Method and system for managing patient data

• US 20060167381A1
• Filed: 01/27/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Instrumentation Lab Co (Instrumentation Lab)
• Original Assignee: Instrumentation Lab Co (Instrumentation Lab)
• Inventors: Benet, Ramon E., Azer, Anwar A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,972,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/573
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 10/00 Other methods or instruments for diagnosis, e.g. instruments for taking a cell sample, for biopsy, for vaccination diagnosis vaccination prophylaxis, vaccination therapy A61B17/20; Sex determination; Ovulation-period determination menstruation tables G06C3/00; Throat striking implements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0271 using a remote monitoring unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0276 Determining malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150015 Source of blood
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150854 long distance, e.g. between patient's home and doctor's office
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing patient data. In one aspect, the invention relates to a system for managing patient data having many instruments. The instruments have a sampling member for sampling a body fluid from a patient and are in direct communication with at least one other instrument.

Claims

1. A system for managing patient data, the system comprising:

a plurality of instruments, each instrument comprising a sampling member for sampling a body fluid from a patient wherein at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments is in direct communication with at least one other instrument.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one instrument in direct communication with the at least one other instrument accesses patient data acquired by the at least one other instrument.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the direct communication comprises control of the at least one instrument by the at least one other instrument.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the control is selected from the group consisting of calibrating the at least one instrument, processing a sample on the at least one instrument, turning the at least one instrument on, and turning the at least one instrument off.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the control initiates a measurement of an analyte in a patient sample.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments is in direct communication with at least two other instruments in the plurality of instruments.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the direct instrument-to-instrument communication comprises bidirectional communication.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the sampling member further comprises an analytical module for acquiring patient data by analyzing a target component in the body fluid sample.

9. The system of claim 2 wherein the patient data comprises an analyzed target component.

10. The system of claim 2 wherein the accessing patient data is selected from the group consisting of viewing status of the at least one other instrument, viewing operations on the at least one other instrument, and searching patient results on the at least one other instrument.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments further comprises a single user interface for managing the analysis of the body fluid sample and for managing patient data.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the user interface displays, in a common format, patient data acquired by the each instrument and patient data accessed by the each instrument that is acquired by the at least one other instrument.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the single user interface is implemented using a browser application.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one instrument in the plurality of instrument comprises an agent instrument.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments transmits patient data to the agent instrument after acquiring the patient data.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments transmits patient data to the agent instrument after accessing the patient data.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one instrument in the plurality of instruments accesses patient data from the agent instrument.

18. An instrument for communicating patient data, the instrument comprising:

(a) an analytical module for analyzing a body fluid sample;

(b) a data management module in communication with the analytical module enabling management of data associated with the body fluid sample; and

(c) a communications module in communication with the analytical module and the data management module for facilitating direct communication with other like instruments.

19. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the management of data is selected from the group consisting of generating a report, managing security information, performing competency testing, determining a pattern associated with the instrument, performing inventory management, and determining workload of the instrument.

20. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the security information further comprises login information.

21. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the report further comprises at least one of a quality control report, a regulation report, and a workload report.

22. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the generating of the report further comprises automatically generating the report.

23. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the performing competency testing further comprises determining a pattern of occurrences to facilitate better training.

24. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the data further comprises patient information.

25. The instrument of claim 18 wherein the data further comprises analytical data associated with the analysis of the body fluid sample.

26. The instrument of claim 18 further comprising a user interface for receiving user instructions relating to the analytical module, the data management module, and the communications module.

27. The instrument of claim 26 wherein the user interface comprises a browser application.

28. A method for accessing patient data, the method comprising:

(a) connecting a plurality of instruments to a network, each instrument comprising a sampling member for sampling a body fluid from a patient;

(b) sampling, by a sampling member of a first instrument in the plurality of instruments, a body fluid from a patient;

(c) analyzing, by the first instrument, the body fluid sample; and

(d) accessing, by a second instrument directly from the first instrument, the results of the analysis.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the direct communication in step (a) further comprises controlling at least one instrument by at least another instrument.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the controlling further comprises calibrating the at least one instrument, processing a sample on the at least one instrument, turning the at least one instrument on, and turning the at least one instrument off.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein step (d) further comprises at least one of viewing status of the first instrument, viewing operations on the first instrument, searching the patient data on the first instrument, and controlling the first instrument.

32. The method of claim 28 further comprising:

(e) configuring one or more of the plurality of instruments according to predetermined acceptable ranges of the results of the analysis.

33. A system for managing patient information, the system comprising:

a plurality of instruments, each instrument comprising a sampling member for sampling a body fluid from a patient; and

a plurality of communication modules, a communication module being associated with each of the plurality of instruments, for exchanging patient information with other of the plurality of instruments, whereby the patient information is exchanged directly among the plurality of instruments such that the patient information is not permanently stored or processed on an apparatus other than one or more of the plurality of instruments.