Method for the enabling or blocking of an operating mode in a medical diagnostic device

• US 20050215880A1
• Filed: 03/24/2005
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Harrison, Sean, Kuth, Rainer
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,658 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/90 Identification means for patients or instruments, e.g. tags
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A method for the enabling or blocking of an operating mode in a medical diagnostic device enables the operating mode of the diagnostic device only after successful verification of the consumable material required for the operational mode. The consumable material is identified by a machine-readable identification tag, which is read off by a reading device.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A method of enabling or blocking an operating mode of a medical diagnostic device comprising an enabling system for enabling or blocking the operating mode, a reading device and a database, the enabling system connected to the reading device and the database, and the database comprising stored information related to a plurality of operating modes and to consumable materials required for executing medical procedures corresponding to the operating modes, the method comprising:

reading an identification tag by the reading device, the identification tag denoting consumable material required for executing a specific medical procedure corresponding to a specific operating mode;

verifying the denoted consumable material by comparing the denoted consumable material with such consumable-material-related information stored in the database corresponding to the specific operating mode, by the enabling system; and

enabling the specific operating mode by the enabling system only if the denoted consumable material at least essentially matches the consumable-material-related information stored in the database corresponding to the specific operating mode.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the medical diagnostic device is a medical imaging device.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

reading out a counter value of a counter included in the identification tag;

decreasing the counter value by a specified value after each reading out action;

enabling the specific operating mode by the enabling system only if the enabling systems positively verifies the decreasing of the counter value; and

blocking the specific operating mode at least temporarily by the enabling system if the read out counter value corresponds to a pre-defined counter value.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the enabling system enables the specific operating mode only if a prescribed manufacturer of the consumable material required for executing the specific medical procedure is positively verified.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the medical diagnostic device further comprises a storage device connected to the medical diagnostic device, and the evaluation device transmits information related to the consumable material required for executing the specific medical procedure and information related to a patient undergoing the specific medical procedure to the storage device.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the medical diagnostic device further comprises a display device, and the enabling system triggers a display of information related to the specific operating mode and to the consumable materials required for executing the medical procedure corresponding to the specific operating mode on the display device.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the enabling system blocks the specific operating mode at least temporarily if the reading device identifies an expired “

best before”

-date assigned to the consumable material required for executing the medical procedure corresponding to the specific operating mode.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein a transponder is assigned to the consumable materials required for executing the medical procedure corresponding to the specific operating mode, and the reading device reads out the transponder for identifying the consumable materials.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the transponder includes an EEPROM, and the reading out of the transponder by the reading device includes a permanent modification of the memory contents of the EEPROM.

19. The method according to claim 10, wherein the medical diagnostic device further comprises a measuring and control unit for selecting one of the operating modes by a user.