Medical image processing apparatus, endoscope system, and method for operating medical image processing apparatus for recognizing a region of interest in medical image

An endoscope system comprising:

• a light source device that generates illumination light for illuminating an observation target;
• an endoscope having an imaging device that performs imaging of the observation target illuminated with the illumination light;
• and
• a processor configured to function as:
• a medical image acquiring unit that sequentially acquires endoscopic images through imaging of the observation target;
• a recognition processing unit that performs recognition processing on the endoscopic images sequentially acquired by the medical image acquiring unit, wherein the recognition processing unit acquires a still image as an image for recognition and executes the recognition processing on the image for recognition, in response to a still image acquiring instruction input by a user;
• and
• a display control unit that switches, in response to a switching display instruction input by the user, between a first display method in which the endoscopic images sequentially acquired by the medical image acquiring unit is displayed in real time on a display but a recognition result by the recognition processing is not displayed on any display, and a second display method in which the recognition result obtained based on one of the endoscopic images displayed by the first display method is displayed and the first display method is not displayed on any display, a plurality of recognition results including the recognition result being obtained by performing the recognition processing on the endoscopic image displayed by the first display method and acquired by the medical image acquiring unit;
• and
• a display that displays the endoscopic images by using the first display method and the plurality of recognition results by using the second display method, wherein, in the second display method, the plurality of recognition results which includes the recognition result is displayed in a list format, each recognition result of the plurality of recognition results includes a thumbnail image and a corresponding lesion-information label.

A method for operating a medical image processing apparatus having processor, the steps executed by the processor comprising:

• sequentially acquiring endoscopic images through imaging of an observation target;
• performing recognition processing on the endoscopic images sequentially acquired by a medical image acquiring unit, wherein the recognition processing unit acquires a still image as an image for recognition and executes the recognition processing on the image for recognition, in response to a still image acquiring instruction input by a user;
• and
• switching, in response to a switching display instruction input by the user, between a first display method in which the endoscopic images sequentially acquired by the medical image acquiring unit is displayed in real time on a display but a recognition result by the recognition processing is not displayed on any display, and a second display method in which the recognition result obtained based on one of the endoscopic images displayed by the first display method is displayed on the display and the first display method is not displayed on any display, the recognition result being obtained by performing the recognition processing on the endoscopic image displayed by the first display method and acquired by the medical image acquiring unit, wherein, in the second display method, a plurality of recognition results which includes the recognition result is displayed in a list format, each recognition result of the plurality of recognition results includes a thumbnail image and a corresponding lesion-information label.