting patient information communicated over a data network and stored at a subscribing workstation, the method comprising: receiving patient information, including medical image data from a medical imaging device; converting the patient information into medical image object (MIOs) in a computing system of an acquisition system; encrypting the MIOs in the computing system; creating an issuance license in the computing system that specifies access rights of the MIOs, thereby limiting future access to the MIOs wherein the issuance license is stored in a central directory service; chunking the encrypted MIOs in the computing system into packets, wherein each of the packets is encrypted, and assigning a manifest to each chunked MIO; and simultaneously broadcasting the manifest across the data network to a plurality of subscribing workstations on the data network; simultaneously broadcasting the encrypted MIO packets across the data network to the plurality of subscribing workstations on the network; receiving the broadcast manifest and encrypted MIO packets at the subscribing workstations, and re-assembling the MIOs at each of the subscribing workstations from instructions included in the manifest; storing the reassembled MIOs locally at each of the subscribing workstations; sending a first notification from at least one of the subscribing workstations to the central directory service, the first notification identifies that the MIOs have been received and stored by the subscribing workstation that sent the first notification; sending a second notification from at least one of the subscribing workstations to the central directory service, the second notification identifies that the MIOs have been deleted from the subscribing workstation that sent the second notification; tracking, with the central directory service, the MIOs currently stored at each of the subscribing workstations of the plurality of subscribing workstations based on the received first and second notifications; and requiring user authentication in accordance with the issuance license prior to locally decrypting the MIOs at a subscribing workstation for user access.