Dynamic Medical Object Information Base

• US 20140297803A1
• Filed: 06/11/2014
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Inventors: DelloStritto, James J., Craw, Chad E., Chung, Song Y., Blaszak, Ronald J., LoMascolo, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A dynamic medical object information base (DMOIB) is used with a communication protocol. A medical object information base (MOIB) may generally define rules of creation and modification of data defined for use in medical products. A dynamic version of the MOIB adapts to changing data classifications. DMOIB is preferably compatible with non-dynamic MOIB systems. DMOIB preferably reduces code space and simplifies management of software projects. DMOIB may allow for an entirely dynamic system using a discovery/negotiation process for determining full features of a device. DMOIB may also allow for generation of a dynamic interface to handle data from devices.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between network devices with a communication protocol comprising:

initiating a communication link with a network device,

receiving standard device data from the network device comprising a global unique identifier,

requesting a self-describing data dictionary from the network device, wherein the self-describing data dictionary comprises one or more data definitions, and

receiving the self-describing data dictionary.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-describing data dictionary is received by matching the global unique identifier with a cached version of the self-describing data dictionary and accessing the cached version of the self-describing data dictionary.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-describing data dictionary is received by matching the global unique identifier with a corresponding member of a self-describing data dictionary database on a storage device or the Internet and accessing the self-describing data dictionary.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the self-describing data dictionary to further communicate with the network device and interpret data from the network device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-describing data dictionary contains information regarding processing of messages to and from the network device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-describing data dictionary further comprises a string table corresponding to the data definitions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the self-describing data dictionary further comprises a link table corresponding to the data definitions and string table.

8. A tangible medium containing instructions for communicating with a network device, the instructions executing a method comprising:

providing a communication protocol on a host computer for exchanging a series of messages between the host computer and a network device,

initiating communication with the network device,

receiving an acknowledgement from the network device,

requesting a self-describing data dictionary comprising one or more data definitions,

receiving the self-describing data dictionary,

updating the communication protocol on the host computer with the self-describing data dictionary,

receiving data from the network device through the communication protocol on the host computer, and

processing the data according to the one or more data definitions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data dictionary is stored on at a location selected from the group consisting of the network device, the Internet, a storage media, and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the data dictionary comprises a global unique identifier unique to the data received from the network device and based upon a device data sheet used to create the self-describing data dictionary.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the series of messages between the host computer and a network device are classified with a hierarchal classification scheme.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the hierarchal classification scheme comprises a first level, a second level and a third level.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first level defines a type of data, wherein the second level defines a type of action, and wherein the third level defines an object of the action.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more data dictionaries comprise information specific to the data.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the self-describing data dictionary further comprises a link table correlating to the one or more data definitions.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the self-describing data dictionary further comprises a string table correlating to the link table.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein the data is displayed to a user after processing via linking the data to strings for display using a scale, units, a link table and an alias.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more data dictionaries are reserved standardized data types.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more data dictionaries are dynamically defined.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the dynamically defined data dictionaries comprise version information.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the communication protocol is backward compatible with previous versions of the dynamically defined data dictionaries.

22. The method of claim 8, wherein the data is numeric.

23. The method of claim 8, wherein the data is waveform.

24. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more data dictionaries are binary.

25. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more data dictionaries are XML.