Patent Document ID: 20110103675
Application ID: 12916478
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for computer-aided detection (CAD) of anatomical abnormalities in x-ray mammograms based on modification of a preexisting x-ray mammography CAD environment, the preexisting x-ray mammography CAD environment including (i) a primary CAD processing system programmed to apply a primary CAD algorithm to x-ray mammograms to generate DICOM Mammography CAD Structured Report Information Object Instances (SR-IOIs) associated therewith, and (ii) a review workstation configured to receive the DICOM Mammography CAD SR-IOIs and render their contents for display in conjunction with the associated x-ray mammograms, the method comprising: installing into the preexisting x-ray mammography CAD environment an auxiliary processing system in operative data communication with the primary CAD processing system and the review workstation, the auxiliary processing system including at least one processor and being programmed to carry out (i) at least one auxiliary CAD algorithm that is independent of the primary CAD algorithm, and (ii) a CAD voting algorithm; receiving, at the auxiliary processing system, a first x-ray mammogram; receiving, at the auxiliary processing system, a first DICOM Mammography CAD SR-IOI incorporating a primary set of CAD findings generated by the primary CAD processing system based upon application of said primary CAD algorithm to the first x-ray mammogram; processing, by the auxiliary processing system, the first x-ray mammogram according to said at least one auxiliary CAD algorithm to respectively generate at least one auxiliary set of CAD findings; processing, by the auxiliary processing system, said primary set of CAD findings in conjunction with said at least one auxiliary set of CAD findings according to said CAD voting algorithm to generate a voted set of CAD findings; generating, by the auxiliary processing system, a second DICOM Mammography CAD SR-IOI incorporating said voted set of CAD findings; and receiving, at the review workstation, said second DICOM Mammography CAD SR-IOI and rendering the contents thereof for display in conjunction with said first x-ray mammogram.