Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The present invention relates to Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (xe2x80x9cPACSxe2x80x9d) and in particular to a method for integrating PACS and voice dictating or speech recognition systems.
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems are used for, among other things, storing, observing and analyzing images obtained in medical applications. PACS may be used with several technologies for observing the interior anatomy of a living being, for example with ultrasound, x-ray or PET images and the like. The viewing and analysis of an image on the PACS is normally done by a physician, for example a radiologist, at one of several workstations present at a hospital, clinic or laboratory, for example.
When using a Picture Archiving and Communication System, it may be desirable for the radiologist or other doctor to dictate a report stating his or her analysis of an image saved in the PACS. In the past, such dictation has occurred through a vehicle, such as a conventional dictation system, a special phone system or a computer (for example a speech recognition system) entirely separate from the Picture Archiving and Communication System. As a result, the dictation must be separately referenced to the analyzed image, transcribed, and inserted into a file for the image. For example, in one known system, a radiologist receives a number of requisitions (i.e., a paper showing, for example, a brief history of the patient and the reason(s) for which imaging was required) indicating his or her work list for the day. The radiologist then calls up on the PACS, by identifying the order or accession number of the patient, the images for the patient in a predetermined order, usually in succession, and separately dictates a report concerning the images. In this report, the physician will identify the order or accession number of the patient, either orally or by typing it into a computer dictation machine. Once the dictation is complete, the dictation report must be separately referenced to the analyzed image, transcribed, and inserted into a file for the image.
The past system of manually associating the dictated report with the analyzed image required a substantial amount of time and resources. Additionally, the past system was subject to errors in associating the dictated report with the proper image.
PACS and computer systems have not yet presented a method of integrating a Picture Archiving and Communication System with a speech recognition system or voice dictating system (collectively xe2x80x9cvoice dictation systemsxe2x80x9d) that avoids the aforementioned need for manually associating the dictated reports with PACS image files.
A need has long existed for such a method of integrating a Picture Archiving Communication System with a voice dictation system and associating the voice dictation files with image files for easy retrieval.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a method for integrating a picture archiving and communication system (xe2x80x9cPACSxe2x80x9d) and a voice dictating or speech recognition system (collectively xe2x80x9cvoice dictation systemxe2x80x9d) is provided. The method includes logging in to a PACS. The method also includes automatically logging in to a voice dictation system responsive to the PACS logging in step and opening an image file (also referred to as an exam file) in the PACS. The exam or image file may contain one or more image files. The exemplary method further includes automatically creating a dictation file associated with the image file in the voice dictation system responsive to at least one of the PACS logging in step, the automatic logging in step or the imaging opening step. The method may optionally include, as part of the automatic creation step, sending a predetermined identifier to the dictation file to associate the image file with the dictation file. The method may additionally optionally include performing the automatic logging in step responsive to the PACS being in a dictation mode.
In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the method for integrating the PACS and a voice dictation system includes issuing a save command for a dictation file and saving the dictation file to memory. The method further includes automatically saving the image file responsive to at least one of the issuing step or the saving step. The method also includes automatically opening an image file in the PACS responsive to at least one of the issuing step, the saving step and the automatic saving step.