Electronic Method and System that Improves Efficiencies for Rendering Diagnosis of Radiology Procedures

A method for reviewing electronic radiology information including patient demographics, radiology procedures, radiology reports and radiology images, comprising the steps of:

• a) loading the radiology information associated with a selected group of patients that are assigned to a selected radiologist into a computer memory;
• b) generating by a software application an image of a radiology manual master folder on an area of a computer display for use as a graphical user interface by the radiologist;
• c) generating data fields associated with a digital master folder on the image of a patient's manual master folder including patient's name, medical record number, date of birth, sex, and information regarding procedures associated with such patient stored in an information database including date, type of procedure, report, and radiologist, the digital master folder designed for use by a radiologist;
• d) displaying the information associated with the patient from computer memory in data fields on the computer display in a default electronic layout conforming to the layout of the patient's manual master folder;
• e) providing hyperlinks within the procedure and report data fields to view additional information or images relating to a patient's medical records when clicked, the information and images displayed in electronic formats and configurations tailored to a radiology practice;
• f) clicking on the report field, displays a new window that contains the text of the report and a link to the digitally recorded dictation of the report, that when clicked will play the recording;
• g) placing a cursor over the report field on the digital master folder, to display summary information of the report;
• h) clicking on the procedure field to send a command to a viewing portal to load the procedures and images that meet the criteria of the radiologist's file;
• i) viewing the radiology images from radiology procedures;
• j) generating a searchable and selectable list of patients that have procedures assigned to the radiologist on the computer display;
• and
• k) providing commands that navigate through the stack of master folders, displaying information associated with a new patient in a data field on the computer display from computer memory.

An apparatus to access, store, and distribute electronic radiology information including patient demographics, radiology procedures, radiology reports and radiology images comprising:

• a) an information database including patient demographics, radiology identification number, procedures, images, reports, orders and appointments;
• b) means for transmitting and receiving the information between computers connected to a computer network via extensible markup language (XML);
• c) means for searching for a plurality of user specified types of information contained in the information database;
• d) means for generating by a software application a digital master folder representation of a patient's manual master folder for displaying the specified types of information over a monitor of a computer connected to the computer network, the digital master folder representation designed for use as a graphical user interface by a radiologist;
• e) means for generating data fields on the digital master folder representation including radiology reports and images information regarding radiology procedures associated with such patient stored in the information database;
• f) means for viewing radiology images from a radiology procedure;
• g) means for displaying the radiology reports and images in an electronic layout conforming to the layout of the patient's manual master folder and tailored to a user;
• and
• h) means for providing hyperlinks within at least one data field to view additional information or images relating to a patient's medical records when clicked.

A multi-monitor radiology image viewing system comprising:

• a) a plurality of monitors;
• b) a combination dictation and input device that includes a hyperlink to view a patients' information and medical images on separate monitors comprising:
• c) a radiology portal that includes a monitor and a computer for the searching and that includes viewing medical information, the medical information displayed over the monitor by generating by a software application a digital master folder representation of a patient's manual master folder, the digital master folder representation designed for use as a graphical user interface by a radiologist;
• d) said digital master folder representation providing data fields included within the digital master folder representation providing information and links to radiology reports and images regarding radiology procedures associated with such patient stored in an information database in an electronic layout conforming to the layout of the patient's manual master folder and tailored to a user, such links providing for the viewing of additional information or images relating to a patient's medical records when clicked;
• e) said viewing portal consisting of at least two monitors designed for the viewing of a plurality of radiology images including digital images, computer tomography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and magnetic resonance images;
• and
• f) said combination dictation and input device including a voice component that issues operational and navigational commands to the radiology portal and viewing portal by providing speech recognition for the creation of dictated radiology reports.