UNIVERSAL MEDICAL DEVICE DRIVER ADAPTER

• US 20120284734A1
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: McQuaid, William C., Botzer, Thomas J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,621,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A universal medical device driver adapter that enables the creation of medical device drivers without the need to write custom software for typical medical devices, thereby reducing development time for individual drivers and reducing training time and skill sets requirements of driver developers. Various format parameters are defined, such as baud rate, parity, buffer size, time stamps, tokens, message link, and the like, in an XML device driver file. When a recognized medical device is specified, the corresponding XML file is retrieved and an interface uses the parameters described therein for bidirectional communication with the monitor.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates providing reusable code for device drivers in an expandable and scalable framework, including:

a multi-port medical data acquisition device (MDAD) that detects a medical device coupled to the MDAD via a single port pass-through connection;

a device driver manager (DDM) tool that generates a plug-and-play extensible markup language (XML) device driver file for the medical device; and

computer-readable medium that stores the XML device driver file for use whenever the medical device or a similar device is coupled to the system;

wherein the XML device driver file includes a plurality of format parameters descriptive of a device driver for the medical device.

2. The system according to claim 1, further including:

a patient monitor coupled to the MDAD via the single-port pass-through connection.

3. The system according to claim 2, further including:

a shared code module that includes code usable by the single-port pass-through connection and the multi-port MDAD.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the format parameters include at least one of:

driver name;

baud rate;

parity;

buffer size;

time stamp information;

token information;

data style;

stop bit information; and

message information.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the identification module is an EC-5 type identification module.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the MDAD is one of an EC-40 or EC-80 type MDAD.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the single-port pass-through connection is an EC-10 type pass-through connection.

8. The system according claim 1, wherein the MDAD retrieves from the computer-readable medium an XML file compatible with the medical device, loads the XML file into a driver framework in order to communicate with and receive data from the medical device, and stores the received data in a medical data information base (MDIB).

9. The system according to claim 8, further including:

an ICIP host that converts received data from an MDIL format to a Health Level 7 (HL7) format and outputs the HL7-formatted data to a hospital information system (HIS).

10. A method of generating reusable extensible markup language (XML) device driver files, including:

selecting a device driver from a list of device drivers;

configuring an XML device driver file for the selected device driver using a device driver manager (DDM) tool;

generating the XML device driver file when it is completely configured; and

storing the XML device driver file to a computer-readable medium for recall upon detection of a compatible medical device;

wherein the XML device driver file includes a plurality of format parameters descriptive of a device driver for the medical device.

11. The method according to claim 10, further including:

detecting a plug-in event for a newly-connected medical device;

receiving medical device driver information descriptive of the medical device;

retrieving a compatible XML device driver file from the computer-readable medium; and

executing the retrieved XML device driver in order to communicate bidirectionally with the newly-connected medical device.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein configuring the XML device driver file includes configuring:

one or more driver properties;

one or more message properties;

one or more driver parameters; and

one or more stripping elements.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the one or more driver properties include at least one of:

a driver name;

a baud rate;

a number of data bits;

a parity value;

a stop bit value;

a buffer size;

a timeout value;

and a data style indicator.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the one or more message properties include at least one of:

a message name;

a message type;

a message format;

a delay value;

a maximum number of requests;

a message length;

token information;

timestamp information; and

checksum information.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the one or more driver parameters include:

current message identity;

current message parameters; and

parameter property information.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the parameter property information includes at least one of:

a parameter name;

a parameter type;

a parameter identity;

a parameter adjust operation information;

a parameter adjust value;

unit of measure information;

parameter communication channel information;

and parameter timestamp information.

17. The method according to claim 12, wherein the one or more stripping elements include at least one of:

descriptor information;

a number of old bytes;

and a number of new bytes.

18. The method according to claim 10, further including:

importing an XML device driver file created by a third party manufacturer and compatible with one or more medical devices manufactured by the third party manufacturer; and

storing the imported XML device driver file to the computer-readable medium for recall upon detection of a medical device manufactured by the third party manufacturer.

19. An extensible markup language (XML) device driver manager (DMM) tool, including:

a user interface that includes a plurality of selectable buttons and text fields by which a user enters information and configures an XML device driver file for a medical device, the information including;

one or more driver properties;

one or more message properties;

one or more driver parameters; and

one or more stripping elements.

20. The tool according to claim 19, further including;

a computer-readable medium that stores a plurality of XML device driver files;

wherein the DMM tool retrieves an XML device driver file for a compatible medical device upon detection of a plug-and-play event whereby the compatible medical device becomes connected to a hospital information system (HIS) to which the DMM tool is connected.