Patent ID: 8155978

Claim:
An operating method for a computer, comprising the steps of: storing a plurality of data of patients for the computer and each of the data comprising respective image data previously recorded via a respective imaging modality which is one of the imaging modalities selected from the imaging modality group consisting of magnetic resonance, computer tomograph, angiography, x-ray, and ultrasonigraph, and each of said data also comprising a respective category name for said image data assigned by said respective imaging modality to said respective image data; providing by the computer respective supplementary information for each of the data, said respective supplementary information comprising a storage location or a storage address for accessing respective data of a respective patient; receiving by the computer a retrieval instruction from a user to access one of the stored plurality of data for one of the patients; in a first accessing by the computer said one of the data of said one patient is accessed and said one of the data is output to the user via a visual display device; without intervention by said user, automatically checking by the computer upon the first accessing of said one of the data of said one patient availability of an additional data of said one patient related to said one data by comparing a first category name of said one data with a different second category name of said additional data to automatically determine if the two different names both relate to a same body region of the one patient without the user defining said same body region and if so then correlating said one data with said additional data of said one patient, and wherein an imaging modality of said additional data is different than an imaging modality of said one data, both of said imaging modalities being selected from said imaging modality group; providing a message if additional data for said one patient is not available for the same body region, and if the additional data of said one patient for the same body region is available, the computer automatically performing at least one of: (a) outputting a corresponding message to the user via the visual display device, and (b) accessing at least a portion of the additional data of said one patient and outputting said at least a portion of the additional data to the user via the visual display device; and if the additional data of said one patient with the same body region is available, assigning and saving by the computer said supplementary information for the additional data of said one patient with the one data of said one patient, and also assigning and saving said supplementary information for the one data of said one patient with the additional data of said one patient, so that said supplementary information is immediately available in a later new accessing of the one data or the additional data of said one patient after said first accessing.