Click Workflow for Clinical Landmark Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current volume visualization techniques in medical imaging, such as DMM navigation, are time-consuming, require powerful CPUs, and result in ambiguous anatomical landmark placement and editing, especially in clinical settings where efficiency and reproducibility are crucial.
Innovation Solution
A click-and-go clinical task workflow method that uses simple, domain-specific interactions to alternate between navigational and measurement tasks, reducing the need for complex DMM navigation by defining initial views and constraining interactions based on anatomy and clinical workflow, allowing for unambiguous landmark placement and editing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If direct mouse manipulation (DMM) navigation is used to navigate through visualization data and place anatomical landmarks, then the user can interact directly with the view geometry to orientate the projection plane, but the process becomes time-consuming and requires many user interactions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically calculating optimal projection planes and orientating views based on the selected anatomical landmark, eliminating the need for users to manually navigate through multiple views and repeatedly adjust geometry to find appropriate angles for landmark placement
Solution Approach 2:
The system serves itself by automatically adapting the visualization geometry and projection parameters based on the landmark data, reducing the need for continuous manual intervention and allowing the system to self-adjust to provide optimal viewing angles for measurement tasks
2Ease of operation
If DMM based navigation is used to navigate through visualization data, then the user can manipulate view geometry directly, but the system requires a powerful PC and delivers ambiguous results
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms that provide visual indicators showing the current projection plane orientation, landmark depth position, and measurement accuracy, allowing users to assess whether the current view is appropriate for landmark placement and enabling the system to adjust based on user actions
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations to determine optimal projection planes and view orientations based on landmark coordinates, pre-positioning the visualization geometry to provide unambiguous views for measurement, thereby eliminating the need for users to manually search for appropriate angles
3Productivity
If volume visualization techniques are used to navigate through visualization data, then fast inspection of data is enabled, but complex interactions and powerful CPUs are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and separates the navigation function from the measurement function, using volume visualization only for the initial fast inspection phase, then transitioning to specialized measurement modes with predefined projection planes that simplify subsequent landmark placement and editing operations
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary view setup and geometry calculation based on the selected landmark, pre-configuring the visualization parameters and projection planes before the user begins measurement tasks, thereby reducing the complexity of subsequent interactions
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-aided method (30) comprises alternating between one or more of (i) navigational tasks and (ii) measuring, qualification, and quantification tasks of a clinical task in accordance with defined simple click style user interactions. The defined simple click style user interactions are based upon a domain knowledge (34) that includes (i) details of an anatomy and (ii) details of a clinical measurement, quantification, or workflow of the clinical task associated with the anatomy. Responsive to execution of a simple click style user interaction within a current view (36), and further in accordance with a corresponding navigational task or measuring, qualification, or quantification task, the method transitions within the clinical task and its workflow between one or more of (a) a first measurement point and a next measurement point within the current view (36) or (b) the current view (36) and a next view (38).