System and method for deployment of configuration and analysis software

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for deploying software, e.g., software modules designed for acquisition and/or post-processing of images related to a particular imaging agent. The modules can be remotely accessed from a software server.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 506,890 filed on Sep. 29, 2003, which is herein incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to a system and method for deploying software. More specifically, the present invention discloses a system and method for deploying configuration and / or analysis software, e.g., software deployed within an imaging system for conducting an imaging examination using an imaging agent, e.g., a molecular imaging agent. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] One of the latest trends in medical diagnosis and treatment is molecular imaging. In molecular imaging, specialized imaging agents or chemical compounds are utilized during a medical imaging procedure for highlighting particular cellular or molecular processes relating to a particular disease state. The molecular imaging agent manufacturer generally recommends a preferred set o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] In one embodiment, a plurality of imaging workstations (e.g., clients) is in communication with one or more software servers via a network. The network can be an intranet or the internet. A plurality of acquisition and / or post-processing modules is stored at the software server. These software modules are created by one or more information sources or entities that have expertise or specific knowledge in the acquisition parameters and / or post-processing parameters associated with the use of a particular molecular imaging agent. By storing these modules in a software server that is easily accessible by a plurality of clients, the imaging workstations may download the latest acquisition and / or post-processing modules for use in an examination of a patient, where a particular molecular imaging agent has been selected. Since there are numerous imaging agents currently in use and many more to be developed, this novel approach allows rapid and efficient distribution of the latest acquisition parameters and / or post-processing parameters associated with the use of a particular molecular imaging agent.

Problems solved by technology

However, the sheer number of these molecular imaging agents and the likelihood that most of them will require the development of complex agent-specific acquisition and image processing applications create serious impediments to the development of molecular imaging agents for clinical applications.

Some of these impediments stem from the fact that the architecture and user interfaces of existing commercial platforms may not scale to support a large number of molecular imaging applications, and the expense of developing such large number of applications may be prohibitive, especially to provide for equivalent functionality across the major workstation platforms.

Moreover, the essential step of clinical validation often performed at research hospitals can be a bottleneck.

Since commercial imaging workstations in use in the clinic are “closed”, and do not support rapid prototyping and experimentation, the clinical research groups must develop independent solutions on open platforms which do not transfer easily to other clinics, do not take advantage of the features of commercial workstations and cannot be easily ported to commercial platforms for operational use.

Furthermore, the post-processing of images has been hampered by variations in the acquisition workflow and post-processed algorithms generally leading to difficulties in comparing results.

Images