ACCESSING MEDICAL IMAGE DETABASES USING MEDICALLY RELEVANT TERMS

摘要

The invention relates to a system for accessing a database comprising a plurality of image data sets. The system comprises an acquisition unit for acquiring a query for searching the database for an image data set or an image data subset comprised in an image data set, the query comprising at least one medically relevant term defining search criteria; a determining unit for determining the image data set or the image data subset comprised in the image data set, based on the strength of semantic matches between the at least one medically relevant term and (a) corresponding medical annotation(s) describing the image data set; and a retrieving unit for retrieving the determined image data set or image data subset from the database. By enabling semantic matches between medical annotations describing the image data set and the medically relevant term comprised in the query, this invention enables searching for medical images with high-level medical information that is meaningful for medical diagnosis and treatments.