Image processing and text analysis to determine medical condition

Abstract

A method, a processing device, and a computer program product are provided. At least one processing device correlates textual medical information related to the subject with characteristics of an image of a medical condition of the subject to generate a subject signature. The at least one processing device compares the subject signature with multiple reference signatures to determine at least one reference signature corresponding to the subject signature. Each reference signature is associated with a corresponding medical condition and is generated by correlating textual medical information regarding the corresponding medical condition with characteristics of an image of the corresponding medical condition. The at least one processing device identifies the medical condition of the subject based on the medical conditions associated with the determined at least one reference signature. Information is provided regarding the identified medical condition of the subject.

1 - 7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . A computer program product comprising:
 a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith for execution on a processing system, the computer readable program code being configured to be executed by the processing system to:
 correlate textual medical information of a subject with characteristics of an image of a medical condition of the subject to generate a subject signature; 
 compare the subject signature with a plurality of reference signatures to determine at least one reference signature corresponding to the subject signature, wherein each reference signature is associated with a corresponding medical condition and is generated by correlating textual medical information regarding the corresponding medical condition with characteristics of an image of the corresponding medical condition; 
 identify the medical condition of the subject based on the medical conditions associated with the determined at least one reference signature; and 
 provide information regarding the identified medical condition of the subject. 
   
     
     
         9 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the medical condition includes a disease. 
     
     
         10 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein each of the reference signatures is generated by:
 performing analytics on each of a plurality of textual medical information corresponding to a plurality of medical conditions to extract descriptions of each of the plurality of medical conditions;   analyzing images of each of the plurality of medical conditions to extract image characteristics of each of the plurality of medical conditions; and   correlating the extracted descriptions of each of the plurality of medical conditions with corresponding image characteristics to generate each of the reference signatures.   
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the correlating textual medical information of the subject with characteristics of an image of a medical condition of the subject to generate a subject signature further comprises:
 analyzing the textual medical information of the subject to extract a description of the medical condition of the subject;   analyzing an image of the medical condition of the subject to extract image characteristics of the medical condition of the subject; and   correlating the extracted description of the medical condition of the subject with the extracted image characteristics of the medical condition of the subject to generate the subject signature.   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the comparing the subject signature with a plurality of reference signatures comprises;
 calculating a match score between the subject signature and each of the plurality of reference signatures; and   determining the at least one reference signature corresponding to the subject signature based on the match scores.   
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein:
 the characteristics of the image of the medical condition of the subject and the characteristics of the image of the corresponding medical condition include respective feature vectors; and   the calculating a match score between the subject signature and each of the plurality of reference signatures further comprises:   comparing the feature vectors of the image of the medical condition of the subject with a respective feature vectors of each of the images of the corresponding medical conditions.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the match score for a reference signature is based on a distance between the reference signature and the subject signature. 
     
     
         15 . A processing device comprising:
 at least one processor;   a memory; and   a communication bus connecting the at least one processor with the memory, wherein the memory has stored therein instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:
 correlating textual medical information related to a subject with characteristics of an image of a medical condition of the subject to generate a subject signature; 
 comparing the subject signature with a plurality of reference signatures to determine at least one reference signature corresponding to the subject signature, wherein each reference signature is associated with a corresponding medical condition and is generated by correlating textual medical information regarding the corresponding medical condition with characteristics of an image of the corresponding medical condition; 
 identifying the medical condition of the subject based on the medical conditions associated with the determined at least one reference signature; and 
 providing information regarding the identified medical condition of the subject. 
   
     
     
         16 . The processing device of  claim 15 , wherein the medical condition includes a disease. 
     
     
         17 . The processing device of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 generating the plurality of reference signatures, the generating the plurality of reference signatures further comprising:
 performing analytics on a plurality of textual medical information corresponding to a plurality of medical conditions to extract descriptions of each of the plurality of medical conditions; 
 analyzing images of the plurality of medical conditions to extract image characteristics of each of the plurality of medical conditions; and 
 correlating the extracted descriptions of the plurality of medical conditions with the corresponding image characteristics to generate the reference signatures. 
   
     
     
         18 . The processing device of  claim 15 , wherein the correlating to generate a subject signature comprises:
 analyzing the textual medical information related to the subject to extract a description of the medical condition of the subject;   analyzing an image of the medical condition of the subject to extract image characteristics of the medical condition of the subject; and   correlating the extracted description of the medical condition of the subject with the extracted image characteristics of the medical condition of the subject to generate the subject signature.   
     
     
         19 . The processing device of  claim 15 , wherein the comparing the subject signature with a plurality of reference signatures comprises:
 calculating a match score between the subject signature and each of the plurality of reference signatures; and   determining the at least one reference signature corresponding to the subject signature based on the match scores.   
     
     
         20 . The processing device of  claim 19 , wherein:
 the characteristics of the image of the medical condition of the subject and the characteristics of the image of the corresponding medical condition include respective feature vectors; and   the calculating a match score between the subject signature and each of the plurality of reference signatures further comprises:
 comparing the feature vectors of the image of the medical condition of the subject with a respective feature vector of each of the images of the corresponding medical conditions.