METHOD FOR DETECTING THE IMPENDING ANALYTICAL FAILURE OF NETWORKED DIAGNOSTIC CLINICAL ANALYZERS
First Claim
1. A method for detecting an impending failure in a networked diagnostic clinical analyzer comprising the steps ofmonitoring a plurality of variables in a plurality of diagnostic clinical analyzers;
- screening out outliers from values of the plurality of variables;
deriving a threshold for a first variable from the plurality of variables based on the screened values of the first variable;
normalizing the values of variables including the first variable selected from the plurality of variables for computing a composite threshold;
generating the composite threshold using normalized variable values;
collecting operational data from the networked diagnostic clinical analyzer; and
generating an alert if the composite threshold is exceeded by the diagnostic clinical analyzer.
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Abstract
A method of detecting impending analytical failure in a networked diagnostic clinical analyzer is based upon detecting whether the operation of a particular analyzer is statistically distinguishable based on one or more thresholds. A failure occurs when one or more components or modules of the analyzer fails. A method to detect such an impending failure is disclosed. Baseline data on a pre-selected set of analyzer variables for a population of diagnostic clinical analyzers is used to generate an impending failure threshold. Subsequently, operational data comprising the same pre-selected set of analyzer variables allows generation of a time series of operational statistics. If the operational statistic exceeds the impeding failure threshold in a prescribed manner, an impending analytical failure is predicted. Such detection of impending analytical failures facilitates intelligent scheduling of service for the analyzer in question to maintain high assay throughput and accuracy.
25 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for detecting an impending failure in a networked diagnostic clinical analyzer comprising the steps of
monitoring a plurality of variables in a plurality of diagnostic clinical analyzers; -
screening out outliers from values of the plurality of variables; deriving a threshold for a first variable from the plurality of variables based on the screened values of the first variable; normalizing the values of variables including the first variable selected from the plurality of variables for computing a composite threshold; generating the composite threshold using normalized variable values; collecting operational data from the networked diagnostic clinical analyzer; and generating an alert if the composite threshold is exceeded by the diagnostic clinical analyzer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of detecting an impending analytical failure of a networked diagnostic clinical analyzer comprising the steps of:
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collecting baseline data from a plurality of networked diagnostic clinical analyzers during commercial operation over a first specified time period, transforming the baseline data into a first statistic, collecting a sequence of operational data from a particular networked diagnostic clinical analyzer during commercial operation over a second specified time period, transforming the sequence of operational data into a sequence of second statistics, and notifying the Remote Monitoring Center of an impending diagnostic clinical analyzer analytical failure in said particular diagnostic clinical analyzer when the second statistic exceeds the first statistic by a pre-specified amount in a specified manner. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for servicing a networked diagnostic clinical analyzer in response to detecting an impending analytical failure comprising the steps of:
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identifying monitored variables used to detect the impending failure, investigating a set of variables from the monitored variables that exceed their respective thresholds during a time period transforming the baseline data into a first statistic, and providing servicing recommendations to better control one or more members of the set of variables. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification