Patent ID: 7949167

Claim:
A method for training a computer system for automatic detection of regions of interest in medical image data using a computer-based image processing device, comprising: receiving a plurality of patient records from an electronic medical records database, and for each of the received patient records: identifying a text field and a medical image from within the patient record; automatically segmenting the medical image to identify a structure of interest; searching the text field for one or more keywords indicative of a particular abnormality associated with the structure of interest; determining whether the text field indicates that the patient has the particular abnormality; and adding the medical image to a grouping of medical images representing the particular abnormality when it is determined that the text field indicates that the patient has the particular abnormality and adding the medical image to a grouping of medical images representing the absence of the particular abnormality when it is determined that the text field does not indicate that the patient has the particular abnormality, and using the grouping of medical images representing the particular abnormality and the grouping of medical images representing the absence of the particular abnormality to automatically train a computer system for the subsequent detection of the particular abnormality.