LOW ACUITY VITALS SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

• US 20150378798A1
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Inventors: Gondek, Cory R., Nagasubramanian, Soundharya, Kovitz, Paul S., Alfred, Charles, Goldman, Dan E. III
• Granted Patent: US 10,310,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades

Abstract

A medical device including a non-transitory storage device storing a plurality of modular software components programmed to provide medical device functionality is disclosed. The software components can be configured to run independently as a daemon, to be modified without recompiling unchanged software components and to communicate to each other through a software component. A system including a central unit configured to communicate with a medical device is also disclosed. A medical device software architecture stored on a non-transitory, computer readable storage medium including a plurality of modular software components programmed to provide medical device functionality is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A medical device, comprising:

a tangible, non-transitory storage device storing a plurality of modular software components programmed to provide medical device functionality;

wherein each software component is configured to run independently as a daemon;

wherein each software component is configured to be modified without recompiling unchanged software components; and

wherein the software components are configured to communicate to each other through a software component.

2. The medical device of claim 1, wherein the software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets;

and

wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is configured to enable communication between the medical device and a central unit.

3. The medical device of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is a proxy for interfacing with a measurement module.

4. The medical device of claim 3, wherein the measurement module is a saturated oxygen module, a non-invasive blood pressure module, or a thermometry module.

5. The medical device of claim 4, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the posted messages;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the device and provide a device configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start or stop manager scripts in the device.

6. The medical device of claim 1, wherein the software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual operating system configured to interface with an operating system adaptor; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual hardware configured to interface with a hardware adaptor.

7. The medical device of claim 6, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a message manager, the message manager is configured to provide an inter-process communications bus for sending common object-oriented architecture messages between the software components.

8. The medical device of claim 7, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the posted messages;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the device and provide the configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start or stop manager scripts in the device.

9. A medical monitoring system, comprising:

a central unit configured to communicate with at least one medical device, comprising;

a user interface;

a first communication element;

a processing element;

the medical device comprising;

a second communication element configured to communicate with the first communication element;

a tangible, non-transitory storage device storing a plurality of modular software components;

wherein each software component is configured to run independently as a daemon;

wherein each software component is configured to be modified without recompiling unchanged software components; and

wherein the software components are configured to communicate to each other through a software component.

10. The medical monitoring system of claim 9, wherein the software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets;

and

wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is configured to enable communication between the medical device and the central unit.

11. The medical monitoring system of claim 10, wherein the medical device is a measurement module;

wherein the at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is a proxy for interfacing with a measurement module; and

wherein the measurement module is a saturated oxygen module, a non-invasive blood pressure module, or a thermometry module.

12. The medical monitoring system of claim 11, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual operating system configured to interface with an operating system adaptor;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual hardware configured to interface with a hardware adaptor;

wherein the virtual operating system is operating-system agnostic; and

wherein the virtual hardware is operating-system agnostic.

13. The medical monitoring system of claim 12, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the posted messages.

14. The medical monitoring system of claim 13, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a message manager, the message manager is configured to provide an inter-process communications bus for sending common object-oriented architecture messages between the software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the device and provide a device configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start or stop manager scripts in the device.

15. The medical monitoring system of claim 14, wherein each of the component manager, message manager, capability registry, configuration manager and workflow manager is operating system agnostic.

16. A medical device software architecture stored on a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

a plurality of modular software components;

wherein each software component is configured to run independently as a daemon;

wherein each software component is configured to be modified without recompiling unchanged software components;

wherein the software components are configured to communicate to each other through a message manager, the message manager is configured to provide an inter-process communications bus for sending common object-oriented architecture messages between the software components.

17. The medical device software system of claim 16, wherein the modular software components include reusable assets, the reusable assets being configured to plug into the medical device software system and configured to provide a functionality.

18. The medical device software system of claim 16, wherein the software components further comprise a plurality of reusable assets;

wherein the message manager is one of the plurality of reusable assets;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual operating system configured to interface with an operating system adaptor; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a virtual hardware configured to interface with a hardware adaptor.

19. The medical device software system of claim 18, wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a component manager configured to start up and shut down at least one of the software components;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a capability registry configured to provide a bulletin board system where software components can post common object-oriented architecture messages and receive messages about changes to any of the posted messages;

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a configuration manager configured to maintain persistent configuration of the device and provide a device configuration to client software components; and

wherein one of the plurality of reusable assets is a workflow manager configured to add, remove, start or stop manager scripts in the device.

20. The medical device software system of claim 19, wherein at least one of the plurality of reusable assets is configured to enable communication between the medical device and a central unit.