DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is responsive to remarks filed on 09/23/2025. By this response, applicant submits no claims are amended and claims 9 and 10 are added. Applicant further submits that no new matters have been added. A complete response to applicants remarks follows here below.
Response to Arguments
The amended title has been accepted and the objection to the title is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 7-9, filed 09/23/2025, with respect to the rejections of claims under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered and the rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Sorenson (US 20180101645 A1) as detailed below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/21/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or (a)(2) as being anticipated by Sorenson (US 20180101645 A1).
Regarding Claim 1: (Original) Sorenson discloses a medical image processing apparatus (Refer to para [002]; “Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to medical information processing systems. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to medical image interpretation using artificial intelligence, iterative image processing engine training and a bi-directional interaction between an image processing engine results and a physician.”) comprising a hardware processor (Refer to para [084]; “Furthermore, such components can be implemented as specific hardware logic in a processor or processor core as part of an instruction set accessible by a software component via one or more specific instructions.”) that displays a measurement image (Refer to para [029]; “An image processing engine refers to an executable image or binary code that can be individually and independently launched and executed by a processor, in some cases, in combination of hardware processing resources (e.g., graphic acceleration devices such as graphic processing units or GPUs), to perform a specific image process on an image (such as shape recognition, size measurement, etc.).”) including a measurement object and a measurement scale (Refer to para [052]; “The engine or e-suites can detect findings (e.g., a disease, an indication, a feature, an object, a shape, a texture, a measurement, insurance fraud, or any combination thereof). The one or more engines and/or one or more e-suites can detect findings from studies (e.g., clinical reports, images, patient data, image data, metadata, or any combination thereof) based on metadata, known methods of in-image analysis, or any combination thereof.”) for measuring a measurement value related to the measurement object in a manner that the measurement scale is superimposed on the measurement image (Refer to para [024 and 129]; “To ensure alignment of the observations and selections of the unsupervised engine with maximized clinical value of the findings, annotation adjustments, assembly of image cohorts and physician/clinician feedback received in medical data review and clinical diagnostic interpretation, weighted values (equal or unequal) are placed upon one or more of the a) engines, b) the quantity and type of findings made by each engine (including no findings) c) multipliers applied to the cases where findings are confirmed or rejected by multiple engines, and d) multipliers applied to the cases where multiple engines worked on an image or content set to determine a finding (or non-finding).”) manages history information related to the measurement value (Refer to para [130]; “Such a system that allows bidirectional communication between an image viewer and solution reporting solution assists a physician's natural predisposition to start with the images, and helps to prevent the creation of bias through a priori knowledge. This also helps to avoid the case where physician starting with a pre-populated report would either need to accept the computer-generated findings blindly, or verify them bouncing between the findings and the images. Workflow is not broken because changes in the findings within the image viewer may not update the results in the report. More importantly, the changes in the findings in the report which were made by the physician's further interrogation and measurements within the images are coordinated such that the original measurements or annotations made in the images by the computer automation methods are removed or replaced.”) and accepts correction or deletion of a position of the measurement scale (Refer to para [135]; “For example, a computer processing engine running in an image processing system can indicate the area of the maximum diameter of the patient's abdominal aorta by first placing a centerline through the vessel in three dimensions, then create a contour or surface edge along the circumference of the long vessel wall which is irregular and not a perfect circle. The computer processing engine then places many planes at a ninety-degree angle to this centerline and finds the location where this plane resides within the plane. These regions of interest are measured using various methods such as calculating the RESIST measurement or the total area to determine which has the highest value and is therefore the greatest. This edge contour and measurement is returned to the interpretation viewer and the reporting system with a link that allows both systems to know that this measurement, of that type, in the specific location it was made are correlated.”) wherein the hardware processor corrects or deletes a history measurement value corresponding to the measurement scale having the position corrected or deleted among history measurement values included in the history information in a case where the position of the measurement scale is corrected or deleted (Refer to para [130]; “This avoids confusion in the patient record that can occur when images are stored along with the final report, and avoids unnecessary work to delete computer generated findings in the case they are duplicated and not updated. Such workflow confusion and inefficiency is resolved by a bi-directional updating of physician-adjusted, added, or deleted findings within the report and the diagnostic interpretation viewer, irrespective of the point of the change, whether it be the report value that is changed, or the measurement or image process used in the image viewer being adjusted to create a new resultant value.”).
Regarding Claim 2: (Original) Sorenson discloses the hardware processor accepts correction or deletion of any of the history measurement values (Refer to para [035]; “The medical data review system detects agreement or disagreement in the results and findings and sends alerts for further adjudication given the discordant results, or it records the differences and provides these to the owner of the algorithm/engine allowing them to govern whether this feedback is accepted (i.e. whether or not the physician input should be accepted as truth, and whether this study should be included in a new or updated cohort.)”) and the hardware processor corrects or deletes the position of the measurement scale corresponding to the corrected or deleted history measurement value among displayed measurement scales in a case where the history measurement value is corrected or deleted (Refer to para [129]; “The system includes the ability to demonstrate computer generated findings within the viewer such that the generated findings can be seen, accepted, adjusted, deleted or replaced by the reviewing physician. Such report changes by the physical automatically update the report based on physician supplied information. Similarly, if a physician replaces a number in a report with a different measurement value made via a different measurement in the image viewer, the system will prompt the physician to accept the deletion of the old measurement that was replaced, or automatically do this based on this and other preferences.”).
Regarding Claim 2: (Original) Sorenson discloses the hardware processor generates a report including the measurement value measured by the measurement scale (Refer to para [052]; “The one or more engines and/or one or more e-suites can detect findings from studies (e.g., clinical reports, images, patient data, image data, metadata, or any combination thereof) based on metadata, known methods of in-image analysis, or any combination thereof. The image processing engines 113-115 of image processing server 110 can flag image data with findings, for example, indicating that the image data is abnormal.”) and the hardware processor corrects or deletes a report measurement value corresponding to the measurement scale having the position corrected or deleted among report measurement values included in the report in a case where the position of the measurement scale is corrected or deleted (Refer to para [129]; “Similarly, if a physician replaces a number in a report with a different measurement value made via a different measurement in the image viewer, the system will prompt the physician to accept the deletion of the old measurement that was replaced, or automatically do this based on this and other preferences.”).
Regarding Claim 7: (Original) Sorenson discloses a control method executed by a computer included in a medical image processing apparatus (Refer to para [002 and 168]; “Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to medical information processing systems. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to medical image interpretation using artificial intelligence, iterative image processing engine training and a bi-directional interaction between an image processing engine results and a physician.” “The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), firmware, software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination of both”) the control method comprising: displaying a measurement image (Refer to para [029]; “An image processing engine refers to an executable image or binary code that can be individually and independently launched and executed by a processor, in some cases, in combination of hardware processing resources (e.g., graphic acceleration devices such as graphic processing units or GPUs), to perform a specific image process on an image (such as shape recognition, size measurement, etc.).”) including a measurement object and a measurement scale (Refer to para [052]; “The engine or e-suites can detect findings (e.g., a disease, an indication, a feature, an object, a shape, a texture, a measurement, insurance fraud, or any combination thereof). The one or more engines and/or one or more e-suites can detect findings from studies (e.g., clinical reports, images, patient data, image data, metadata, or any combination thereof) based on metadata, known methods of in-image analysis, or any combination thereof.”) for measuring a measurement value related to the measurement object in a manner that the measurement scale is superimposed on the measurement image (Refer to para [024 and 129]; “To ensure alignment of the observations and selections of the unsupervised engine with maximized clinical value of the findings, annotation adjustments, assembly of image cohorts and physician/clinician feedback received in medical data review and clinical diagnostic interpretation, weighted values (equal or unequal) are placed upon one or more of the a) engines, b) the quantity and type of findings made by each engine (including no findings) c) multipliers applied to the cases where findings are confirmed or rejected by multiple engines, and d) multipliers applied to the cases where multiple engines worked on an image or content set to determine a finding (or non-finding).”) managing history information related to the measurement value (Refer to para [130]; “Such a system that allows bidirectional communication between an image viewer and solution reporting solution assists a physician's natural predisposition to start with the images, and helps to prevent the creation of bias through a priori knowledge. This also helps to avoid the case where physician starting with a pre-populated report would either need to accept the computer-generated findings blindly, or verify them bouncing between the findings and the images. Workflow is not broken because changes in the findings within the image viewer may not update the results in the report. More importantly, the changes in the findings in the report which were made by the physician's further interrogation and measurements within the images are coordinated such that the original measurements or annotations made in the images by the computer automation methods are removed or replaced.”) and correcting or deleting a history measurement value corresponding to the measurement scale (Refer to para [135]; “For example, a computer processing engine running in an image processing system can indicate the area of the maximum diameter of the patient's abdominal aorta by first placing a centerline through the vessel in three dimensions, then create a contour or surface edge along the circumference of the long vessel wall which is irregular and not a perfect circle. The computer processing engine then places many planes at a ninety-degree angle to this centerline and finds the location where this plane resides within the plane. These regions of interest are measured using various methods such as calculating the RESIST measurement or the total area to determine which has the highest value and is therefore the greatest. This edge contour and measurement is returned to the interpretation viewer and the reporting system with a link that allows both systems to know that this measurement, of that type, in the specific location it was made are correlated.”) having a position whose correction or deletion is accepted among history measurement values included in the history information in a case where correction or deletion of the position of the measurement scale is accepted (Refer to para [130]; “This avoids confusion in the patient record that can occur when images are stored along with the final report, and avoids unnecessary work to delete computer generated findings in the case they are duplicated and not updated. Such workflow confusion and inefficiency is resolved by a bi-directional updating of physician-adjusted, added, or deleted findings within the report and the diagnostic interpretation viewer, irrespective of the point of the change, whether it be the report value that is changed, or the measurement or image process used in the image viewer being adjusted to create a new resultant value.”).
Regarding Claim 8: (Original) Sorenson discloses a non-transitory recording medium storing a computer readable program (Refer to para [168]; “The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), firmware, software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination of both.”) causing a computer (Refer to para [123]; “Note that while FIG. 6 illustrates various components of a computer system, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components; as such details are not germane to the present invention. It will also be appreciated that network computers, handheld computers, cell phones and other data processing systems which have fewer components or perhaps more components may also be used with the present invention.”) included in a medical image processing apparatus to perform (Refer to para [002]; “Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to medical information processing systems. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to medical image interpretation using artificial intelligence, iterative image processing engine training and a bi-directional interaction between an image processing engine results and a physician.”): displaying a measurement image (Refer to para [029]; “An image processing engine refers to an executable image or binary code that can be individually and independently launched and executed by a processor, in some cases, in combination of hardware processing resources (e.g., graphic acceleration devices such as graphic processing units or GPUs), to perform a specific image process on an image (such as shape recognition, size measurement, etc.).”) including a measurement object and a measurement scale for measuring a measurement value (Refer to para [052]; “The engine or e-suites can detect findings (e.g., a disease, an indication, a feature, an object, a shape, a texture, a measurement, insurance fraud, or any combination thereof). The one or more engines and/or one or more e-suites can detect findings from studies (e.g., clinical reports, images, patient data, image data, metadata, or any combination thereof) based on metadata, known methods of in-image analysis, or any combination thereof.”) related to the measurement object in a manner that the measurement scale is superimposed on the measurement image (Refer to para [024 and 129]; “To ensure alignment of the observations and selections of the unsupervised engine with maximized clinical value of the findings, annotation adjustments, assembly of image cohorts and physician/clinician feedback received in medical data review and clinical diagnostic interpretation, weighted values (equal or unequal) are placed upon one or more of the a) engines, b) the quantity and type of findings made by each engine (including no findings) c) multipliers applied to the cases where findings are confirmed or rejected by multiple engines, and d) multipliers applied to the cases where multiple engines worked on an image or content set to determine a finding (or non-finding).”) managing history information related to the measurement value (Refer to para [130]; “Such a system that allows bidirectional communication between an image viewer and solution reporting solution assists a physician's natural predisposition to start with the images, and helps to prevent the creation of bias through a priori knowledge. This also helps to avoid the case where physician starting with a pre-populated report would either need to accept the computer-generated findings blindly, or verify them bouncing between the findings and the images. Workflow is not broken because changes in the findings within the image viewer may not update the results in the report. More importantly, the changes in the findings in the report which were made by the physician's further interrogation and measurements within the images are coordinated such that the original measurements or annotations made in the images by the computer automation methods are removed or replaced.”) and correcting or deleting a history measurement value corresponding to the measurement scale (Refer to para [135]; “For example, a computer processing engine running in an image processing system can indicate the area of the maximum diameter of the patient's abdominal aorta by first placing a centerline through the vessel in three dimensions, then create a contour or surface edge along the circumference of the long vessel wall which is irregular and not a perfect circle. The computer processing engine then places many planes at a ninety-degree angle to this centerline and finds the location where this plane resides within the plane. These regions of interest are measured using various methods such as calculating the RESIST measurement or the total area to determine which has the highest value and is therefore the greatest. This edge contour and measurement is returned to the interpretation viewer and the reporting system with a link that allows both systems to know that this measurement, of that type, in the specific location it was made are correlated.”) having a position whose correction or deletion is accepted among history measurement values included in the history information in a case where correction or deletion of the position of the measurement scale is accepted (Refer to para [130]; “This avoids confusion in the patient record that can occur when images are stored along with the final report, and avoids unnecessary work to delete computer generated findings in the case they are duplicated and not updated. Such workflow confusion and inefficiency is resolved by a bi-directional updating of physician-adjusted, added, or deleted findings within the report and the diagnostic interpretation viewer, irrespective of the point of the change, whether it be the report value that is changed, or the measurement or image process used in the image viewer being adjusted to create a new resultant value.”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 9 and 10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIA M THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)270-1583. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8:30am-4:30pm.
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MIA M. THOMAS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2665
/MIA M THOMAS/Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2665