Medical image importer and method

Abstract

Provided are a medical information importer and method for importing medical information into a network-accessible database. The medical information importer includes a housing includes with an external stand-alone form factor, the housing including an interface for receiving a portable computer-readable medium storing medical information. An information reading component is provided for reading the medical information from the portable computer-readable medium when operatively connected to the interface. A computer-readable memory in communication with the information reading component stores, at least temporarily, the medical information read by the reading component under the direction of a controller. And a network interface connects the medical information importer to a communication network without a local connection between the medical information importer and a computer terminal including a display device for viewing the medical information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A medical image importer comprising:
 a housing comprising an external stand-alone form factor for being operatively connected to a communication network via a network interface without a local connection to a computer terminal including a display device;   an optical drive provided to the housing for reading from an optical computer-readable medium introduced to the optical drive a medical image associated with a patient captured by a medical modality;   a local computer-readable memory provided to the housing in communication with the optical drive for storing, at least temporarily, the medical image read by the optical drive;   a controller that is operable to execute computer-executable logic for controlling operation of the medical image importer; and   an instructional computer-readable memory storing computer-executable instructions to be executed by the controller for performing a method comprising:
 querying a remotely-located patient information database in communication with the communication network storing patient information associated with the medical image to be transmitted from the medical image importer, said querying comprising transmitting the patient information associated with the medical image over the communication network to identify a patient entry in the patient information database at a time of the query; 
 serving content over the communication network to generate a display on a remotely-located computer terminal, said display being presentable in a web-browser application on the remotely-located computer terminal to display at least a portion of information associated with the patient entry stored in the patient information database returned in response to said querying; 
 updating, in the local computer-readable memory, the patient information read by the optical drive based on the information associated with the patient entry in the patient information database returned in response to said querying; 
 associating the medical image with the patient information updated based on the information associated with the patient entry in the patient information database; and 
 transmitting over the communication network the patient information updated based on the information associated with the patient entry in the patient information database and the medical image to be stored in the PACS image database. 
   
     
     
         2 . The medical image importer according to  claim 1 , wherein the local computer-readable memory and the instructional computer-readable memory comprise different portions of a common memory device provided to the medical image importer. 
     
     
         3 . A method of importing medical information about a patient that is formatted according to a medical imaging standard into a communication network and storing the medical information in a computer-accessible memory, the method comprising:
 using a medical information importer located at a first location, receiving the medical information in the medical imaging standard and locally storing the medical information in a computer-readable memory in local communication with the medical information importer;   receiving a request to reconcile a portion of the medical information over a communication network from a first computer terminal that is remotely located from the medical information importer;   in response to receiving the request, querying a database stored on a computer-accessible memory operatively connected to the communication network for an entry in the database associated with the patient;   updating the portion of the medical information locally stored by the computer-readable memory in local communication with the medical information importer based on a result of said querying;   receiving, over the communication network from a second computer terminal that is remotely located from the medical information importer and the first computer terminal, a request to store the medical information in at least one of a different database and the database that was queried; and   transmitting the medical information over the communication network to be stored.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein receiving the medical information comprises reading the medical information from a portable computer-readable medium locally introduced to the medical information importer. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein locally storing the medical information comprises storing the medical information in a non-volatile hard drive in local communication with the medical information importer before the medical information is transmitted over the communication network. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein the medical imaging standard is a DICOM standard, the database is a patient information database stored on a RIS server and the different database for storing the medical information is a PACS image database. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 3  further comprising serving a result of said querying over the communication network to be received by the first computer terminal and displayed in a web-browser application running on the first computer terminal. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7  further comprising transmitting at least a portion of the medical information over the communication network to be received by the first computer terminal and displayed in the web-browser application adjacent to the result of said querying for comparison to the result of said querying. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 3  further comprising:
 granting a user of the first computer terminal permission to view and update the portion of the medical information stored in the local computer-readable memory via the first computer terminal; and 
 preventing the user of the first computer terminal from transmitting the medical information over the communication network to be stored. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9  further comprising:
 granting a user of the second computer terminal permission to view and update the portion of the medical information stored in the local computer-readable memory via the second computer terminal, the second computer terminal being remotely located from the first computer terminal and in communication with the medical information importer over the communication network; and 
 granting the user of the second computer terminal permission to transmit the medical information over the communication network to be stored in a database, wherein the user of the second computer terminal is different than the user of the first computer terminal. 
 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10  further comprising:
 granting a third party permission to access the medical information stored in the local computer-readable memory over the communication network and view the medical information; and 
 preventing the third party from updating the portion of the medical information and transmitting the medical information over the communication network to be stored in the database. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 9  further comprising receiving information associated with the patient entry in the database, wherein granting the user of the first computer terminal permission to update the portion of the medical information comprises granting the user of the first computer terminal permission to modify the portion of the medical information stored in the local computer-readable memory based on a portion of the information associated with the patient entry in the database received in response to said querying. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein said querying the database comprises transmitting a patient information associated with the medical information over the communication network to be compared to associated with the patient entry in the database. 
     
     
         14 . A method of reconciling imported medical information about a patient with existing information about the patient stored in a database, the method comprising:
 receiving the medical information using a medical information importer comprising an interface for receiving a portable computer-readable medium, a local computer-readable memory and a network interface for operatively connecting the medical information importer to a communication network;   in response to said receiving, storing the medical information received in the local computer-readable memory of the medical information importer;   querying a database stored on a computer-accessible memory operatively connected to the communication network for an entry in the database associated with the patient, said querying comprising transmitting a predetermined criterion included in the medical information for selecting the entry in the database from among a plurality of entries and comparing the predetermined criterion with information associated with the plurality of entries in the database;   based on said comparing, determining a likelihood that the medical information received is to be associated with each of the plurality of entries in the database; and   limiting a quantity of results of said querying returned to a portion, but less than all of the plurality of entries in the database, having a greatest likelihood of being associated with the patient that is associated with the medical information.   
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 14  further comprising ranking the results returned based on the likelihood, and transmitting content over the communication network for presenting the results returned in an order of decreasing likelihood. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the predetermined criterion to be transmitted for said querying is selected according to a configuration parameter of the medical information importer. 
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the predetermined criterion to be transmitted comprises a plurality of criteria comprising at least one of: patient name, patient sex, patient ID number, and patient date of birth. 
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the predetermined criterion transmitted comprises alphanumeric characters translated from a first language to a second language to be compared with information associated with the existing entries in the database.