Patent ID: 8005921

Claim:
A redundant medical image storage system for archiving a medical image data file having an image data identifier within at least two mirrored picture archiving and communication system (PACS) networks, said system comprising: (a) a mirrored source PACS network including: (i) a source storage device for storing the medical image data file; (ii) a source processor coupled to the source storage: device, the source processor being adapted to: (A) receive the medical image data file and store the medical image data file in the source storage device; (B) transmit the medical image data file received by the source processor to at least one other mirrored PACS network; (b) a first mirrored destination PACS network coupled to the mirrored source PACS network, the first mirrored destination PACS network including: (i) a Boolean source PACS Archived flag associated with the image data identifier and the mirrored source PACS network; (ii) a destination storage device for storing the medical image data file; (iii) a destination processor coupled to the destination storage device, said destination processor being adapted to: (A) receive the medical image data file from the mirrored source PACS network and store the medical image data file in the destination storage device; (B) determine whether the medical image data file should also be stored back in the mirrored source PACS network; (C) if (B) is false, then setting the value of the source PACS Archived flag to true; (D) transmit the medical image data file received from the mirrored PACS source network to the mirrored source FACS network for storage only if the source PACS Archived flag is false.