Distributed Medical Sensing System and Method

• US 20130015975A1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Volcano Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Volcano Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Huennekens, R. Scott, Spencer, Jason, Clark, Bill, Sheehan, David M., Kerr, Rex, Mansker, Richard E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,797,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0084 for introduction into the body, e.g. by catheters A61B5/1459 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/12 in body cavities or body tracts, e.g. by using catheters catheters per se A61M25/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/54 Control of the diagnostic device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/565 involving data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

A method of communicating medical sensing data including receiving, at a patient communication system, medical sensing data collected by a medical sensing device during a medical sensing procedure. The method also includes creating, with the patient communication system, a data message, the data message including at least a portion of the medical sensing data, information about the medical sensing procedure, and information about the medical sensing data and transmitting, with the patient communication system, the data message to a centralized computing device over a data network.

Claims

1. A method of communicating medical sensing data, comprising:

receiving, at a patient communication system, medical sensing data collected by a medical sensing device during a medical sensing procedure;

creating, with the patient communication system, a data message, the data message including at least a portion of the medical sensing data, information about the medical sensing procedure, and information about the medical sensing data; and

transmitting, with the patient communication system, the data message to a centralized computing device over a data network.

2. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 1,

wherein creating the data message includes creating a plurality of packets that together include all portions of the medical sensing data;

and

wherein the transmitting includes transmitting the plurality of packets to the centralized computing device.

3. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 2, wherein creating the plurality of packets includes encapsulating the information about the medical sensing procedure and the information about the medical sensing data in a first packet in the plurality of packets and encapsulating a unique universal identifier in each of the subsequent packets in the plurality of packets, the unique universal identifier being associated with the medical sensing procedure.

4. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 1, including, with the patient communication system, digitizing the medical sensing data if it is received in analog form.

5. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 1, wherein the information about the medical sensing procedure includes at least one of a date and time of the medical sensing procedure, a location of the medical sensing procedure, identification information about a patient undergoing the medical sensing procedure, and identification information about a health care practitioner performing the medical sensing procedure.

6. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 1, wherein the information about the medical sensing data includes at least one of a timestamp, modality information, analog to digital conversion information, compression information, and a workflow identification.

7. The method of communicating medical sensing data of claim 1, further including:

receiving, at a patient communication system, a further data message including the medical sensing data in processed form from the centralized computing device over the data network; and

transmitting the further data message to a user interface device operable to display the processed medical sensing data.

8. A distributed medical sensing system, comprising:

a computer communication network;

a first patient communication system communicatively coupled to a first medical sensor device and the computer communication network, the first patient communication system being operable to transmit, over the computer communication network, a first plurality of packets containing first medical data collected from a first patient by the first medical sensor device and also containing first patient information;

a second patient communication system communicatively coupled to a second medical sensor device and the computer communication network, the second patient communication system being operable to send over the computer communication network a second plurality of packets containing second medical data collected from a second patient by the second medical sensor device and also containing second patient information; and

a centralized computing device communicatively coupled to the computer communication network and operable to receive first and second plurality of packets and operable to respectively process the first medical data based on the first patient information and process the second medical data based on the second patient information.

9. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the centralized computing device is configured to process the first and second medical data concurrently.

10. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first and second medical data are associated with the same medical sensing modality.

11. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first and second medical data are associated with different medical sensing modalities.

12. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 11, wherein the centralized computing device is further operable to process the first medical data with a first processing application associated with the first modality and further operable to process the second medical data with a second processing application associated with the second modality.

13. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient information includes identification information about the first patient, information about the location of the first patient, and modality information about the first medical data.

14. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the centralized computing device is further operable to process the first medical data with a first processing application associated with the first modality, the first processing application being one of a plurality of processing applications executable by the centralized computing device.

15. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient communication system includes an analog to digital converter operable to digitize the first medical data and a communication module communicatively coupled to the computer communication network.

16. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient communication system is a first bedside utility box (BUB) disposed within a first procedure room and the second patient communication system is a second BUB disposed within a second procedure room different than the first procedure room.

17. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient communication system is a patient isolation module (PIM).

18. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient communication module is operable to compress the first medical data before sending the first plurality of packets over the computer communication network.

19. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, wherein the first patient information includes a unique universal identifier that is associated with the first patient.

20. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 8, including a first user interface device communicatively coupled to the first patient communication system, the first user interface device operable to receive the first medical data in processed form from the centralized computing device via the first patient communication system.

21. A method of processing medical data, comprising:

receiving, at a centralized computing device, first message data over a computer communication network, the first message data including first medical sensing data generated by a first medical sensor device during a first medical sensing procedure, information about the first medical sensing procedure, and information about the first medical sensing data;

processing, with the centralized computing device, the first medical data based on the information about the first medical sensing procedure and the information about the first medical sensing data; and

transmitting, with the centralized computing device, second message data to a first user interface device over the computer communication network, the second message data containing the first medical data in processed form, the first user interface device being operable to display the first medical data in processed form.

22. The method of processing medical data of claim 21, including receiving, at the centralized computing device and concurrently with the receiving the first message data, third message data over the computer communication network, the third message data including second medical sensing data generated by a second medical sensor device during a second medical sensing procedure, information about the second medical sensing procedure, and information about the second medical sensing data.

23. The method of processing medical data of claim 22, including processing, with the centralized computing device and concurrently with the processing the first medical data, the second medical data based on the information about the second medical sensing procedure and the information about the second medical sensing data.

24. The method of processing medical data of claim 22, wherein the first and second medical data are associated with the same medical sensing modality.

25. The method of processing medical data of claim 21, wherein the information about the first medical sensing procedure includes at least one of a date and time of the first medical sensing procedure, a location of the first medical sensing procedure, identification information about a patient undergoing the first medical sensing procedure, and identification information about a health care practitioner performing the first medical sensing procedure.

26. The method of processing medical data of claim 21, wherein the information about the medical sensing data includes at least one of a timestamp, modality information, analog to digital conversion information, compression information, and a workflow identification.

27. The method of processing medical data of claim 21, wherein the processing includes processing the first medical data with a first processing application associated with a medical sensing modality of the first medical data, the first processing application being one of a plurality of processing applications executable by the centralized computing device.

28. The method of processing medical data of claim 21, wherein the processing the first medical data includes transforming the first medical data into image data representative of the first medical data.