Performance monitoring system and method for a laser medical imager

A system for monitoring performance of each of a plurality of medical laser imagers located remotely from said system, each of said laser imagers forming medical diagnostic images on radiation-sensitive imaging media, the system comprising:

• polling means for periodically polling each of said laser imagers to acquire data from the respective one of said laser imagers, said data being representative of at least one performance condition associated with the respective one of said laser imagers, wherein said data representative of said at least one performance condition includes data representative of an optical density associated with each of said images on said imaging media;
• memory means for storing said data acquired by said polling means from each of said laser imagers over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• reporting means for generating a report representative of the data stored by said memory means for each of said laser imagers over said plurality of polling periods.

A system for monitoring performance of each of a plurality of medical laser imagers located remotely from said system, wherein each of said laser imagers forms a medical diagnostic image on radiation-sensitive imaging media based on image data received from a plurality of different imaging modalities, the system comprising:

• polling means for periodically polling each of said laser imagers to acquire data from the respective one of said laser imagers, said data being representative of an optical density associated with said image, an exposure level applied by the respective one of said laser imagers to said imaging media, and an amount of usage of the respective one of said laser imagers by each of said different imaging modalities;
• memory means for storing said data acquired by said polling means from each of said laser imagers over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• reporting means for generating, based on said data stored by said memory means, an image quality control report for each of said laser imagers and a modality usage report for each of said laser imagers,
• wherein said reporting means calculates, based on said data representative of said optical density and said exposure level, parameters representative of a minimum optical density associated with said image, an optical density contrast associated with said image, and a development response of said imaging media, said image quality control report being representative of said parameters for a plurality of images formed on said imaging media by the respective one of said laser imagers, and
• wherein said modality usage report represents, over said plurality of polling periods, said amount of usage of the respective one of said laser imagers by each of said different imaging modalities.

An imaging system comprising:

• a plurality of medical laser imagers, each of said laser imagers forming a medical diagnostic image on radiation-sensitive imaging media;
• polling means, located remotely from each of said laser imagers, for periodically polling each of said laser imagers to acquire data from the respective one of said laser imagers, said data being representative of at least one performance condition associated with the respective one of said laser imagers, wherein said data is representative of an optical density associated with said image;
• memory means, located remotely from said laser imagers, for storing said data acquired by said polling means from each of said laser imagers over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• reporting means, located remotely from said laser imagers, for generating a report representative of the data stored by said memory means for each of said laser imagers over said plurality of polling periods.

A method for monitoring performance of at least one laser imager, the method comprising the steps of:

• periodically polling said laser imager to acquire data from said laser imager, said data being representative of at least one performance condition associated with said laser imager, wherein said data representative of said at least one performance condition includes data representative of an optical density associated with each of said images;
• storing said data acquired in said polling step over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• generating a report representative of the stored data over said plurality of polling periods.

A method for remotely monitoring performance of each of a plurality of medical laser imagers, wherein each of said laser imagers forms a medical diagnostic image on radiation-sensitive imaging media based on image data received from a plurality of different imaging modalities, the method comprising the steps of:

• periodically polling each of said laser imagers remotely to acquire data from the respective one of said laser imagers, said data being representative of an optical density associated with said image, an exposure level applied by said laser imager to said imaging media, and an amount of usage of the respective one of said laser imagers by each of said different imaging modalities;
• storing said data acquired in said polling step from each of said laser imagers over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• generating, based on said stored data, an image quality control report for each of said laser imagers and a modality usage report for each of said laser imagers,
• said step of generating said image quality control report including calculating, based on said data representative of said optical density and said exposure level, parameters representative of a minimum optical density associated with said image, an optical density contrast associated with said image, and a development response of said imaging media, said image quality control report being representative of said parameters for a plurality of images formed on said imaging media by said laser imager, and
• wherein said modality usage report represents, over said plurality of polling periods, said amount of usage of the respective one of said laser imagers by each of said different imaging modalities.

A system for monitoring performance of at least one medical laser imager, the laser imager forming medical diagnostic images on imaging media, the system comprising:

• a polling device for periodically polling the laser imager to acquire data from the laser imager representative of an optical density associated with one or more images formed on the imaging media;
• a memory for storing the data acquired by the polling device over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• a reporting device for generating a report representative of the data stored by the memory over the plurality of polling periods.

A system for monitoring performance of at least one medical laser imager, the system comprising:

• a device for remotely acquiring data from the medical laser imager, the data being representative of an optical density associated with one or more medical diagnostic images formed on imaging media, and the data being representative of an exposure level applied by the medical laser imager to the imaging media for formation of the one or more medical diagnostic images;
• a device for calculating, based on the data, parameters representative of a minimum optical density associated with each of the images, an optical density contrast associated with each of the images, and a development response of the imaging media;
• and
• a device for generating a report including an image quality report representative of the calculated parameters for the plurality of images formed on the imaging media by the laser imager.

A system for monitoring performance of a medical imager, the imager forming medical diagnostic images on imaging media, the system comprising:

• polling means for periodically polling said medical imager to acquire data from said medical imager, said data being representative of at least one performance condition associated with said medical imager, wherein said data representative of said at least one performance condition includes data representative of an optical density associated with each of said images on said imaging media;
• memory means for storing said data acquired by said polling means over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• reporting means for generating a report representative of the data stored by said memory means over said plurality of polling periods.

A method for monitoring performance of at least one medical imager, the imager forming medical diagnostic images on imaging media, the method comprising the steps of:

• periodically polling said medical imager to acquire data from said medical imager, said data being representative of at least one performance condition associated with said medical imager, wherein said data representative of said at least one performance condition includes data representative of an optical density associated with each of said images;
• storing said data acquired in said polling step over a plurality of polling periods;
• and
• generating a report representative of the stored data over said plurality of polling periods.