Medical device low acuity vitals system architecture

• US 10,310,845 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Inventors: Gondek, Cory R., Nagasubramanian, Soundharya, Kovitz, Paul S., Alfred, Charles, Goldman, III, Dan E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US14/535,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20150378798A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,670 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-123, 600300, 600301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades

Abstract

A medical device including a non-transitory storage device storing a plurality of modular software components programmed to provide medical device functionality is disclosed. The software components can be configured to run independently as a daemon, to be modified without recompiling unchanged software components and to communicate to each other through a software component. A system including a central unit configured to communicate with a medical device is also disclosed. A medical device software architecture stored on a non-transitory, computer readable storage medium including a plurality of modular software components programmed to provide medical device functionality is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A medical device, comprising:

a tangible, non-transitory storage device storing a single system architecture including a plurality of modular software components, wherein each of the plurality of modular software components is programmed to provide a separate medical device functionality;

wherein each of the plurality of modular software components is configured to run independently as a daemon such that each daemon provides the separate medical device functionality;

wherein the plurality of modular software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets,

wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is a proxy for interfacing with a measurement module, wherein the measurement module is configured to obtain patient physiological data;

wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets specifies a message channel for receiving output from the measurement module; and

wherein the message channel is defined between the proxy and the measurement module within the medical device so that the patient physiological data is communicated, using an object-oriented data model with a publish/subscribe bus architecture, from the measurement module to the proxy;

wherein each of the plurality of modular software components is configured to be modified and recompiled without recompiling unchanged modular software components; and

wherein the plurality of modular software components are configured to communicate to each other through a software component.

2. The medical device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is configured to enable communication between the medical device and a central unit.

3. The medical device of claim 1, wherein the measurement module is a saturated oxygen module, a non-invasive blood pressure module, or a thermometry module.

4. The medical device of claim 3, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the plurality of modular software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where the plurality of modular software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the common object-oriented architecture messages;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the medical device and provide a device configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start, or stop manager scripts in the medical device.

5. The medical device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of modular software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual operating system configured to interface with an operating system adaptor; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual hardware configured to interface with a hardware adaptor.

6. The medical device of claim 5, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a message manager configured to provide an inter-process communications bus for sending common object-oriented architecture messages between the plurality of modular software components.

7. The medical device of claim 5, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the plurality of modular software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where the plurality of modular software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the common object-oriented architecture messages;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the medical device and provide a device configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start, or stop manager scripts in the medical device.