Apparatus and method for distributed ultrasound diagnostics

A method of acquiring medical images, comprising:

• (i) an initialization step of selecting a target tissue from a menu of such tissues;
• (ii) a computer system recalling from storage specification of anatomy around the selected target tissue, and a list of anatomically defined fiducial positions required for use with the selected target tissue.
• (iii) an on-site user operating a non-invasive imaging device on a subject to produce pre-image data relating to an internal region of the subject and providing that pre-image data to the computer system;
• (iv) repetitively sensing and reporting location and orientation of the non-invasive imaging device in a coordinate frame set by a fixed base of a sensing system;
• (v) placing at least three external fiducials on the subject at locations in a predetermined relationship to body part structure within the internal region of the patient;
• (vi) registering as received fiducial data positions of the fiducials on the subject, with respect to a base frame in which position of the non-invasive imaging device is repetitively obtained;
• (vii) the computer system exercising a real-time algorithm on received fiducial data to establish a transformation between coordinates relative to the base frame and anatomy-model coordinates in terms of which a model of anatomy surrounding the target tissue has been defined;
• (viii) the computer system determining, within the anatomy-model coordinates, a geometric target region containing the selected target tissue;
• (ix) the computer system repetitively determining the location and orientation of the non-invasive imaging device with respect to the base frame;
• (x) the computer system repetitively transforming the location and orientation of the non-invasive imaging device to the anatomy-model coordinates;
• (xi) the computer system recording and integrating the pre-image data, and sensor location and orientation data within a target region over which an acquisition region of the non-invasive imaging device is moved;
• (xii) the computer system displaying to the on-site user on a visual display system a geometric representation of the geometric target region;
• (xiii) the computer displaying to the on-site user on the video display system a geometric representation of sub-regions within the internal region of the subject, the sub-regions indicating a current location and orientation of an acquisition region for which the non-invasive imaging device is capable of acquiring pre-image data and from which the computer exercises a real-time algorithm to create an image;
• (xiv) the non-invasive imaging device collecting pre-image data from a series of acquisition regions within the internal region of the subject;
• (xv) the computer exercising a real-time algorithm to provide a created image of the target region of the internal volume;
• (xvi) the computer exercising at least one real-time algorithm to apply a local image quality test of whether the data in a plurality of regions in the created image satisfy predetermined numerical criteria of quality;
• (xvii) the computer creating a geometric representation of points in the target region of the subject which have failed at least one predefined image quality test;
• (xviii) the system displaying the geometric representation to the on-site user;
• and
• (xix) the on-site user being invited to acquire further pre-image data, which are processed as in earlier steps, and the resulting image data added to the created image.