Appeal 2007-0932
Application 10/058,924
include the claimed patient identification information of a subject as well as
so-called subject information that may be used by a photographer.
A key to understanding the nature of McDonald are the statements at
column 4, lines 47 through 55, and the additional statements at column 5,
lines 1 through 8. The system 20 in figure 1 is stated to include all
functionality necessary to identify a patient before an ultrasound imaging
scan is to take place after the creation of an admission record for the patient.
The emphasis is upon the hospital facility maintaining impeccable records to
identify and track subsequent ultrasound scans to ensure that each scan is
accurately associated with a specific patient and on a specific date. This
emphasis is focused upon the accuracy and the correct association of each
image scanned with each patient. Thus, the demographic data module is
stated to be included, as shown in figure 1, in each capture station 22 and
review station 26. Each review station 26 includes the capability for
reviewing a pre-scanned image according to the discussion beginning at
column 9, and to do so upon a display device or computer display associated
with each module.
Because the demographic data module is included within image
capture station 22, it is only by inference rather than explicitly disclosed in
McDonald as the Examiner indicates in the rejection, that the earlier-noted
key patient information is interpreted by the artisan to be displayed to the
operator before the ultrasound scan occurs. Additionally, it is noted at the
bottom of column 3 that the figure 1 system 20 includes client machines 22,
26 each of which comprise personal computers which have the earlier-noted
image display associated with them. The discussion beginning at the middle
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