Medical Image Viewer Local Cache Rendering Pipeline

Solution Overview

Problem

Medical imaging technologies face delays in image rendering and display due to reliance on network speed, which is undesirable in urgent medical situations where immediate access to images is critical.

Innovation Solution

A medical image management system that caches compressed DICOM image pixel data locally, allowing for immediate rendering and display of images without relying solely on server-side rendering, by fetching pre-rendered images from a cache if available, and downloading them if not, thereby reducing dependency on network speed.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of time

If images are rendered on a remotely-located server and downloaded through a network, then image display can be achieved on the workstation, but image receipt is delayed in low network speed environments

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveimage receipt delayVSAvoidnetwork speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by caching compressed image pixel data locally at the workstation before it is needed for display. When a healthcare study is opened, the system proactively downloads and stores compressed image data in local cache memory, so that when the user requests to view an image, the data is already available locally rather than needing to be retrieved from a remote server at that moment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary component - a local cache memory at the workstation - that acts as a buffer between the remote server and the display system. This intermediary stores compressed image pixel data locally, allowing the workstation to retrieve images from its own cache rather than directly from the remote server, thereby reducing network dependency and display delays.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If compressed image pixel data is cached locally at the workstation, then image display speed is improved in low network environments, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveimage display speedVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts the image rendering function from the remote server and performs it locally at the workstation. By caching compressed image pixel data and performing decompression and rendering operations locally, the system eliminates the need for real-time server-side rendering and network transmission during image display, thereby improving display speed while the added complexity is confined to local caching and processing components.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Reliability

If the system downloads rendered images from a remote server, then image rendering can be performed centrally, but network dependency increases causing delays

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveimage access reliabilityVSAvoidnetwork speed adaptability

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by caching compressed image pixel data locally at the workstation before it is needed for display. When a healthcare study is opened, the system proactively downloads and stores compressed image data in local cache memory, so that when the user requests to view an image, the data is already available locally rather than needing to be retrieved from a remote server at that moment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary component - a local cache memory at the workstation - that acts as a buffer between the remote server and the display system. This intermediary stores compressed image pixel data locally, allowing the workstation to retrieve images from its own cache rather than directly from the remote server, thereby reducing network dependency and display delays.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS11404158B2Image viewer

Publication Date: 2022.08.02 FUJIFILM MEDICAL SYSTEMS U S A INC

AI summary

An image viewer and method for using the same in a medical image management system are described. In one embodiment, the system comprises: a network communication interface to receive compressed image pixel data; an image cache memory to cache the compressed DICOM image pixel data and rendered images; one or more processors coupled to the network connection interface and the memory and configured to implement an image rendering pipeline to perform image rendering in response to opening a healthcare study for review, wherein the image rendering includes determining whether compressed image pixel data associated with an image selected for display is in an image cache memory, and if so, then fetching the compressed image pixel data from an image cache, where the image pixel data represents a pre-rendered version of an image from a series in the healthcare study, and rendering a displayable image for display with a viewer on the display, and if not, then downloading from a remote location a version of the displayable image for display with the viewer; and a display coupled to the one or more processors to display the displayable image with a viewer.