Inference Transparency System for Image-Based Clinical Decision Support Systems

Abstract

A medical data processing method for supporting determination of medical image data describing a spatial distribution of body tissue which is the subject of a medical procedure, the method comprising the following steps which are constituted to be executed by a computer: a) acquiring outcome atlas data describing a general probability that a specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by means of the medical procedure, the general probability having been determined based on a statistical analysis of medical image data and/or treatment effect simulations conducted on said medical image data generated from a general population of human bodies; b) acquiring general population data describing at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population; c) acquiring patient definition data describing at least one statistical feature of a patient who shall become the subject of the medical procedure; d) determining, based on the outcome atlas data and the general population data and the patient definition data, adapted population data describing an adapted population of human bodies taken from the general population, wherein the adapted population is to be used as a basis for generating adapted outcome atlas data describing an adapted probability that the specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by means of the medical procedure, which adapted probability is determined based on the adapted population.

1 .- 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . An image processing system, comprising:
 at least one display device;   at least one processor;   memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to:   acquire, at the at least one processor, outcome atlas data describing a general probability that a specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by a medical procedure, the general probability based on analysis of medical image data conducted on said medical image data generated from a general population of human bodies;   wherein the medical image data describes a spatial distribution of body tissue which is the subject of the medical procedure;   acquire, at the at least one processor, general population data describing at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population;   acquire, at the at least one processor, patient definition data describing at least one statistical feature of a patient who is the subject of the medical procedure;   determine, by the at least one processor and based on the outcome atlas data and the general population data and the patient definition data, adapted population data describing an adapted population of human bodies taken from the general population;   the adapted population data determined based on a degree of similarity entered by a user input through a graphical user interface on the display device of a slider illustrating the relationship between the similarity between the general population and the patient, and the number of similar members of the general population;   wherein the adapted population data is used for generating adapted outcome data describing an adapted probability that the specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by the medical procedure;   wherein the specific anatomical structure includes tumour tissue and the general probability and the adapted probability each describe a probability that the tumour tissue can be successfully treated;   the outcome atlas data including medical image data from which it has been generated and wherein the adapted population data is obtained from comparing the patient medical image data to the outcome atlas data through an image fusion;   determine, by the at least one processor and based on the adapted outcome data and the patient medical image data, alteration probability data describing a probability of successfully altering the specific anatomical structure;   determine, by the at least one processor and based on the alteration probability data and the patient medical image data, alteration probability display data for displaying graphical information describing the probability of successfully altering the specific anatomical structure simultaneously with the patient medical image data;   display, on the display, based on the user input of the graphical user interface slider for determining the user input to adjust the adapted population data, the alteration probability display data describing the probability of successfully treating the specific anatomical structure simultaneously along with displaying the patient medical image data.   
     
     
         17 . A computer-implemented image processing method for supporting determination of medical image data describing a spatial distribution of body tissue which is the subject of a medical procedure implemented by at least one processor, comprising:
 acquiring, at the at least one processor, outcome atlas data describing a general probability that a specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by the medical procedure;   wherein the general probability is determined on a statistical analysis of medical image data generated from a general population of human bodies;   acquiring, at the at least one processor, general population data describing at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population;   acquiring, at the at least one processor, patient definition data describing at least one statistical feature of a subject patient of the medical procedure;   determining, by the at least one processor and based on the outcome atlas data and the general population data and the patient definition data, adapted population data describing an adapted population of human bodies taken from the general population;   generating adapted outcome atlas data based on the adapted population, the adapted outcome atlas data describing an adapted probability that the specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by means of the medical procedure, which adapted probability is determined based on the adapted population;   displaying the generated adapted outcome atlas data on a display.   
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 17 , comprising:
 determining, by the at least one processor and based on the outcome atlas data and the adapted population data, adapted outcome data describing a probability with which the specific anatomical structure can be successfully altered within a body of a patient;   acquiring, at the at least one processor, patient medical image data describing a medical image of the anatomical structure in the body of the patient;   determining, by the at least one processor and based on the adapted outcome data and the patient medical image data, alteration probability data describing a probability of successfully altering the anatomical structure;   determining, by the at least one processor and based on the alteration probability data and the patient medical image data, alteration probability display data;   displaying the alteration probability display data simultaneously with the patient medical image data on the display in graphical information describing the probability of successfully altering the anatomical structure.   
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein the adapted outcome data is generated on the basis of medical image data so that the adapted outcome data can be displayed as a statistical map simultaneously with the medical image data. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the adapted population data is analysed, by the at least one processor, to infer a contrast-to-noise-property which describes the minimum size of a subset of the adapted population data that carries statistical significance with respect to an available property. 
     
     
         21 . The method according to  claim 20 , wherein the available property is the outcome of carrying out the medical procedure on the patient. 
     
     
         22 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the adapted population is a selection from the general population. 
     
     
         23 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the at least one statistical feature of the patient can be compared to the at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population, and wherein the adapted population data is determined by comparing the value of the at least one statistical feature of the patient to the value of the at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population, and further including:
 determining, by the at least one processor and as the members of the adapted population and on the basis of the result of the comparison of the values of the at least one statistical feature, members of the general population which have a predetermined similarity to the patient.   
     
     
         24 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the adapted population data is determined by the at least one processor, based on user input of a predetermined degree of similarity between the members of the general population and the patient. 
     
     
         25 . The method according to  claim 24 , wherein the user input is a graphical user input of a representation of a slider in a statistical diagram illustrating the relationship between the similarity between the general population and the patient, and the number of similar members of the general population. 
     
     
         26 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population and the at least one statistical feature of the patient pertain to at least one of genetic information and information about the gender, age, ethnicity, mass and pathological state of the members of the general population and the patient, respectively. 
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the anatomical structure comprises tumour tissue and wherein the general probability and the adapted probability each describe a probability that the tumour tissue can be successfully resected. 
     
     
         28 . The method according to  claim 17 , comprising:
 acquiring patient medical image data describing a medical image of the anatomical structure in the body of the patient, wherein the adapted population data is determined further based on the patient medical image data.   
     
     
         29 . The method according to  claim 28 , wherein the outcome atlas data comprises the medical image data from which it has been generated, and wherein determining the adapted population data comprises comparing the patient medical image data to the outcome atlas data. 
     
     
         30 . The method according to  claim 29 , wherein the comparing the patient medical image data to the outcome atlas data comprises selecting the adapted population such that the members of the adapted population are associated with medical image data having a predetermined degree of similarity to the patient medical image data. 
     
     
         31 . The method according to  claim 29 , wherein comparing the patient medical image data to the outcome atlas data comprises running an image fusion algorithm on the patient medical image data and the outcome atlas data. 
     
     
         32 . The method according to  claim 28 , comprising:
 determining, by the at least one processor, patient feature vector data comprising the patient definition data and the result of an analysis of the patient medical image data with regard to morphological traits of the patient's anatomy;   determining, by the at least one processor, the adapted population data further based on the patient feature vector data.   
     
     
         33 . A computer implemented image processing method for supporting determination of medical image data describing a spatial distribution of body tissue which is the subject of a medical procedure, comprising:
 acquiring by at least one processor, outcome atlas data describing a general probability that a specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by means of the medical procedure,   wherein the general probability having been determined based on a statistical analysis of medical image data generated from a general population of human bodies;   acquiring, by at least one processor, general population data describing at least one statistical feature of each member of the general population;   acquiring, by at least one processor, patient definition data describing at least one statistical feature of a patient subject to the medical procedure;   determining, by at least one processor and based on the outcome atlas data and the general population data and the patient definition data, adapted population data describing an adapted population of human bodies taken from the general population;   wherein the adapted population is used as a basis for generating adapted outcome atlas data describing an adapted probability that the specific anatomical structure can be treated successfully by means of the medical procedure, which adapted probability is determined based on the adapted population;   displaying on a display by at least one processor, the adapted probability.