US-12626806-B1 - Medical exam pre-pushing system and method

Abstract

The medical exam pre-pushing system and method proactively distributes medical imaging data from a long-term archive system to multiple PACS. It revolutionizes how historical image data can be transferred proactively from long-term archive to PACS. The system monitors upcoming medical examinations through a hospital information system or electronic medical record interface and identifies patients requiring access to prior imaging studies. The archive system proactively transmits relevant historical imaging data to designated receiving PACS before clinical need arises. The system implements two optimized transmission methods: multi-threaded DICOM Send operations that eliminate resource-intensive query components, and multi-threaded direct file transfer using SMB/CIFS protocol that bypasses DICOM layers entirely for high-volume transfers. This proactive, archive-driven approach improves data transfer speed by a factor of double-digit or even triple-digit, eliminates duplicate query requests from multiple PACS sources, reduces network traffic, and ensures immediate availability of prior studies for clinical comparison purposes.

Inventors

• Xiaoyi Wang

Assignees

• Apollo Assets Group, LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20250822

Claims (19)

1. 1 . A method for improving medical imaging archive management by proactively distributing medical imaging data from a long-term archive system to multiple Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), the method comprising: automatically monitoring, by the long-term archive system, a hospital information system (HIS) or electronic medical record (EMR) database to identify patients with upcoming medical imaging examinations scheduled within a configurable time window; for each identified patient, searching the long-term archive system using patient identifiers to locate prior medical imaging studies stored in the long-term archive system; when prior medical imaging studies are located, automatically determining target PACS based on examination scheduling data and PACS matching criteria; selecting, by the long-term archive system, an optimized data transmission protocol from a group consisting of: (i) multi-threaded DICOM Send operations that eliminate DICOM Query components to reduce network processing overhead, and (ii) multi-threaded direct file transfer operations using SMB/CIFS protocol that bypass DICOM protocol layers entirely; proactively transmitting the prior medical imaging studies from the long-term archive system to the target PACS using the optimized data transmission protocol with parallel processing before receiving requests from the target PACS; and maintaining, by the long-term archive system, a distribution log database that tracks successful transmissions and prevents duplicate distribution operations; wherein proactive transmission with parallel processing increases data transfer speed to ensure constant availability of prior studies in PACS and eliminates network congestion caused by multiple simultaneous DICOM Query/Retrieve requests and improves archive system performance by coordinating data distribution to prevent redundant processing loads; wherein automatically determining target PACS comprises: parsing the examination scheduling data, by the long-term archive system, to identify an examination location; querying, by the long-term archive system, a PACS registry database to identify PACS associated with an ordering physician, examination location, and interpreting physician; and checking availability status of the target PACS; and selecting available PACS with sufficient storage capacity for the prior medical imaging studies, without requiring input from the PACS.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the configurable time window is between 1 hour to 30 days before a scheduled examination time.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the optimized data transmission protocol comprises: calculating, by the long-term archive system, total data volume for the prior medical imaging studies to be transmitted; when the total data volume equals or exceeds a predetermined threshold, selecting the multi-threaded direct file transfer operations using SMB/CIFS protocol; and when the total data volume is less than the predetermined threshold, selecting the multi-threaded DICOM Send operations; whereby an optimal threshold is determined based on a network and archive system environment.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the prior medical imaging studies comprise studies from multiple imaging modalities including, but not limited to, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), ultrasound (US), nuclear medicine (NM), digital X-Ray (CR/DR), mammogram (MG), X-Ray Angiography (XA), and radiotherapy dose/image/plan.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein parallel processing comprises: a parallel processing algorithm that determines an optimal number of threads to run to transmit data without causing overload to long-term archive system and an enterprise network; and a mechanism to launch multiple threads simultaneously with each thread responsible for transmitting one study; whereby when compared to a conventional DICOM pre-fetch, which is based on a request-respond model with studies being requested one by one and an archive system responds to requests one by one, a performance increase is minimally by a factor of a thread count.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: after successful transmission, sending confirmation messages to the target PACS indicating availability of the prior medical imaging studies; and updating the distribution log database with transmission completion timestamps and data integrity verification results.
7. 7 . A medical imaging archive system comprising: a long-term storage device containing archived medical imaging studies in DICOM format; a hardware or virtual processor operatively running in a long-term archive environment; software modules that, when executed by the hardware or virtual processor, cause implementation of a pre-push controller comprising: an examination monitor module configured to interface with a hospital information system or electronic medical record database and automatically identify patients with upcoming medical examinations; a prior study locator module configured to search the long-term archive environment using patient identifiers and metadata to locate relevant prior medical imaging studies; a distribution coordinator module configured to determine target PACS based on examination scheduling data by: parsing the examination scheduling data to identify an examination location; querying a PACS registry database to identify PACS associated with an ordering physician, the examination location, and an interpreting physician; checking availability status of the target PACS; and selecting available PACS with sufficient storage capacity for the relevant prior medical imaging studies, without requiring input from the PACS, and select transmission methods based on data volume thresholds and network bandwidth availability; and a transmission engine module configured to execute either: (i) multi-threaded DICOM Send operations that eliminate query processing steps, or (ii) multi-threaded direct SMB/CIFS file transfer operations that bypass DICOM protocol overhead; a network interface configured to proactively transmit multiple prior medical imaging studies simultaneously to multiple destination PACS before receiving distribution requests; wherein the pre-push controller coordinates data distribution operations to eliminate duplicate network requests from multiple PACS and reduces archive system processing load through centralized distribution management.
8. 8 . The medical imaging archive system of claim 7 , wherein the examination monitor module is configured to query the hospital information system or EMR database at configurable intervals.
9. 9 . The medical imaging archive system of claim 7 , wherein the distribution coordinator module comprises: a registry database storing PACS network addresses and capacity specifications; a load balancing algorithm configured to distribute transmission tasks across multiple target PACS based on current PACS utilization levels; a parallel processing algorithm that calculates a maximum number of threads to run to achieve a highest data transmission speed possible without impacting enterprise network and archive system performance; and a multi-thread launching mechanism to launch multiple data transmission thread with each one responsible for transmitting one study.
10. 10 . The medical imaging archive system of claim 7 , wherein the transmission engine module is configured to: establish secure network connections using Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for data transmission; perform data integrity verification using checksum algorithms during transmission; and implement automatic retry logic for failed transmission attempts.
11. 11 . The medical imaging archive system of claim 7 , further comprising a user interface module configured to: display real-time status of proactive transmission operations; provide administrative controls for configuring transmission schedules and data retention policies; generate reports of system performance metrics including network bandwidth utilization, archive system load, and transmission success rates.
12. 12 . The medical imaging archive system of claim 7 , wherein the prior study locator module is configured to: analyze examination type metadata to identify anatomically relevant prior studies; apply configurable filters based on study age, imaging modality, and clinical relevance scores; and rank located prior studies by clinical importance for transmission prioritization.
13. 13 . An archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations, the archive-initiated method comprising: receiving, at a long-term archive system, scheduling information from a hospital information system or EMR indicating upcoming patient examinations; automatically analyzing, by the long-term archive system, the scheduling information to identify patients requiring access to prior medical imaging studies for clinical comparison purposes; for each identified patient, executing, by the long-term archive system, a single coordinated database search operation across the long-term archive system to locate relevant prior studies, thereby avoiding multiple redundant search operations; implementing a coordinated distribution process comprising: determining target PACS by: parsing the scheduling information, by the long-term archive system, to identify an examination location; querying, by the long-term archive system, a PACS registry database to identify PACS associated with an ordering physician, the examination location, and an interpreting physician; checking availability status of the target PACS; selecting available PACS with sufficient storage capacity for the prior medical imaging studies, without requiring input from the PACS; and determining data volume and transmission time requirements for the prior medical imaging studies; when data volume equals or exceeds a predetermined threshold, selecting multi-threaded direct file transfer using SMB/CIFS protocol to bypass DICOM processing overhead; when data volume is below the predetermined threshold, selecting multi-threaded DICOM Send operations that eliminate resource-intensive DICOM Query components; executing the coordinated distribution process using parallel processing to transmit multiple prior medical imaging studies simultaneously to all requiring PACS through a centralized distribution operation; and recording successful transmissions in a distribution tracking database; wherein the coordinated distribution process improves data transmission speed by utilizing parallel processing and network performance by eliminating redundant DICOM Query/Retrieve operations that would otherwise be generated by individual PACS requesting identical data.
14. 14 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined threshold is adjustable to achieve optimal performance in a given environment.
15. 15 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , wherein implementing the coordinated distribution process further comprises: monitoring network bandwidth utilization in real-time; adjusting transmission schedules to avoid peak network usage periods; and implementing traffic shaping algorithms to maintain quality of service for concurrent medical imaging operations.
16. 16 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , further comprising: establishing baseline archive system and network performance metrics before implementing the coordinated distribution process; calculating an optimal number of threads to run to transmit data without causing overload to long-term archive and an enterprise network, with each thread responsible for sending one study; measuring post-implementation network performance metrics; and calculating improvement percentages in network bandwidth utilization and transmission completion times.
17. 17 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , wherein analyzing the scheduling information comprises: parsing examination type codes to determine likelihood of requiring prior study comparison; identifying examination urgency levels to prioritize transmission operations; and correlating patient medical history data with examination types to predict prior study relevance.
18. 18 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , further comprising implementing a fallback mechanism wherein: when the coordinated distribution process fails for any PACS, the long-term archive system automatically enables conventional DICOM Query/Retrieve functionality for that specific PACS; and monitoring a fallback mechanism usage to identify and resolve system performance issues.
19. 19 . The archive-initiated method for increasing data transmission speed and optimizing network performance in medical imaging systems by utilizing parallel processing and reducing redundant data transmission operations of claim 13 , wherein recording successful transmissions comprises: generating unique transaction identifiers for each distribution operation; storing transmission timestamps, data volumes, and recipient PACS identifiers in the distribution tracking database; implementing data retention policies that automatically purge tracking records after predetermined periods while maintaining aggregate performance statistics.

Description

FIELD The invention relates generally to medical imaging data management systems and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for proactively distributing prior patient imaging studies from long-term archive systems, also known as Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA), to Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). BACKGROUND Modern medical imaging relies on digital Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) to store, distribute, and display radiological images. When clinicians interpret current patient exams, they often need access to prior studies for comparison purposes. This comparison capability proves essential for tracking disease progression, treatment response, and diagnostic accuracy. PACS and standalone radiology workstations face inherent storage capacity limitations. To ensure optimal system performance, these systems regularly purge older exams, transferring the exams to separate long-term archive devices with larger storage. The purpose of doing so is to limit the database and storage size, primarily to maximize database response time, and secondarily to reduce costs for high performance storage media. This archival approach creates a two-tier storage system where recent studies remain readily accessible with the fastest access speed possible while historical studies require retrieval from archives. The current industry standard practice is to use either DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) Query/Retrieve to manually retrieve historical data from archive back to PACS, or use DICOM pre-fetch to perform more automated retrieval of historic data. There is nothing wrong with the manual method, except that it is manual. Therefore, it is not normally done unless it is absolutely necessary to have historical data in PACS in order to achieve accurate diagnosis. DICOM pre-fetch is an automated way to perform query/retrieve. But there are fatal flaws in DICOM pre-fetch. The most fatal one is its poor performance, because of the DICOM Query/Retrieve protocol it is based on. In its core, DICOM query/retrieve was designed for manually querying a remote DICOM database and then retrieving the desired data from the remote database. The query/retrieve protocol is designed to handle one request at a time. Although this approach works for a small number of requests, for a large institution with large patient volume desiring multiple years' historic data for each patient, it is simply not feasible to handle the large volume of requests and data transfer in a timely manner, and the burden created on the archive system and the volume of network traffic generated can easily cripple the archive system and the enterprise network. This is because DICOM query/retrieve is a very system and network resource intensive operation. As a result, DICOM pre-fetch has very little practical value except for small patient volume applications, such as a few patients a day. This is especially true if DICOM pre-fetch is to be performed over a slow wide-area-network (WAN). To overcome the inherent limitations and shortcomings of DICOM pre-fetch, a paradigm shift is required. A new design is needed that does not depend on DICOM query/retrieve, and is capable of distributing large volume of data very rapidly in a limited time window. Thus was born this invention of the medical exam pre-pushing technology, which is archive system driven and is capable of proactively, intelligently, and efficiently distributing large volume of prior medical scans to multiple PACS destinations based on future appointments, with minimal performance impact on the archive system and enterprise network. Its AI driven parallel processing achieves performance gain in data transmission by a factor of double-digit or even triple-digit, compared to standard DICOM pre-fetch. The disclosed medical exam pre-pushing technology is a revolution in medical imaging data management that addresses the inherent limitations of traditional DICOM pre-fetch approaches while maintaining full compatibility with existing long-term archive/VNA and PACS infrastructures. SUMMARY The medical exam pre-pushing system and method represents a paradigm shift in medical imaging data management, moving from reactive and inefficient pre-fetch operations to high performance proactive data distribution. Rather than waiting for individual PACS to request prior patient exams, the medical exam pre-pushing system and method operates from the archive system level, anticipating clinical needs and pushing relevant prior studies to appropriate destinations before they are requested. Above all, the medical exam pre-pushing system and method's ability to distribute large volume of data in a short timeframe is so unique in the industry that no existing technology or methodology can match. The medical imaging industry has established DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) pre-fetch as the standard practice for making prior exams available