Workload Distribution Engine for Diagnostic Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current diagnostic imaging management systems fail to allow medical imaging readers to subscribe to available work on a 'first come - first served' basis, do not reward early commitment, and lack real-time priority analysis and urgent image study management, nor do they enable doctors to provide service without prior demand knowledge or allow viewing of subsequent imaging studies from the same patient.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that includes a third-party communication module, messaging layer, and workload distribution engine to distribute image studies to chosen image readers based on complexity calculations, urgent priority, and reserved assignments, ensuring efficient allocation and real-time priority handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual override by dispatcher is used to manage urgent image studies, then urgent cases can be handled, but the process is not automated and requires continuous human monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically identifies and prioritizes urgent image studies using predefined criteria (emergency department origin, trauma center flags, patient history) without requiring manual dispatcher intervention. The workload distribution engine self-adjusts to route urgent cases to appropriate radiologists based on real-time availability and specialty matching.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures priority rules and criteria for identifying urgent cases before they occur. When an image study is received, the system immediately evaluates it against these pre-established criteria and automatically assigns priority status, eliminating the need for reactive manual override.
2Productivity
If image studies are distributed based on complex complexity calculations and multiple criteria, then optimal matching is achieved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The workload distribution engine is divided into separate functional modules: an image study reception module that extracts criteria from DICOM headers, a priority determination module that applies business rules, a radiologist availability module that tracks credentials and workload, and a matching module that selects optimal assignments. This segmentation allows each component to remain simple while the integrated system achieves high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary workload distribution engine that acts as a mediator between image producers and radiologists. This intermediary automatically handles the complex matching logic, shielding users from the underlying complexity while optimizing allocation based on multiple criteria including radiologist credentials, workload capacity, and study urgency.
3Adaptability or versatility
If radiologists are parameterized and matched based on multiple criteria including compensation metrics, then optimal matching is achieved, but the system becomes more complex and harder to manage
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows dynamic adjustment of matching parameters such as radiologist credentials, subspecialty expertise, current workload capacity, and urgency weighting factors. These parameters can be modified in real-time based on operational needs, enabling flexible adaptation to changing conditions while maintaining ease of management through a centralized configuration interface.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of distributing an image study to a chosen image reader is disclosed having steps of receiving an image study Ir urn an image producer at a third party communication module (204), sending a receive notification message to a messaging layer (214), sending a study available notification message from the messaging layer to a workload distribution engine (114) wherein the available notification message includes extracted image study information pulled from study headers of the image study, identifying image study rules from the extracted image study information, applying an image study complexity to the image study based on the image study rules(422), calculating image reader complexities (432) for a plurality of image readers subscribed to receive image studies from the image producer, each of the image reader complexities calculated using the image study complexity and an Image reader profile assigned to each of the plurality of accredited image readers, selecting the chosen image reader from the plurality of image readers based on the image reader complexities, assigning the image study to the chosen image reader(440), and displaying the image study on a user interface to the chosen image reader.