Mammography information system

Abstract

A method and system for analyzing and retrieving breast tissue abnormality tracking data, providing a tool for a radiologist that includes a report summarizing the statistical frequency of diagnosed patients, both locally and nationally, with breast tissue region-of-interest classifications similar to the breast tissue images taken of the anatomy of an individual patient. A computer aided diagnostic program can be tested or verified against the breast tissue images and the region-of-interest classifications that have been validated by definitive patient diagnosis. Methods and systems allow the efficient collection of all of the breast tissue abnormalities for a given medical facility in order to provide trending data or radiologist performance analysis. The region-of-interest abnormalities in a single location in a patient's tissue are correlated across a variety of imaging modalities including X-rays, mammogram, CT, ultrasound, MRI, or other imaging technologies.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A mammography information system comprising:
 at least one electronic display;   a graphical user interface presented on the at least one electronic display and configured to present data related to a patient, the graphical user interface comprising an image gallery configured to display thumbnail representations of a plurality of images that form a portion of the data and information, each the plurality of images having an imaging modality of at least one at radiological images, X-ray images, computed tomography images, magnetic resonance images, ultrasound images, pathology images, tomosynthesis images, and document images;   a thumbnail database operable to store the thumbnail representations of the plurality of images;   a first networked database operable to store a plurality of medical-facility-categorized images including categorizations from a medical facility for comparison against the plurality of images; and   a second networked database operable to store a plurality of multiple-medical-facility-categorized images including categorizations from a least two medical facilities for comparison against the plurality of images.   
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the document images comprise at least a portion of at least one of a report, a letter, a lab result, and a text document. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising an anatomical diagram presented on the graphical user interface and on which at least one region of interest corresponding to a region of interest in at least one of the plurality of images can be indicated by a mark. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the mark on the anatomical diagram is linked to the at least one of the plurality of images. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the graphical user interface is configured to present an adjacent display of statistical information from a comparison of one of the plurality of images with the categorizations of the first networked database and the second networked database. 
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 25 , wherein the statistical information comprises a number of biopsies performed that were diagnosed as malignancies, a number of biopsies performed that were diagnosed as benign, and a total number of matching abnormalities. 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein each of the plurality of medical-facility-categorized images and each of the plurality of multiple-medical-facility-categorized images is cataloged in the first or second networked databases according to a characteristic of the image. 
     
     
         28 . A multiple modality tissue image profiler comprising:
 a database of existing pathological findings for a plurality of tissue abnormalities, each tissue abnormality located in a region of interest of one of a plurality of tissue images;   a graphical user interface configured to present a plurality of possible characteristics according to which a tissue abnormality can be characterized; and   a processor configured to identify existing categorizations in the database that match selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics and to retrieve at least one image having at least one of the selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics based on a comparison with the existing categorizations and to present the at least one image depicting the characterized tissue abnormality in the graphical user interface,   wherein each of the plurality of images has an imaging modality of at least one of radiological, X-ray, computed tomography, magnetic resonance, ultrasound, pathology, and tomosynthesis.   
     
     
         29 . The image profile of  claim 28 , wherein the existing categorizations in the database are identified using a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) categorization. 
     
     
         30 . The image profile of  claim 28 , wherein the database comprises existing pathological findings for a plurality of tissue abnormalities for a local medical facility. 
     
     
         31 . The image profile of  claim 30 , further comprising a second database of existing pathological findings for a plurality of tissue abnormalities, wherein the second database comprises existing pathological findings for a plurality of medical facilities. 
     
     
         32 . The image profiler of  claim 31 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify existing categorizations in the second database that match selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics and to retrieve at least one image of the second database having at least one of the selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics based on a comparison with the existing categorizations and to present the at least one image of the second database depicting the characterized tissue abnormality in the graphical user interface. 
     
     
         33 . The image profiler of  claim 28 , wherein the database is configured to store the existing pathological findings according to a hexadecimal value assigned to at least one of the selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics. 
     
     
         34 . The image profiler of  claim 33 , wherein the processor is configured to identify the existing categorizations in the database that match selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics based on a bitwise operation of the hexadecimal value. 
     
     
         35 . The image profiler of  claim 34 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify the existing categorizations in the database that match selected ones of the plurality of possible characteristics based on an index value to the hexadecimal values.