System and Method for Extracting Radiological Information Utilizing Radiological Domain Report Ontology and Natural Language Processing

A method programmed in a computing environment for consulting and providing report information from a historical radiological report, the method comprising:

• defining one or more aspects of radiology report information as concept properties represented by a vocabulary of one or more instances of a radiological domain ontology, said radiological domain ontology declaring and fulfilling a model of radiological domain knowledge;
• wherein said model of radiological domain knowledge comprises:
• one or more findings;
• one or more finding characteristics;
• and
• object properties, wherein said object properties represent relationships among said findings and finding characteristics;
• extracting from said historical radiological report an informational item of interest;
• employing a natural language processor to identify a context that defines a set of said domain knowledge and the relationships among said set of domain knowledge to describe said informational item of interest;
• validating said informational item is reportable radiological information and resides in said domain of knowledge;
• identifying definitive concept of said informational item from within said domain of knowledge;
• and
• classifying said informational item into a hierarchical report.

A method for providing a knowledge based report of historical breast imaging information to an application program, the method comprising:

• interfacing the application program to a natural language processor;
• accessing a historical radiological report file including breast imaging information;
• said natural language processor employing a mammographic report ontology;
• said natural language processor analyzing said historical radiological report file and categorizing said breast imaging information therein to create a new radiological report;
• and
• providing the content of said new radiological report to the application program.

A computing system for providing radiological reporting utilizing a radiological report domain ontology in reference to a subject comprising:

• a definition of one or more aspects of radiology reports as concept properties represented by a vocabulary of one or more instances of said radiological report domain ontology, said radiological report domain ontology declaring and fulfilling a model of radiological report domain knowledge;
• means for receiving an informational report item of interest from a historical radiological report, wherein said informational report item of interest relates to said subject;
• a context that employs a set of said radiological report domain knowledge and the relationships among said set of said radiological report domain knowledge to describe said subject;
• a validation module to determine that said informational report item of interest is radiological and resides in said radiological report domain knowledge;
• an identification module to determine a definitive concept of said informational report item of interest from within said radiological report domain knowledge;
• and
• a classification module for classifying said informational report item of interest as a finding or a finding characteristic within said radiological report domain knowledge;
• and
• a report manager for providing said finding or said finding characteristic in a hierarchical radiological report.