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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
In the amendment filed 08/28/2026, the following occurred: Claims 1-5 and 10-16 are amended; and claims 6-9 are canceled.
Claims 1-5 and 10-16 are pending and have been examined.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP 2024-034929 filed 03/07/2024
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-5 and 10-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 12-16 recite “the plurality of medical images”, which lacks antecedent basis as each claim recites only one medical image (“a medical image that is a processing target” in claim 1). It appears that one or more canceled claims was not incorporated into the independent claims, and that this missing information would provide the necessary clarity. Appropriate corrections are required. The rejection of independent claims 1 and 12-16 also applies to dependent claims 2-5 and 10-11.
Subject Matter Eligibility
Independent Claims 1 and 12-16 are determined to be subject matter eligible according to the MPEP for reciting the “wherein… the processing target… includes a first medical image acquired earlier and a second medical image acquired later, and when processing of the second medical image by the execution application is predicted to end before processing of the first medical image can be started, the processing circuitry is configured to set a timing of processing of the second medical image by the execution application to be before processing of the first medical image by the execution application regardless of the priority.” Each independent claim is setting the timing and order of image processing operations by the execution application. The Specification at pg. 18 describes features of the disclosed processing by the execution application as reducing wasteful processing in applications. The combination of claim limitations results in this reduction of wasteful processing by a computer, which is a technical solution to a technical problem that provides a practical application under subject eligibility analysis Step 2A2. As such, this combination amounts to more than mere instructions to apply the abstract idea using the general-purpose computer. The subject matter eligibility also applies to dependent claims 2-5 and 10-11.
Subject Matter Free of Prior Art
The cited prior art of record fails to expressly teach or suggest, either alone or in combination, the features found within the independent claims 1 and 12-16 as follows (claim 1 being representative): “when processing of the second medical image by the execution application ends before processing of the first medical image can be started, the processing circuitry is configured to set a timing of processing of the second medical image by the execution application to be before processing of the first medical image by the execution application regardless of the priority.” The subject matter eligibility of the independent claims also applies to their dependent claims 2-5 and 10-11.
The most remarkable prior art of record is as follows:
Nishitaka (US 2022/0139528 A1) for teaching analysis support apparatus, system, and method.
Dwivedi (US 2020/0066006 A1) for teaching an image reconstruction process according to claim 6 (para. 0033, 0048), claim 7 (para. 0033, 0053); see also para. 0054-0057.
Kuo (US 2017/0046482 A1) for teaching at least the provision of a total estimated time for a medical image series (see para. 0012).
Alternative to Dwivedi and/or Kuo, Nye et al. (US 2022/0284579 A1) for teaching according to claims 6-7, a radiologist worklist prioritized by putting stat images first, followed by images in order from oldest to newest… Since so many images are ordered as STAT, a radiologist can be unaware, among all the STAT images, which ones are really the most critical (see para. 0098); elevating priority of an image in the worklist when a critical finding is detected (see para. 0153); rules can be created to determine image/exam priority, and those rules can be stored such as in a DICOM header (e.g., as a tag) of an image sent to the PACS 1044 (para. 0157).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Sughrue et al. (US 2021/0390690 A1) for teaching identifying invalid medical images including the following: a set of possible reasons that an image may be invalid can include one or more of: a header or data from a file of the image cannot be accessed; … ; metadata of the image is invalid; a file of the image does not match a standard schema (para. 0012); and validity criteria for determining an image is invalid… e.g., one or more metadata tags in the uploaded DICOM file is invalid (Table 1 and para. 0081-0082).
Iwamura et al. (US 12,700,494) for teaching medical information processing device, medical information processing method, and storage medium including the same computing environment, the same application DICOM tags, automatic execution of application(s) based on a rule, automatic execution error notification, manual execution (see Figs. 1-2, 4, 6, 8).
Di Grandi (US 2022/0246281) for teaching methods and systems for improving radiology workflow including a mobile application may store a correspondence table defining which services are to be executed according to the information encoded by the tag (i.e., the recited “supplementary information attached to the medical image”). In some instances, if there are several tags attached to an image, each tag may encode all the relevant information relating to a specific functionality. The mobile application does not itself have to store the functionalities. See, e.g., para. 0071.
Takahashi (US 2022/0277448) for teaching optimization information 42 for optimizing the applications 40 to be executed, the priority ranks of the applications 40 to be executed, and a retention period for which the execution result of the applications 40 is to be retained is stored. The optimization information 42 is information indicating one or more processes to be performed as the second process, which are determined in advance and which are performed depending on the processing result of the first process, among processes performable by the plurality of applications 40. For example, in a case where a medical image for image analysis is a medical image conforming to the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard, the plurality of processes performable in the present embodiment are processes determined in advance in accordance with a DICOM tag. Examples of the DICOM tag include Image Comments and Study Description. See, e.g., para. 0036.
Nye et al. (US 2019/0164285) for teaching again rules can be created to determine image/exam priority, and those rules can be stored such as in a DICOM header of an image sent to the PACS 1044. An AI model can be used to set a score or a flag in the DICOM header (e.g., tag the DICOM header) to be used a rule to prioritize those exams. Thus, a DICOM header tag (e.g., reflecting the score or flag, etc.) can be used to build priority rules. See, e.g., para. 0142.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/J.M.W./Examiner, Art Unit 3683
/CHRISTOPHER L GILLIGAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3683
