Medical Image Sorting Component for Diagnostic Priority
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Solution Overview
Problem
Medical image series with poor quality or low relevance for diagnostics are displayed first when a referring physician opens an examination, as they are acquired in time order, which is undesirable and hinders the display of high-relevance images.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that utilize machine-defined and user-defined meta information to reorder medical images, prioritizing high-relevance images by sorting low-quality or irrelevant images, such as survey and reference scans, to the end of the stack, allowing important images to be displayed first when sent to a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If images are stored in time order of acquisition, then the storage and transfer process is simple, but low-quality survey and reference images are displayed first which hinders diagnostic efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the ordering parameter from temporal sequence to diagnostic relevance. By introducing a sorting component that reorders images based on their diagnostic value rather than acquisition time, high-quality diagnostic images are prioritized for display while maintaining the simplicity of the storage system.
Solution Approach 2:
The sorting component performs preliminary reordering of images before they are sent to PACS or displayed. This advance organization ensures that when a referring physician opens an examination, the most diagnostically relevant images are already positioned first, eliminating the need for manual reordering during review.
2Ease of operation
If survey and reference scans are stored first in the stack, then they are displayed first in simple image viewers, but these images have poor quality and low diagnostic relevance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts low-quality survey and reference images from the beginning of the display sequence by reordering them to the end of the stack. This separation allows simple image viewers to continue functioning without modification while automatically prioritizing high-quality diagnostic images for initial review.
3Manufacturing precision
If images are reordered based on clinical logic, then high-relevance images are displayed first, but additional sorting mechanisms are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a sorting component as an intermediary between the storage component and the output interface. This mediator uses meta information about image diagnostic relevance to automatically reorder images, providing clinically logical sequencing without requiring complex modifications to the storage system or PACS infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus comprising—an imaging component for acquiring magnetic resonance images;—a storage component for storing the magnetic resonance images in a stack;—a sorting component for sorting the magnetic resonance images in the stack using machine defined meta information of the images; and—an interface for reading the ordered stack.