Remote Expert Interface for Multi-Vendor Medical Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Remote medical imaging experts face challenges in providing concurrent assistance across different medical imaging systems of varying models and vendors, due to differing user interfaces and the need to rapidly switch between screens to extract relevant information during medical imaging examinations.
Innovation Solution
A system that extracts image features from medical imaging device controllers, converts them into a vendor-agnostic representation, and provides a unified interface for remote experts, anonymizing patient-identifiable information and blocking non-relevant content, allowing for efficient situational awareness and assistance across multiple imaging bays.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If remote experts view original screen displays of different imaging systems, then they can see all interface details, but they must rapidly switch between different user interfaces to extract required information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (information extraction and normalization layer) that sits between the remote expert and the original imaging device displays. This intermediary extracts critical information from various vendor-specific interfaces and presents it through a unified, standardized display format, eliminating the need for experts to switch between different interface styles while maintaining access to all necessary details.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal information display interface that can accommodate and present data from multiple different imaging system vendors and models through a single standardized paradigm. This universal interface consolidates what would otherwise require multiple specialized interfaces into one unified view, allowing remote experts to access information from diverse imaging systems without switching displays.
2Loss of information
If remote experts access complete screen displays, then they have full situational awareness, but patient identifiable information and non-relevant content are exposed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information from the complete screen displays and separates it from sensitive patient identifiable information and non-relevant content. By taking out only the critical examination parameters and presenting them through the normalized interface, the system maintains information completeness for the expert while automatically filtering out harmful exposures of patient privacy and irrelevant data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality transformation by customizing the information display to show different levels of detail appropriate to each user's needs. The normalized interface presents essential information with appropriate granularity, exposing detailed patient identifiers and sensitive data only when and where absolutely necessary, while maintaining privacy by default in the standardized view.
3Reliability
If the system displays all information from imaging devices, then comprehensive situational awareness is achieved, but device complexity and interface variability increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex information display into distinct functional components: vendor-specific raw data input layer, information extraction processing layer, normalized standardized output layer, and presentation interface layer. This segmentation isolates complexity in the processing layer while keeping the presentation interface simple and uniform, maintaining situational awareness accuracy without exposing users to interface variability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary normalization layer that acts as a buffer between the complex, variable interfaces of different imaging devices and the simple, standardized display interface. This intermediary handles all the complexity of parsing and normalizing different vendor formats, presenting unified information to the user without requiring them to navigate complex or varying interface structures.
Data Source
AI summary
A non-transitory computer readable medium (26) stores instructions executable by at least one electronic processor (20) to perform a method (100) of providing assistance from a remote expert (RE) to a local operator (LO) of a medical imaging device (2) during a medical imaging examination. The method includes: extracting image features from image frames displayed on a display device (24′) of a controller (10) of the medical imaging device operable by the local operator during the medical imaging examination; converting the extracted image features into a representation (43) of a current status of the medical imaging examination; and providing a user interface (UI) (28) displaying the representation on a workstation (12) operable by the remote expert.