System and method to aid diagnoses using cross-referenced knowledge and image databases

Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus for increasing the usefulness of visual knowledge in a number of applications. It distills the relationships between characteristics and hypotheses into database form, thereby organizing visual information in a manner suitable to aid the user in the investigation of the various hypotheses (medical diagnosis, pill identification, plant/animal identification, cause of death, cause of accident, etc.). The invention sidesteps unresolved issues around knowledge engineering by not automating a decision making process. Rather, the present invention utilizes a relational database to dynamically respond to textual and visual findings as an aid to assist a user reaching a reasoned conclusion based upon information available by direct observation and comparison with stored image and textual data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system to aid a user in a visual diagnostic process, comprising:
 a computer system;   an image database, accessible by said computer system;   a knowledge database, accessible by said computer system, cross-referenced to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process, said knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses;   a user-interface attached to said computer system to solicit, from the user, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnosis, said user interface including a characterization device, where the characterization device provides at least one descriptive characteristic of a sample requiring diagnosis;   a diagnostic engine operating in said computer system, responsive to said descriptive characteristics, including the characteristic from said characterization device, wherein said characteristics of the sample are employed by said engine to automatically identify, using the findings-diagnosis links, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses that are consistent with the characteristics; and   using the subset of diagnoses, automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent presentation on said user-interface of a plurality of images representing the subset of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface.   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said characterization device includes an imaging device. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 2 , wherein the imaging device outputs at least one digital image of a physical characteristic of the sample requiring diagnosis. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 3 , wherein the digital image is analyzed to identify at least visual finding. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein said diagnostic engine operates dynamically, using the subset of possible diagnoses, to reorganize the information space in response to modification of at least one of the plurality of descriptive characteristics by the user. 
     
     
         6 . A method for aiding a visual diagnostic process, including:
 creating an image database from a collection of images pertaining to a particular subject matter, said image database residing on a mass storage device operatively associated with a computer;   creating a knowledge database with other data related to the particular subject matter, wherein said knowledge database includes a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses and is cross-referenced to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process;   collecting from a user, through a user-interface adapted to the particular subject matter, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnoses;   a diagnostic engine, in response to said descriptive characteristics, using findings-diagnosis links, automatically generating, from a plurality of possible diagnoses included within the knowledge database, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses consistent with the descriptive characteristics collected from the user;   using the subset of possible diagnoses, automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent presentation of a plurality of images related to the plurality of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface; and   upon completing a diagnosis, providing feedback to subsequently alter at least one of the image database and the knowledge database, and thereby improve the process.   
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6 , further comprising contextualizing the knowledge database based upon at least one characteristic. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the characteristic used for contextualization is a geographic region. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , further including the integration, into at east said knowledge database, of data pertaining to the spread of related diagnoses. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein the data pertaining to the spread of related diagnoses includes data regarding infectious diseases. 
     
     
         11 . A computer system for reducing diagnostic uncertainty using cross-referenced knowledge and image databases, comprising:
 a remote communication device including a user-interface to solicit a plurality of characteristics of diagnoses from a user;   a diagnostic engine operating under the programmatic control of the computer system and having access to the knowledge database, the knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses, wherein said characteristics of diagnoses are employed to automatically identify, from the diagnoses for which data is stored in the knowledge database, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses from the knowledge database that are consistent with the characteristics; and   using the subset of possible diagnoses identified from the findings-diagnosis links, automatically reorganizing an information space of the image database for presentation to the user, including concurrent presentation of a plurality of images on said user-interface for user review, the plurality of images being representative of at least two possible diagnoses, wherein the plurality of images are presented as a diagnostic image stack suitable for display on said remote communication device.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the remote communication device includes a wireless device.