JP2002336203A - Medical information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [Problem] Even if a server becomes inoperable, medical image data captured by an image capturing device can be stored, and past medical image data stored on a long-term storage medium can be stored. A medical information management system that can be displayed is realized. In a medical information management system that manages medical image data captured by an image capturing device, at least one primary storage server unit that temporarily stores medical image data transmitted from the image capturing device; At least one secondary storage server having a function of temporarily storing medical image data transmitted from the primary storage server and transmitting the medical image data to a long-term storage medium; At least one image display device for retrieving and using medical image data stored in the long-term storage medium and the storage server means, and connects the image capturing device, the primary storage server means, the secondary storage server means, and the long-term storage medium. Communication network means;
Is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a CT (Computed T
omography device, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagin)
g) A medical information management system for managing medical image data captured by an image capturing device such as a device or a CR (Computed Radiography) device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a conventional medical information management system. In FIG. 4, 1a, 1b, 1c
Is an image capturing device (modality) such as a CT, MRI, or CR device, captures a medical image, and adds additional information for identifying the medical image such as a patient name, an identification number, a capturing condition, and a capturing date to pixel data. And output it as medical image data.

Reference numerals 2a, 2b, and 2c denote image servers which receive image data captured by the image capturing apparatuses 1a, 1b, and 1c, respectively, and store the received data in an internal storage unit (not shown). Predetermined conditions, such as when the elapsed time after receiving medical image data from the imaging device is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, or when the free space of a storage unit provided inside the image server is equal to or less than a predetermined value. Can transfer the medical image data stored in the storage means to, for example, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-
It is recorded on a long-term storage medium such as R or DVD-R and stored for a long time.

[0004] Reference numerals 3a, 3b, and 3c denote image display devices, and reference numeral 4 denotes a general server. The image servers 2a, 2b, 2c, the image display devices 3a, 3b, 3c, and the central server 4 are DIC
OM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medici
ne) They are connected by a communication network 5 conforming to the standard.

[0005] The image servers 2a, 2b, 2c display medical image data from the internal storage means via the communication network 5 in response to requests (for example, retrieval based on patient information) from the image display devices 3a, 3b, 3c. In addition to transmitting the medical image data to the device and displaying the same, the past medical image data recorded on the long-term storage medium is read out in response to a request from the image display device, transmitted to the image display device, and displayed.

[0006] The central server 4 includes a plurality of image servers 2a,
It has a database (hereinafter DB) for searching medical image data stored in 2b and 2c. The contents of the DB include an examination type (apparatus type) patient name, patient ID, gender, date of birth, examination date information, and the like. The DB downloads data from a plurality of image servers at regular intervals, adds new image data, and updates the DB (add only the increased ones).

[0007] The central server 4 performs a DB search based on the search data transmitted from the image display device, specifies medical image data corresponding to the search result, and an image server in which the medical image data is stored. The transmission of the medical image data to the image display device which has requested the search is instructed.

The image display devices 3a, 3b, 3c transmit search information (for example, examination type, patient name, examination date, etc.) related to medical image data to be interpreted by a radiologist or the like to the supervising server 4. The medical image data transmitted from the image server 2a, 2b, 2c is displayed as a search result, and the doctor performs image interpretation.

[0009]

The advantage of providing a centralized server is that when there are a plurality of image servers, the user can pretend that there is only one server. That is,
In any case, by searching the DB of one central server, the central server can specify the image server storing the medical image data and transmit the medical image to the display device. There is no need to know which image server the image data is on.

[0010] On the other hand, if the user accesses the long-term storage medium of the server while the server receives the data from the image capturing apparatus, the server becomes overloaded, and it takes time to acquire the data. is there.

When a system is constructed over time,
There is a difference in performance between the new and old servers, and thus a difference in performance between the server systems corresponding to the respective image capturing device groups, and the performance of the entire system is reduced. In other words, while the usage rates of a plurality of image servers are scattered and some image servers have a small load,
When there is an image server with a large load, there is a problem that the efficiency of using the image server is reduced.

Further, when the image server becomes inoperable for some reason, the medical image data stored in the image server and the past medical image data stored for a long time in the medium by the image server are displayed. In addition, if the image server fails, there is a problem that the medical image data of the corresponding image photographing device cannot be stored and displayed on the display device.

According to the present invention, the server load can be equalized even in a system with a plurality of servers, and even if the system is constructed over time, the performance of the entire system does not decrease and the image server becomes inoperable for some reason. Even in this case, an object of the present invention is to provide a medical information management system capable of storing medical image data captured by an image capturing apparatus and displaying past medical image data stored in a long-term storage medium.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, a feature of the present invention is that a medical information management system for managing medical image data photographed by an image photographing apparatus. Temporarily storing medical image data transmitted from the image capturing device, at least one primary storage server having no long-term storage, and medical image data transmitted under predetermined conditions from the primary storage server. At least one secondary storage server having a function of temporarily storing and transmitting the medical image data to the long-term storage medium at a predetermined timing; and the primary storage server, the secondary storage server, and the long-term storage medium. At least one image display device for retrieving and using stored medical image data, the image capturing device, and primary storage server means Secondary storage server means, in that it comprises a communication network means connecting the long-term storage medium, the.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a search server for receiving a search request from the image display device collectively and returning a search result to a destination is connected to the communication network means. On the point.

A feature of the invention according to claim 3 is that the general server means has a function of determining a storage destination of the transmitted medical image data when a plurality of the primary storage server means are connected. is there.

A feature of the present invention is that a maintenance terminal connected to the network means and capable of changing additional information of medical image data in the central server, the primary storage server, and the secondary storage server is provided. is there.

A feature of the invention according to claim 5 is that the maintenance terminal stores, as a log file, information (change time, changer name, etc.) relating to the change of the additional information in the previous term, a primary server, a primary storage server, and a secondary storage server. To send to.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a medical information management system to which the present invention is applied. The same elements as those of the conventional medical information management system described with reference to FIG.

The first feature of the configuration of the present invention is that the configuration of the image server is divided into a primary storage server having no long-term storage function and a secondary storage server having a long-term storage function. It is in.

The second feature of the configuration of the present invention is that, as a role of the central server, the primary storage server monitors the failure and the remaining storage capacity of the primary storage server, and automatically controls the primary storage server for storing image data from the image capturing apparatus. And a function of distributing the load of the primary storage server.

The features of the present invention will be described below. 6
a, 6b and 6c are primary storage servers connected to the communication network 5. These primary storage servers are obtained by removing the long-term storage function from the conventional image server of FIG.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a secondary storage server connected to the communication network 5. This secondary storage server has a long-term storage function similarly to the conventional image server of FIG.

That is, under the control of the central server 4, when the storage period, access frequency, and the like of medical image data in the primary storage server satisfy predetermined conditions, the medical image data is transferred to the secondary storage server. Further, the medical image data transferred to the secondary storage server is transferred to a long-term storage medium such as a CD-R or DVD-R provided in the secondary storage server when conditions such as a storage period are satisfied.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a backup server connected to the communication network 5 and provided for system redundancy. This backup server is the secondary storage server 7
It has the same long-term storage function as, and operates simultaneously with the secondary storage server to back up medical image data and applications.

The medical image data from the image photographing apparatuses 1a, 1b, and 1c is temporarily collected in the central server 4. The central server 4 having the storage destination determining function is the primary storage server 6
By monitoring the storage capacities a, 6b, and 6c, the primary storage server that stores the input medical image data from the image capturing apparatus is automatically determined, and the load on the primary storage server is distributed. Further, the inactive primary storage server is detected, and the other primary storage servers store the image data.

The structure and update operation of the DB for search in the central server 4 are the same as those of the central server of the conventional system. That is, the search data is transmitted from the image display device to the central server, and the central server searches the internal DB, and based on the search result from the primary storage server, the secondary storage server, or the backup server that stores the medical image data. The medical image data is transmitted to the display device and displayed.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a maintenance terminal connected to the communication network 5. This maintenance terminal is used when patient attribute information (patient name, patient ID, gender, date of birth, etc. → search data transmitted from the integrated image display device) accompanying the image sent from each imaging device is incorrect. It is provided for the purpose of correcting before writing on a long-term storage medium that cannot be rewritten.

The target of rewriting is the DB of the central server, the additional information of the medical image data of the primary storage server, the secondary storage server, and the backup server, and transmits information relating to the change as a log file.

In many cases, the patient attribute information is manually input by an imaging technician at each imaging terminal, and an input error occurs. CD-Rs and DVDs that cannot be altered or overwritten with mistakes
RPerformed by hospital staff with the authority to make corrections before writing to the long-term storage media. Authorized hospital staff does this because, in a broader sense, modifications can be taken as data tampering.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the general server 4 shown in FIG.
Transmission / reception means 4a for transmitting / receiving medical image data to / from the M device, determination means 4b for a destination server for storing medical image data from the image capturing apparatus, medical storage stored in a primary storage server, a secondary storage server or a backup server A database 4c for searching image data, a search unit 4d for searching the database 4c according to search conditions input from the image display device 3, and a storage unit 4e for maintenance information from the maintenance terminal 9.
It has each function of.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of the medical information management system of the present invention. In the configuration of FIG. 1, the central server enters between the image capturing device and the primary storage server,
Although the central server selects the primary storage server for storing the medical image data, there is no selection right in the central server in FIG. 3, and the image capturing device is directly connected to the primary storage server 1: 1 as in the conventional example of FIG. ing. The operation of FIG. 3 is the same as that of FIG. 1 except that the operation of the central server 4 is different.

In the embodiment described above, the medical image data is transferred to the secondary storage server by the function of the central server when the storage period and access frequency of the medical image data in the primary storage server satisfy predetermined conditions. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the primary storage server stores the data to be migrated for a certain period from the migration timing and duplicately stores the same data to further improve the reliability of the system.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description,
In the case of FIG. 1, the function of the central server makes it possible to equalize the server load even in a system of a plurality of servers and to distribute the load of the primary storage server to improve the operation efficiency. There is no degradation in overall system performance.

Even if the image server becomes inoperable for some reason, it is possible to display the past medical image data stored in the medium for a long period of time. Even if the specific primary storage server becomes inoperable, other medical image data can be displayed. Since the image data can be stored in the primary storage server, the image storage operation and the image display operation do not stop.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the long-term storage function is divided into the secondary storage server, so that even if the primary storage server fails, the long-term storage operation is not stopped, and The reference operation for referring to a past image stored for a long time in the medium via the central server from the server does not stop.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a medical information management system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram included in a central server 4 in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the medical information management system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a conventional medical information management system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b, 1c Image photographing device 3a, 3b Image display device 4 Overall server 5 Communication network 6a, 6b, 6c Primary storage server 7 Secondary storage server 8 Backup server 9 Maintenance terminal

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A medical information management system for managing medical image data photographed by an image photographing apparatus, wherein at least one medical image data transmitted from the image photographing apparatus is temporarily stored without a long-term storage unit. A primary storage server unit, and at least one unit having a function of temporarily storing medical image data transmitted from the primary storage server unit under predetermined conditions and transmitting the medical image data to a long-term storage medium at a predetermined timing. Secondary storage server means, the primary storage server means, the secondary storage server means, at least one image display device for searching and using medical image data stored in a long-term storage medium, and the image capturing device, Medical information comprising storage server means, secondary storage server means, and communication network means for connecting long-term storage media Information management system. 2. The communication network means according to claim 1, further comprising: a central server means for receiving a search request from said image display device in a lump and returning a search result to a destination. 1. The medical information management system according to 1. 3. The medical information management system according to claim 2, wherein said general server means has a function of determining a storage destination of the transmitted medical image data when a plurality of said primary storage server means are connected. . 4. A maintenance terminal connected to said network means and capable of changing additional information of medical image data in said central server, primary storage server and secondary storage server. Medical information management system. 5. The maintenance terminal transmits information (change time, name of changer, etc.) relating to the change of the additional information as a log file to the integrated server, the primary storage server, and the secondary storage server. The medical information management system according to claim 4, wherein