Patent ID: 8073222

Claim:
A system for processing film-based mammographic data, comprising: a storage system programmed and arranged to store at least one standard scanning protocol, wherein each said standard scanning protocol identifies, by laterality and view type, each of a plurality of mammographic films in a standard film case, and wherein each said standard scanning protocol further identifies a sequence in which the plurality of mammographic films in the standard film case are to be provided in stacked form to a film digitizer for scanning; a user input/output system adapted and configured to receive from at least one user at least one user-defined scanning protocol, wherein each said user-defined scanning protocol identifies, by laterality and view type, each of a plurality of mammographic films in a user-defined film case and a sequence in which the plurality of mammographic films in the user-defined film case are to be provided in stacked form to the film digitizer for scanning, the at least one user-defined scanning protocol being stored in said storage system and being different than said standard scanning protocol with respect to at least one of laterality, view type, and sequence for one or more mammographic films; a scanning system adapted to receive and scan a plurality of film cases, generating therefrom a digitized version of each mammographic film, the scanning system including the film digitizer and receiving the plurality of film cases in stacked form for scanning thereby; said user input/output system being further adapted and configured to receive, in association with the plurality of film cases in stacked form received for scanning by the film digitizer, at least one user input indicative of a selected scanning protocol for each respective film case, said scanning protocol selection being from among a plurality of scanning protocols including said at least one standard scanning protocol and said at least one user-defined scanning protocol; and a processor in communication with said storage system, said scanning system, and said user input/output system and being adapted and programmed to assign laterality and view type to each said digitized version of each scanned mammographic film according to the selected scanning protocol associated therewith, said user input/output system being further adapted to receive a user's instruction to re-assign a case scanned according to a first scanning protocol to a second scanning protocol, said processor being adapted to automatically assign the laterality and view type to each digitized version according to the second scanning protocol in response to the user's instruction.