General purpose distributed operating room control system

• US 6,496,099 B2
• Filed: 07/15/1999
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. (Intuitive Surgical Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Computer Motion Inc. (Intuitive Surgical Holdings, LLC)
• Inventors: Wang, Yulun, Jordan, Charles S., Uecker, Darrin R., Wooters, Charles C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Holloway, III, Edwin C.
• Application Number:
  US09/354,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20010040496A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.07, 340/825.06, 340/825.52, 340/3.7, 361/684, 600/101, 600/589, 600/425, 600/300, 600/1, 600/437, 365/226, 704/270, 704/275, 700/3, 709/208, 705/1, 707/1, 707/10, 606/1
• US Class Current: 340/3.7
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/00 Surgical instruments, devices or methods, e.g. tourniquets A61B18/00 takes precedence; contraceptive devices, pessaries, or applicators therefor A61F6/00; eye surgery A61F9/007; ear surgery A61F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00017 Electrical control of surgical instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00119 alarm; indicating an abnormal situation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00203 with speech control or speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00973 pedal-operated
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/70 Manipulators specially adapted for use in surgery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/74 Manipulators with manual electric input means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/30 Devices for illuminating a surgical field, the devices having an interrelation with other surgical devices or with a surgical procedure
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A medical system that can be used to perform a surgical procedure. The system includes a network gateway that can retrieve remotely located patient data and display the data on a monitor at the surgical site.

Claims

1. A medical system that can be used by a surgeon through a single interface to perform a medical procedure utilizing a surgical instrument and retrieve patient data located at a remote computer, comprising:

a monitor;

a robotic arm that can move the surgical instrument;

an input device that can receive a first robot arm input command that has a unique robot qualifier, and a data retrieval input command and a unique data retrieval qualifier from the surgeon;

a controller that receives the first robot arm input command and the unique robot qualifier, and the data retrieval input command and the unique data retrieval qualifier from said input device, said controller to control said robotic arm in response to the robot arm input command; and

a network gateway coupled to the controller, said network gateway to retrieve the patient data from the remote computer in response to the data retrieval input command from the surgeon so that the patient data can be displayed on said monitor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the patient data is written in an HTML format.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said controller operates in accordance with voice recognition software.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said input command comprises an audible input command and said data retrieval command is an audible data retrieval command.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient data comprises one or more of the following:

an x-ray, MRI, angiography, CAT scan, and patient history.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said network gateway executes a web browser program and transmits a uniform resource locator (URL) over a hospital network to retrieve the patient data from the remote computer.

7. A method for retrieving patient data from a remote computer and performing a medical procedure using a single interface, comprising:

generating a data retrieval input command and a unique data retrieval qualifier to retrieve patient data from a remote computer;

retrieving the patient data from the remote computer in response to the data retrieval input command and unique data retrieval qualifier;

displaying the patient data;

generating a robotic arm input command and a unique robot arm qualifier; and

moving a robotic arm and a surgical instrument in response to the robotic arm input command and the unique robot arm qualifier.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the patient data is located at a URL location.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the patient data is provided in an HTML format.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving the patient data comprises transmitting a URL over a network that is coupled to the remote computer, and receiving the patient data from the URL over the network.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the data retrieval input command comprises detecting a first audible input command, and wherein generating the robotic arm input command comprises detecting a second audible input command.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein said patient data comprises one or more of the following:

an x-ray, MRI, angiography, CAT scan, and patient history.