Patent ID: 8218883

Claim:
An image compression method for selecting a compression mode and performing compression to an image group of more than one medical image shot with a modality, said compression method comprising: a judgment step of judging whether or not more than one anatomical site is included in said image group based on site information indicating anatomical site of each said medical image; and a compression step of performing compression i) under a common compression mode when it is judged that more than one anatomical site is included in said image group, and ii) under a site-specific compression mode when it is judged that only one anatomical site is included in said image group, wherein, i) the site-specific compression mode uses at least one of a) a compression format, and b) a compression ratio corresponding to an anatomical site, and ii) the common compression mode uses at least one of a) a common compression format, and b) a common compression ratio regardless of said anatomical site.