Patent ID: 7979522

Claim:
A method for monitoring performance of a medical data network without violating patient confidentiality comprising: receiving a stream of data at a network interface of a computing device, the stream of data including confidential medical images, the confidential medical images conforming to a medical image standard in which each image includes a non-confidential header portion, a patient identifier portion, and an image body portion, the stream of data being transferred between a medical data network and the computing device; monitoring the stream of data for non-confidential header portions of confidential medical images conforming to the medical image standard; maintaining an image receipt database including receipt times associated with previously received non-confidential header portions; recording, for each non-confidential header portion detected in the stream of data, a receipt time in the image receipt database associated with the non-confidential header portion; and generating, substantially immediately after detection of a non-confidential header portion of a confidential medical image, a graphical user interface displaying a current flowrate of confidential medical images through the network interface, wherein generating the graphical user interface includes periodically revising the graphical user interface based on receipt times currently in the image receipt database.