Patent ID: 7558427

Claim:
A method for analyzing image data, comprising: storing unprocessed original image data in a medical computer network; retrieving the stored image data from the medical computer network; processing the retrieved image data by a plurality of image processing steps, each image processing step having at least one image processing parameter value related to the image processing step, each in a plurality of the image processing steps providing one of: an image enhancement including a gray or color value modification, a contrast enhancement or reduction, a highlighting of a feature in an image, contour definition, image focusing or noise suppression; storing the image processing steps and the related image processing parameter values within the medical computer network; evaluating the image data, processed according to the plurality of image processing steps, according to at least one statistic criterion in order to determine, among image processing steps, relative impact on image quality and optimum parameterization; and storing the processed image data together with the related image processing steps, image processing parameter values and the evaluated image data within the medical computer network.