Methods and systems for user and/or patient experience improvement in mammography

A method for an x-ray mammography system comprising:

• providing a vision system including one or more vision sensors and the x-ray mammography system including a user interface;
• determining a current mode of operation;
• evaluating, via the vision system including one or more vision sensors, a breast position of a breast in an imaging volume of the x-ray mammography system and a patient position based on the current mode;
• detecting one or more of a patient positioning error, and a breast positioning error based on the evaluation;
• and
• providing real-time feedback including indications for one or more of desired breast position and desired patient position based on the detection via the user interface of the mammography system;
• wherein the patient positioning error is detected based on a patient anatomy and a patient position with respect to the x-ray mammography system;
• wherein the breast positioning error is detected based on one or more anatomical structures of the breast;
• and
• wherein when the current mode is a digital breast tomosynthesis mode, evaluating one or more of the breast positioning error and the patient positioning error at one or more x-ray source angulations within an angular range of the x-ray mammography system prior to initiating tomosynthesis acquisition.

A medical imaging system, comprising:

• a gantry including a radiation source for emitting radiation rays, a detector for receiving the radiation rays, and a collimator for adjusting a field of view;
• a vision sensor system including at least a first vision sensor and a second vision sensor;
• and
• a workstation including a first user interface including a first display portion, the workstation communicatively coupled to the gantry, the gantry coupled to a second user interface including a second display portion;
• wherein the workstation includes a processor, the processor configured with instructions in non-transitory memory that when executed cause the processor to:
• acquire, with the first vision sensor, a first camera image of a patient and the medical imaging system;
• acquire, with the second vision sensor, a second camera image of a breast in an imaging volume of the medical imaging system;
• determine, with the first camera image and the second camera image, a patient position with respect to the medical imaging system, and a breast position with respect to a whole body position of a patient and the medical imaging system and based on a patient breast anatomy;
• responsive to the patient position in agreement with a first model and the breast position in agreement with a second model, initiate image acquisition;
• otherwise, provide real-time feedback via the first and the second user interface of the medical imaging system and inhibiting image acquisition with the radiation source until the patient position is in agreement with the first model and the breast position is in agreement with the second model;
• and
• provide an option, via one or more of the first user interface and the second interface, for a user to initiate image acquisition when one or more of the patient position is not in agreement with the first model and the breast position is not in agreement with the second model;
• wherein the first model and the second model are based on an artificial intelligence algorithm using the first camera image and the second camera image as inputs.