Systems, methods and apparatus for image quality analysis

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an image acquisition station transmits images that have been identified as having inadequate diagnostic quality to a computer system of an image quality consultant. The image quality consultant may develop recommendations on how to improve the quality, and the recommendations are communicated to appropriate personnel.

1 . A system to support image quality consultation, the system comprising: 
 an imaging device operable to generate an electronic image of a subject;    a first image-review system operable to receive the electronic image from the imaging device;    an anonymizer of the electronic image, operable to receive the electronic image from the first image-review system, and operable to provide access to the anonymized electronic image; and    a second image-review system operable to receive the anonymized electronic image from the imaging device and present the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the imaging device further comprises: 
 a magnetic resonance imaging device.    
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the imaging device further comprises: 
 a computed tomography imaging device.    
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the imaging device further comprises: 
 an ultrasound imaging device.    
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the imaging device further comprises: 
 an X-ray device.    
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first image-review system further comprises: 
 an acquisition workstation.    
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the second image-review system further comprises: 
 a communicator of at least one recommendation on how to improve the quality of the electronic image, the communicator operably coupled to the first image-review system.    
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one recommendation further comprises: 
 at least one recommendation on how to image the subject again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the electronic image.    
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         10 . A system to support image quality consultation, the system comprising: 
 an X-ray imaging device operable to generate an electronic image of a subject; and    a first image-review system comprising: 
 a processor operable to receive the electronic image from the X-ray imaging device, operable to anonymize the electronic image, operable to transmit to the anonymized electronic image and operable to receive a recommendation on how to improve the quality of the electronic image.  
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         12 . An image acquisition workstation comprising: 
 a receiver of a plurality of electronic images from an imaging device;    an identifier of an electronic image of the plurality of electronic images;    an anonymizer of the electronic image, operable to remove confidential subject information from the identified electronic image; and    a transmitter of the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         13 . The image acquisition workstation of  claim 12 , wherein the image acquisition workstation further comprises: 
 a receiver of at least one recommendation on how to improve the quality of the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         14 . The image acquisition station of  claim 12 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         15 . An image acquisition workstation comprising: 
 a receiver of an a electronic image from an imaging device;    a storage device to store the electronic image;    a processor coupled to the storage device, comprising: 
 an identifier of the electronic image, operable to identify the electronic image for image quality consultation;  
 an anonymizer of the identified electronic image, operable to remove confidential subject information from the identified electronic image; and  
   a transmitter of the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         16 . The image acquisition workstation of  claim 15 , wherein the image acquisition workstation further comprises: 
 a receiver from a computer system associated with an image consultant, operable to receive at least one recommendation on how to improve the quality of the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         17 . The image acquisition station of  claim 15 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         18 . An online customer support system comprising: 
 a receiver of an anonymized electronic image; and    a transmitter of at least one recommendation on how to improve the quality of the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         19 . The online customer support system of  claim 18 , wherein the receiver further comprises: 
 a component operable to receive the anonymized electronic image from the Internet.    
     
     
         20 . The online customer support system of  claim 18 , wherein the transmitter further comprises: 
 a component operable to transmit the at least one recommendation through the Internet.    
     
     
         21 . The online customer support system of  claim 18 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         22 . An online customer support system comprising: 
 a receiver of an anonymized electronic image;    a storage device to store the anonymized electronic image; and    a processor coupled to the storage device, comprising: 
 a transmitter of at least one recommendation on how to improve the quality of the anonymized electronic image.  
   
     
     
         23 . The online customer support system of  claim 22 , wherein the receiver further comprises: 
 a component operable to receive the anonymized electronic image from the Internet.    
     
     
         24 . The online customer support system of  claim 22 , wherein the transmitter further comprises: 
 a component operable to transmit the at least one recommendation through the Internet.    
     
     
         25 . The online customer support system of  claim 22 , wherein the anonymized electronic image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         26 . A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support image quality consultation, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform: 
 receiving an identification of at least one image to be accessed by an engineering image quality expert;    anonymizing the at least one identified image; and    providing access to the at least one anonymized image.    
     
     
         27 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 26 , the medium further comprising executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform: 
 receiving recommendations of image quality consultation.    
     
     
         28 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 26 , wherein identification further comprises: 
 an identification performed by a medical imaging technician.    
     
     
         29 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 26 , wherein providing access to the at least one anonymized image further comprises: 
 providing access of a medical image consultant to the at least one anonymized image.    
     
     
         30 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 26 , wherein providing access to the at least one anonymized image further comprises: 
 transmitting the at least one anonymized image to the manufacturer of the imaging device that generated the at least one image.    
     
     
         31 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 26 , wherein anonymized image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         32 . A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support medical image quality consultation by a manufacturer of a medical electronic imaging device, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform: 
 receiving an identification of an electronic image of a patient generated by the medical electronic imaging device to be accessed by an engineering medical image quality expert, the image further comprising confidential patient information;    anonymizing the confidential patient information in the electronic image;    transmitting the anonymized image to the manufacturer of the imaging device that generated the at least one image; and    receiving recommendations of an image quality consultation in reference to the anonymized image.    
     
     
         33 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 32 , wherein identification further comprises: 
 an identification performed by a medical imaging technician.    
     
     
         34 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 32 , wherein confidential patient information further comprise; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         35 . A method to support image quality consultation, the method comprising: 
 receiving an identification of an X-ray image to be transmitted to an online customer support system of a manufacturer associated with an engineering image quality expert;    anonymizing the identified X-ray image; and    transmitting the anonymized image to the online customer support system.    
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35  further comprising: 
 receiving recommendations of image quality consultation in reference to the anonymized image from the online customer support system.    
     
     
         37 . A computer-accessible medium having executable instructions to support image quality consultation, the executable instructions capable of directing a processor to perform: 
 receiving access to at least one anonymized image; wherein the at least one anonymized image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.    receiving recommendations of image quality consultation of the anonymized image; and    transmitting the recommendations.    
     
     
         38 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 37 , wherein the transmitting is performed through the Internet.  
     
     
         39 . The computer-accessible medium of  claim 37 , wherein anonymized image does not have the following patient information; name, birthdate, social security number, and patient number.  
     
     
         40 . A method performed by a human comprising: 
 selecting an image from a graphical user interface of an image acquisition station, the image having been determined the a human as having non-diagnostic image quality; and    selecting a graphical user interface control indicating an instruction to transmit the image to an image quality consultant.    
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40 , the method further comprising: 
 receiving recommendations from the image quality consultant on actions the at least could improve the image quality.    
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein the selecting further comprises: 
 clicking a radio button in the graphical user interface that is associated with the image.    
     
     
         43 . A method of image quality consultation performed by a human image quality comprising: 
 receiving notice of receipt by a image-review system of an anonymized electronic image for image quality consultation;    analyzing the anonymized image for recommendations on how to improve the quality of the anonymized electronic image; and    communicating the recommendations to an image technician, the image technican being associated with a facility that generated the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein communicating the recommendations further comprises: 
 transmitting the recommendations in an electronic format through an electronic communication channel, wherein the electronic communication channel is selected from the group consisting of email through the Internet and an online customer support system.    
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein communicating the recommendations further comprises: 
 communicating the recommendations to a image technician at the facility, through a device selected from the group consisting of a telephone and a facsimile device.    
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein analyzing the anonymized image for recommendations further comprises: 
 analyzing the anonymized image for recommendations on how to image the subject of the anonymized electronic image again under different circumstances of optimal acquisition parameters, patient positioning and/or image processing parameters that are reasonably calculated to one of ordinary skill in the art of electronic image analysis to yield an image with improved quality in comparison to the anonymized electronic image.    
     
     
         47 . A graphical user interface comprising: 
 a first graphical region operable to indicate at least one selected image; and    a second graphical region operable to indicate an affirmation of transmission of the at least one selected image to an image quality consultant.    
     
     
         48 . The graphical user interface of  claim 47 , wherein the first graphical region further comprises: 
 a radio button.    
     
     
         49 . The graphical user interface of  claim 47 , wherein the first graphical region further comprises: 
 an item in a pull-down menu.    
     
     
         50 . The graphical user interface of  claim 47 , wherein the second graphical region further comprises: 
 a radio button.    
     
     
         51 . The graphical user interface of  claim 47 , wherein the second graphical region further comprises: 
 an item in a pull-down menu.