US-20260128161-A1 - COMMUNICATING MEDICAL IMAGE DATA WITH METADATA

US20260128161A1US 20260128161 A1US20260128161 A1US 20260128161A1US-20260128161-A1

Abstract

Proposed concepts aim to provide schemes, solutions, concepts, designs, methods and systems pertaining to the transmitting, receiving and/or communicating medical imaging data for remote real-time examination. In particular, a medical image is encoded ( 120 ) with an identifier based on at least part of metadata associated with the medical image. As the medical image and the metadata may have different transmission requirements (i.e. bandwidth, latency, loss, etc.), they are communicated through different communication channels ( 130, 140 ). In this way, the medical image and the metadata may be communicated appropriately, while the identifier enables the medical image and the metadata to be matched at a receiver.

Inventors

Alphonsus Anthonius Joze de Lange

Assignees

KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20230922
Priority Date: 20221013

Claims (15)

1 . A method of transmitting medical imaging data for remote real-time examination, the method comprising: receiving at an interface module of a sender, a medical image and metadata comprising information describing one or more parameters of the medical image; encoding at a processing module of the sender, the medical image with an identifier, the identifier based on at least part of the metadata; transmitting the encoded medical image from the sender to a receiver via a first communication channel; and transmitting the metadata from the sender to the receiver via a second communication channel different from the first communication channel; wherein the first communication channel is adapted for real-time data transfer, and the second communication is adapted for reliable data transfer, and wherein the step of transmitting the encoded medical image and the step of transmitting the metadata are carried out substantially in parallel.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein encoding the medical image comprises: generating a machine-readable code based on the identifier; and embedding the machine-readable code within the medical image.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the machine-readable code is any one of: a QR code, a dot pattern or a watermark.
4 . The method of claim wherein the machine-readable code is embedded in one of: a part of the medical image that does not contain any medical information, a randomized part of the medical image, or an extended part of the medical image.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first communication channel is a WebRTC video channel, and the second channel is a WebRTC data channel.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: generating a unique code; and adding the unique code to the metadata, and wherein the identifier is based on part of the metadata corresponding to the unique code.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the medical image and the metadata comprises fetching the medical image and the metadata from an acquisition application configured to acquire medical images from an imaging device in real-time.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the medical image and the metadata comprises: obtaining a digital navigation link data object comprising the medical image and the metadata; and extracting the medical image and the metadata from the digital navigation link data object.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising serializing the metadata into a byte or string format adapted to be transferable over the second communication channel.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises an acquisition mode of the medical image, and optionally includes at least one of: an image gain, an image depth mode, an image color map, an image rotation, an image translation, and an image coordinate system.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the medical image is an ultrasound image, and optionally comprises at least one of: a B-Mode image component, a Color Flow Doppler image component and a pulsed wave Doppler image component.
12 . A method of receiving medical imaging data for remote real-time examination, the method comprising: receiving from a sender, an encoded medical image via a first communication channel at a receiver, the encoded medical image comprising an identifier encoded in a medical image; receiving from the sender, metadata via a second communication channel at the receiver, wherein the second communication channel is different from the first communication channel, wherein the metadata comprises information describing one or more parameters of the medical image, and wherein the identifier is based on at least part of the metadata; extracting , at an extraction module of the receiver, the identifier from the encoded medical image; and matching at a matching module of the receiver, the medical image and the metadata based on the identifier; wherein the first communication channel is adapted for real-time data transfer, and the second communication is adapted for reliable data transfer, and wherein the step of receiving the encoded medical image and the step of receiving the metadata are carried out substantially in parallel.
13 . A method of communicating medical imaging data for remote real-time examination, the method comprising: transmitting an encoded medical image and metadata the transmitting comprising: receiving, at an interface module of a sender, a medical image and metadata comprising information describing one or more parameters of the medical image; encoding, at a processing module of the sender, the medical image with an identifier, the identifier based on at least part of the metadata; transmitting the encoded medical image from the sender to a receiver via a first communication channel; and transmitting the metadata from the sender to the receiver via a second communication channel different from the first communication channel; wherein the first communication channel is adapted for real-time data transfer, and the second communication is adapted for reliable data transfer, and wherein the step of transmitting the encoded medical image and the step of transmitting the metadata are carried out substantially in parallel, and receiving the encoded medical image and metadata according to the method of claim 12 .
14 . A computer program product comprising computer program code adapted, when said computer program is run on a computer, to implement the method of claim 1 .
15 . A system to transmit medical imaging data for remote real-time examination, the system being configured to carry out a method as claimed in claim 1 .

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to communicating medical image data with metadata, and more particularly to the communication of medical imaging data with metadata for remote real-time examination. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION US 2022/0005585 A1 and US 2022/0319673 A1 disclose methods to split DICOM medical imaging data into anonymized DICOM medical imaging data and personal health information identifying a patient. Patiño-Vanegas et al. 2017 discloses a method to embed a QR code containing patient information on medical images. Recently the process of transferring medical images (i.e., ultrasound images, magnetic resonance images, computed tomography images, etc.) in real-time to remote observers has been a subject of particular interest. There are many situations in which a dedicated trained medical professional is not able to be physically present at a scanning session. Specialized consultants may not be in the same medical facility, for example, or may need to be accessible for aiding many scans at once. Thus, providing concepts for enabling remote medical observation may enable improved patient outcomes. However, a reduced latency of communication of the medical images must be achieved in order to avoid frustration and improve effectiveness of the scanning session. Medical imaging data can be particularly large, and therefore a communication link with a large bandwidth is essential to avoid excessive latency. This problem is compounded as remote real-time medical examination/observation typically requires an additional video communication channel between the remote observer(s) and the sonographer (i.e., the person physically performing the scan) for appropriate guidance and to ensure desired information is gathered. Moreover, for remote observation there is usually a focus on the transmission of the ultrasound images, with no/little transfer of metadata (e.g., a gain, a depth, an acquisition mode, and a color map) related to the images to the remote observer. In contrast, many scanners/medical devices are able to export a medical image data stream in real-time. This data stream may not only contain image frames of a variety of different types, it may also contain metadata about the image frames. Such metadata may prove particularly useful for extended auditing purposes, as well as processing applications and/or services for feature recognition and quantification of the medical images. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is defined by the independent claims. Dependent claims define advantageous embodiments. Proposed are concepts pertaining to communicating medical imaging data for remote real-time medical examination. In particular, a medical image is encoded with an identifier based on at least part of the metadata associated with the medical image. As the medical image and the metadata may have different transmission requirements (i.e., bandwidth, latency, loss, etc.), they are communicated through different communication channels. In this way, the medical image and the metadata may be communicated appropriately, while the identifier enables the medical image and the metadata to be matched at a receiver. According to examples in accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of transmitting medical imaging data for remote real-time examination, comprising: receiving, at an interface module of a sender, a medical image and metadata comprising information describing one or more parameters of the medical image;encoding, at a processing module of the sender, the medical image with an identifier, the identifier based on at least part of the metadata;transmitting the encoded medical image from the sender to a receiver via a first communication channel; andtransmitting the metadata from the sender to the receiver via a second communication channel different from the first communication channel;wherein the first communication channel is adapted for real-time data transfer, and the second communication is adapted for reliable data transfer, and wherein the step of transmitting the encoded medical image and the step of transmitting the metadata are carried out substantially in parallel. As a result of transmitting the medical image and the associated metadata through different communication channels, the different parts of the medical imaging data may be more appropriately transmitted. Indeed, in some cases there may be provided a stream of medical image at the receiver by a fast data channel, whilst also benefitting from metadata received through a reliable data channel. This, and other benefits, are provided by the ability to send the different parts of the medical imaging data through different channels, whilst linking the medical image and the metadata via an identifier. Put another way, medical imaging data may be received in real-time from a scanning device. The medical imaging data comprises a medical image/frame (or images/frames) of a subject, alongside me