METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING INVENTORIES OF ORTHOPAEDIC IMPLANTS

• US 20070272747A1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Depuy Synthes Products Incorporated (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: DePuy Synthes Products LLC (Johnson & Johnson)
• Inventors: DiSilvestro, Mark R., Woods, Sherrod A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/30953 using a remote computer network, e.g. Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/40 relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A system and method for managing inventories of orthopaedic implants includes receiving a medical image of a bone of a patient from a healthcare provider, performing a digital templating procedure on the medical image to determine an orthopaedic implant for use with the bone of the patient; transmitting the digital templated medical image to the healthcare provider, and shipping the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to an electronic approval of the digital templated medical image received from the healthcare provider. Implant constraint data may also be received from the healthcare provider and used in determining the orthopaedic implant. In addition, a number of orthopaedic implants having a range of different sizes based on the size of the determined orthopaedic implant may be shipped to the healthcare provider. In some embodiments, the healthcare provider may perform the digital templating procedure on the medical image.

Claims

1. A method for managing inventories of orthopaedic implants, the method comprising:

transmitting a medical image of a patient'"'"'s bone to a healthcare provider, the medical image including a digital template of an orthopaedic implant;

receiving an electronic approval from the healthcare provider in response to the transmitting step; and

shipping the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the receiving step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step comprises transmitting the medical image over a network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step comprises transmitting the medical image using a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine communication protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone from the healthcare provider; and

determining the orthopaedic implant from a number of orthopaedic implants based on the medical image prior to the transmitting step.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving implant constraint data from the healthcare provider,

wherein the determining step comprises determining the orthopaedic implant based on the medical image and the implant constraint data prior to the transmitting step.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising generating the medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone including the digital template of the orthopaedic implant based on the determining step.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the orthopaedic implant for use with the patient'"'"'s bone comprises determining a range of orthopaedic implant sizes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining a range of orthopaedic implant sizes comprises determining a number of orthopaedic implant sizes within two sizes of a size of the orthopaedic implant.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the shipping step comprises shipping a number of orthopaedic implants selected based on the range of orthopaedic implant sizes to the healthcare provider.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a purchase order for the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider; and

receiving an electronic authorization of the purchase order from the healthcare provider,

wherein the shipping step comprises shipping the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the electronic authorization.

11. A system for managing inventories of orthopaedic implants, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device electrically coupled to the processor, the memory device having stored therein a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

transmit a medical image of a patient'"'"'s bone to a healthcare provider, the medical image including a digital template of an orthopaedic implant;

receive an electronic approval from the healthcare provider in response to the transmit step; and

generate a shipping order for the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the receive step.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein to transmit the medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone to the healthcare provider comprises to transmit the medical image over a network.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein to transmit the medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone to the healthcare provider comprises to transmit the medical image using a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine communication protocol.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the processor to:

receive a medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone from the healthcare provider; and

determine the orthopaedic implant from a number of orthopaedic implants based on the medical image prior to the transmit step.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the processor to:

receive implant constraint data from the healthcare provider,

wherein to determine the orthopaedic implant comprises to determine the orthopaedic implant based on the medical image and the implant constraint data prior to the transmit step.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the processor to:

generate the medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone including the digital template of the orthopaedic implant based on the determine step.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein to determine the orthopaedic implant comprises to determine a range of orthopaedic implant sizes.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein to determine a range of orthopaedic implant sizes comprises to determine a number of orthopaedic implant sizes within two sizes of a size of the orthopaedic implant.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein to generate a shipping order comprises to generate a shipping order for the a number of orthopaedic implants selected based on the range of orthopaedic implant sizes to the healthcare provider.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the processor to:

transmit a purchase order for the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider; and

receive an electronic authorization of the purchase order from the healthcare provider,

wherein to generate a shipping order comprises to generate a shipping order for the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the electronic authorization.

21. A method for managing inventories of orthopaedic implants, the method comprising:

performing a digital templating procedure on a medical image of a patient'"'"'s bone;

determining an orthopaedic implant for use with the patient'"'"'s bone based on the performing step;

receiving an electronic approval from a healthcare provider; and

shipping the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the receiving step.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving the medical image of the patient'"'"'s bone from the healthcare provider prior to the performing step; and

receiving implant constraint data from the healthcare provider,

wherein the determining step comprises determining the orthopaedic implant for use with the patient'"'"'s bone based on the performing step and the implant constraint data.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein determining the orthopaedic implant for use with the patient'"'"'s bone comprises determining a range of orthopaedic implant sizes.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein determining a range of orthopaedic implant sizes comprises determining a number of orthopaedic implant sizes within two sizes of a size of the orthopaedic implant.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the shipping step comprises shipping a number of orthopaedic implants selected based on the range of orthopaedic implant sizes to the healthcare provider.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

transmitting a purchase order for the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider; and

receiving an electronic authorization of the purchase order from the healthcare provider,

wherein the shipping step comprises shipping the orthopaedic implant to the healthcare provider in response to the electronic authorization.

27. A method for managing inventories of orthopaedic implants, the method comprising:

receiving a medical image of a patient'"'"'s bone, the medical image including a digital template of an orthopaedic implant;

determining a range of orthopaedic implant sizes based on the medical image;

receiving an electronic approval of the medical image from a healthcare provider; and

shipping a number of orthopaedic implants selected based on the range of orthopaedic implant sizes to the healthcare provider in response to the electronic approval.