Medical Image File Creation with Integrated Specimen Metadata
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical image management systems lack efficient methods to associate medical images with corresponding patient information and treatment details, particularly in scenarios where images are collected and examined across multiple institutions, leading to challenges in specimen identification, searchability, and reliability.
Innovation Solution
An image file creation method and apparatus that includes an image pickup step, a treatment detection step, and an image file creation step, which integrates specimen information indicating the image's relation to specimen collection, enabling the creation of image files with relevant details such as patient IDs, treatment instruments, and biopsy flags, facilitating centralized data management and easy retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If medical images are recorded without integrated specimen information, then the system remains simple, but the reliability and searchability of the images deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges image data with specimen information (patient ID, treatment instrument, biopsy flag) into a single integrated image file structure. This combining approach ensures reliable association between images and patient/treatment data without requiring separate management systems, thereby improving reliability while maintaining manageable complexity through unified data organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The image file creation system is designed to universally handle multiple types of medical images (endoscopes, microscopes, etc.) and integrate various types of information (patient demographics, treatment details, specimen data). This multi-functional approach improves reliability across different medical scenarios while avoiding the need for separate specialized systems for each image type.
2Productivity
If manual association of images with patient information is performed, then the system complexity remains low, but the productivity and time efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by automatically detecting treatment information and pre-associating it with image data during the image capture process. The treatment detection unit identifies specimen collection events and automatically tags relevant images with patient ID and biopsy flag information, eliminating the need for subsequent manual association work and significantly improving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The image pickup apparatus performs self-service by automatically detecting its own operational status (whether it captured images during treatment or specimen collection) and self-tagging the acquired images with appropriate metadata. This autonomous self-identification and self-association capability eliminates manual intervention requirements, boosting productivity without proportionally increasing system complexity.
3Ease of operation
If specimen information is not provided with image files, then the data management remains simple, but the ease of operation and searchability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary structure in the form of standardized metadata fields (patient ID, treatment instrument, biopsy flag) that mediate between the image data and the search/query operations. These intermediary fields serve as searchable indices that enable easy retrieval and filtering of images based on patient or treatment criteria, significantly improving searchability while maintaining relatively simple data organization through standardized fields.
Data Source
AI summary
A image file creation method includes: an image pickup step of picking up an image of a living body; a treatment detection step of detecting a treatment related to the living body; and an image file creation step of creating, according to a result of the detection in the treatment detection step, an image file, for image data obtained in the image pickup step, with specimen information including information indicating that the image is an image relating to specimen collection by the treatment related to the living body, to record data of, e.g., an image of a tissue such as a cell itself and data of, e.g., an image related to the tissue such as the cell, a treatment and/or collection, enabling a plurality of institutions, facilities, etc., to easily refer to information on the tissue such as the cell.