Medical Data Forwarding Engine for Secure DICOM-to-HTTPS Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical data transfer protocols, such as DICOM, lack security for communication outside of a medical facility's network, as they do not involve encryption, posing risks for patient information privacy.
Innovation Solution
A medical data forwarding engine preprocesses encoded medical information to make it compatible with secure networking communication protocols like HTTPS or WebSocket, enabling secure transfer between a medical facility network and an external cloud network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional medical data transfer protocols (DICOM) are used, then data transfer simplicity is maintained, but security is compromised due to lack of encryption
Solution Approach 1:
A protocol conversion intermediary is introduced between the medical imaging system and external networks. This intermediary translates DICOM protocol data into secure web protocols (HTTPS, WebSocket) while maintaining data integrity, thus resolving the contradiction by adding security without requiring the medical imaging system itself to become more complex
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into distinct functional modules: the medical imaging system generating DICOM data, the protocol conversion server handling translation, and the web interface layer providing secure external access. This segmentation allows each component to maintain its simplicity while the system as a whole achieves both security and ease of use
2Reliability
If protocol conversion is implemented to enable secure communication, then security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The protocol conversion server acts as a mediator that handles all complex protocol translation logic centrally. The medical imaging system and external web interfaces remain simple, while the intermediary manages the complexity of supporting both DICOM and multiple web protocols (HTTPS, WebSocket) simultaneously
Solution Approach 2:
The protocol conversion server is designed with multi-functionality to handle multiple secure web protocols (HTTPS for RESTful communication, WebSocket for real-time streaming) through a unified architecture. This universal design reduces overall system complexity compared to implementing separate systems for each protocol
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus, a system, a method, and a computer-readable storage medium. The apparatus including a memory storing logic corresponding to a medical data forwarding engine (MDFE), and one or more processors to execute the logic to perform operations including: accessing encoded medical information compliant with a medical signal handling protocol, the encoded medical information from a medical computing system of a medical facility network, wherein the encoded medical information includes one of a medical data file or a medical file fragment; preprocessing the encoded medical information by making the encoded medical information compliant with a networking communication protocol compatible with a web interface of a network external to the medical facility network (external network); and forwarding, after preprocessing, the encoded medical information to the external network based on the networking communication protocol.