SEMANTIC MEDICAL DEVICES

• US 20130041861A1
• Filed: 04/13/2010
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Potkonjak, Miodrag, Nahapetian, Ani
• Granted Patent: US 9,262,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/46
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A semantic medical technology is disclosed. In various embodiments, the technology organizes an initial data collection to collect data from the one or more sensors; processes the data to obtain an initial diagnosis wherein the initial diagnosis can be a syntax diagnosis or a semantic diagnosis; identifies an organization for an additional data collection to collect additional data; analyzes the additional data to obtain a refined diagnosis; and repeats the identifying and analyzing until a stopping criterion is satisfied.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system having a processor and memory for organizing data collection and processing from one or more sensors, comprising:

organizing an initial data collection to collect data from the one or more sensors;

processing the data to obtain an initial diagnosis wherein the initial diagnosis can be a syntax diagnosis or a semantic diagnosis;

identifying an organization for an additional data collection to collect additional data;

analyzing the additional data to obtain a refined diagnosis; and

repeating the identifying and analyzing until a stopping criterion is satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining is based using at least one or more of semantic processing of collected data, context processing of collected data, semantic and context processing of collected data, information about a subject proximate to the one or more sensors, urgency of a required response, information about a current or future availability of expert personnel, a cost, or a status of equipment used for the data collection or processing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes at least partly considering geolocation, time, activities of a subject proximate to the one or more sensors, other context data, or a model.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing the data collection includes using expected signals from the one or more sensors and operational conditions of sensing equipment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data includes processing one or more of radiation intensity, resolution, exposition, sampling rate, or other operational characteristics of actuators or sensors, and semantically analyzing an importance and relevance of data from the one or more sensors.

6. The method from claim 1 wherein the organizing and the identifying includes semantically evaluating one or more detected events, statuses, trends or conditions of either or both of (a) an observed subject proximate to the one or more sensors or (b) equipment.

7. The method from claim 1 wherein the stopping criterion is a likelihood that collecting additional data would change conclusions about events, statuses, trends or conditions of a subject proximate to the one or more sensors.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor and memory;

means for organizing an initial data collection to collect initial data;

means for identifying a computing device at which the initial data is to be processed and a function for processing the initial data;

means for optionally communicating the initial data to another computing device;

means for processing the initial data to obtain an initial syntax diagnosis, semantic diagnosis, or both;

means for identifying an organization for an additional data collection to collect additional data; and

means for performing local data analysis and optionally coordinating with remote data analysis to obtain a refined diagnosis, wherein the refined diagnosis is a syntax diagnosis, semantic diagnosis, or both.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processor and memory are embodied in a sensor node, a handheld computing device, or a computer in a data center.

9. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein at least some of the processing may be performed by a remote computing device.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising means for receiving a diagnosis from a human operator or an expert system.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method of determining how to process data collected from sensors, the instructions comprising:

receiving at a first computing device data from a sensor;

determining automatically from the data whether analysis of the data is urgent;

if the analysis is urgent, determining whether latency can be tolerated;

if latency can be tolerated, forwarding the data to a second computing device;

if latency cannot be tolerated, analyzing the data; and

if the analysis is not urgent, forwarding the data to a third computing device.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for:

determining whether or not to forward the data partly or fully based on power consumption required for transmission and estimated or measured remaining power at each device the data will transit; and

if data is to be forwarded, calculating an optimal organization for the data transmission including a subset of a set of parameters.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for determining whether or not to forward the data based on whether a patient needs to be notified immediately.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for determining whether or not to forward the data based on a patient'"'"'s heart conditions including heart rate, blood pressure, or both.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions for determining how to organize data collection and its analysis in such a way that estimated harmful effects to the subject is minimized.

17. A system for determining how to collect and process data collected from sensors, comprising:

one or more sensors configured to collect data, at least some of the one or more sensors having a transceiver;

an analyzer placed on one or more sensors and configured to determine whether to analyze the data or to forward the data for analysis, wherein the analyzer is configured to determine whether or not to forward the data based on a computation of urgency, the urgency computed based on the data;

a computing device having a processor, memory, transceiver, optionally one or more sensors, and an analyzer and configured to determine whether to analyze data the computing device receives or to forward the received data for analysis, wherein the analyzer determines whether or not to forward the data based on a computation of urgency, expect benefits, cost, or other function.

18. A system for determining how to collect and process data collected from sensors, comprising:

one or more sensors configured to collect data, at least some of the one or more sensors having a transceiver;

one or more computing devices having one or more transceivers;

one or more storage devices each with a communication interface;

one or more actuators for data collection;

one or more communication devices;

system software required to operate each device;

communication software required to coordinate tasks at different devices; and

application software required for data collection and analysis.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein one or more components are shared for monitoring and treatment of multiple subjects.