Digital assistant appliance for assisting an operator in the manual preparation of a liquid pharmaceutical composition in a medical instrument for administering the composition to a patient, and corresponding operating method

• US 8,818,821 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2010
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnicell Incorporated
• Original Assignee: MEDarchiver SRL (Omnicell Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fioravanti, Fabio
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HIEP VAN
• Application Number:
  US12/829,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20110191121A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/17 delivered via infusion or injection

Abstract

Digital assistant appliance for assisting an operator in the manual preparation of a liquid pharmaceutical composition comprising: a memory device containing, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition: one or more first sample images of vials containing the active principle, and one or more second sample images of syringes that can be used for transferring the active principle from the vials to the medical instrument; an artificial viewing system designed to acquire: a vial image of a vial chosen by the operator and/or a syringe image of a syringe chosen by the operator; and an electronic processing system configured in such a way as to compare the vial image with each of the first sample images for determining whether the vial chosen by the operator is incorrect, and/or compare the syringe image with each of the second sample images for determining whether the syringe chosen by the operator is incorrect, and warn the operator of an error condition in the preparation step when the vial or the syringe chosen by the operator is incorrect.

Claims

1. A digital assistant appliance configured to assist and to monitor an operator as the operator manually prepares a liquid pharmaceutical composition to be administered to a patient using a medical instrument, said appliance comprising:

a user-interface system configured to indicate, to the operator, operations to be performed by the operator to prepare the liquid pharmaceutical composition and to provide assistance preparation messages to the operator as the operator prepares the liquid pharmaceutical composition;

a memory device configured to have stored thereon, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition;

one or more first sample images of vials that can contain said active principle, and/or one or more second sample images of syringes that can be used to transfer said active principle from the vials to the medical instrument;

a scale positioned on a horizontal surface, the scale being configured to have positioned thereon, by the operator, a vial and/or a syringe;

an artificial viewing system configured to acquire;

a vial image of the vial positioned by the operator on said scale and/or a syringe image of the syringe positioned by the operator on said scale; and

an electronic processing system configured to;

compare said acquired vial image with each of said first sample images and determine that an incorrect vial has been positioned on said scale by the operator, when said acquired vial image does not correspond to any of said first sample images;

compare the acquired syringe image with each of said second sample images and determine that an incorrect syringe has been positioned on said scale by the operator, when said acquired syringe image does not correspond to any of said second sample images; and

provide a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the electronic processing system determines that an incorrect vial and/or an incorrect syringe has been positioned on said scale by the operator.

2. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein said electronic processing system is further configured to:

compare said acquired vial image with each of said first sample images to determine whether the vial positioned on said scale has at least one additional component with respect to a preset main configuration envisaged in the manual preparation of the liquid pharmaceutical composition; and

provide a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the electronic processing system determines the presence of said additional component.

3. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein said electronic processing system is further configured to:

compare said acquired syringe image with each of said second sample images to determine whether the syringe positioned on said scale is without preset components and/or has additional components with respect to a preset basic configuration envisaged in the manual preparation of the liquid pharmaceutical composition; and

provide a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the electronic processing system determines the absence of the preset components and/or the presence of additional components.

4. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein:

said memory device is configured to have stored thereon, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition, a corresponding preset weight;

said scale comprises;

a gravimetric control system for weighing said vial and/or said syringe positioned on said scale; and

said electronic processing system is further configured to;

calculate the weight of the active principle contained in said syringe on the basis of a weighing of said syringe or of said vial before and after a step of drawing, by the operator, the active principle from said vial;

compare the calculated weight of the active principle contained in said syringe with the preset weight for determining whether a dose of the active principle contained in the syringe is incorrect; and

provide a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the electronic processing system determines that an incorrect weight of said active principle is contained in said syringe.

5. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein:

said memory device is configured to have stored thereon, for each type of syringe, a syringe-spike sample image corresponding to a configuration of a syringe coupled to a spike and/or, for each vial, a vial-spike sample image corresponding to a configuration of coupling of said vial to a spike;

said electronic processing system is further configured to;

receive, through the user-interface system, a user-selection command indicating the syringe-spike coupling and/or the vial-spike coupling;

compare the acquired vial image with said vial-spike sample image and/or the acquired syringe image with said syringe-spike sample image, based on the user-selection command, to determine the absence of the spike when said acquired vial image and/or said acquired syringe image do not correspond to said vial-spike sample image and/or syringe-spike sample image; and

provide a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the electronic processing system determines the absence of the spike.

6. The appliance according to claim 1, wherein the warning provided by the electronic processing system to the operator comprises directing the operator, through the user-interface system, to manually replace the vial and/or the syringe on said scale.

7. A method of assisting and monitoring an operator as the operator manually prepares a liquid pharmaceutical composition to be administered to a patient using a medical instrument, the method being performed by a digital assistant appliance and comprising:

storing in a memory device, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition, one or more first sample images of vials that can contain said active principle, and/or one or more second sample images of syringes that can be used to transfer the active principle from said vials to the medical instrument;

acquiring, through an artificial viewing system, a vial image of a vial positioned on a scale by the operator and/or a syringe image of a syringe positioned on said scale by the operator;

comparing said acquired vial image with each of said first sample images to determine whether the vial positioned on said scale by the operator is incorrect; and

/or

comparing said acquired syringe image with each of said second sample images to determine whether the syringe positioned on said scale by the operator is incorrect; and

providing a warning to the operator, through a user-interface system, when the vial positioned on said scale is incorrect and/or the syringe positioned on said scale is incorrect.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

comparing said acquired vial image with each of said first sample images to determine whether the vial positioned on said scale has at least one additional component with respect to a preset main configuration; and

providing a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when said vial is determined to have said additional component.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

comparing said acquired syringe image with each of said second sample images to determine whether the syringe positioned on said scale is without preset components and/or has additional components with respect to a preset basic configuration; and

providing a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when said syringe is determined to be without the preset components or to have additional components.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

storing in said memory device, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition, a corresponding preset weight;

weighing said vial or said syringe a first time via a gravimetric control system provided with said scale;

weighing said vial or said syringe a second time via the gravimetric control system, the first and second weighings being respectively performed before and after the active principle has been manually drawn from said vial by the operator using said syringe;

calculating the weight of the active principle contained in said syringe on the basis of the first and second weighings;

comparing the calculated weight of the active principle contained in said syringe with the preset weight to determine whether a dose of the active principle contained in the syringe is incorrect; and

providing a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when an incorrect weight of said active principle contained in said syringe is determined.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

storing in said memory device, for each type of syringe, a syringe-spike sample image corresponding to a configuration of a syringe coupled to a spike and/or, for each vial, a vial-spike sample image corresponding to a configuration of coupling of said vial to a spike;

receiving, through the user-interface system, a user-selection command indicating the syringe-spike coupling and/or the vial-spike coupling;

comparing the acquired vial image with said vial-spike sample image and/or the acquired syringe image with said syringe-spike sample image, based on the user-selection command, to determine the absence of the spike when said acquired vial image and/or said acquired syringe image do not correspond to said vial-spike sample image and/or syringe-spike sample image; and

providing a warning to the operator, through the user-interface system, when the absence of the spike is determined.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

directing the operator, through the user-interface system, to set the vial and/or the syringe on the scale, the step of directing the operator being performed before the step of acquiring a vial image and/or a syringe image.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein providing a warning to the operator comprises directing the operator, through the user-interface system, to manually replace the vial and/or the syringe on said scale.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause to be performed a method of assisting and monitoring an operator as the operator manually prepares a liquid pharmaceutical composition to be administered to a patient using a medical instrument, the method being performed by a digital assistant appliance and comprising:

storing in a memory device, for each active principle of the liquid pharmaceutical composition, one or more first sample images of vials that can contain said active principle, and/or one or more second sample images of syringes that can be used for transferring to transfer the active principle from said vials to the medical instrument;

acquiring, through an artificial viewing system, an image of a vial positioned on a scale of the appliance by the operator and/or an image of a syringe positioned on the scale by the operator;

comparing said acquired vial image with each of said first sample images to determine whether the vial positioned on the scale by the operator is incorrect; and

/or

comparing said acquired syringe image with each of said second sample images to determine whether the syringe positioned on the scale by the operator is incorrect; and

providing a warning to the operator, through a user-interface system, when the vial positioned on said scale is incorrect and/or the syringe positioned on said scale is incorrect.

15. The non-transitory memory device according to claim 14, wherein the medium has stored thereon further instructions that, when executed by the computing device, causes to be performed:

directing the operator, through the user-interface system, to set the vial and/or the syringe on the scale, the step of directing the operator being performed before the step of acquiring a vial image and/or a syringe image.

16. A method of preparing a liquid pharmaceutical composition to be administered to a patient using a medical instrument, the liquid pharmaceutical composition comprising one or more active principles, the method comprising:

for each active principle;

manually positioning, by an operator, a vial and a syringe to be imaged;

acquiring, by a digital assistant appliance, images of the manually positioned vial and syringe;

comparing, by the digital assistant appliance, the acquired images of the vial and the syringe with images of sample vials that can contain the active principle and images of sample syringes that can be used to transfer the active principle from the sample vials to the medical instrument, to determine if the manually positioned vial and syringe respectively correspond to one of the sample vials and one of the sample syringes;

if it is determined that the manually positioned vial and syringe respectively correspond to one of the sample vials and one of the sample syringes, drawing, by the operator, the active principle from the vial using the syringe to transfer to the medical instrument; and

if it is determined that the manually positioned vial and/or syringe do not respectively correspond to any of the sample vials or sample syringes, providing a warning to the operator, by the digital assistant appliance.

17. The method recited in claim 16, wherein providing a warning to the operator comprises directing the operator, by the digital assistant appliance, to manually replace the vial and/or syringe.

18. The method recited in claim 16, further comprising:

weighing, by the digital assistant appliance, the vial or the syringe a first time, before the step of manually using the syringe to draw the active principle from the vial;

weighing, by the digital assistant appliance, the vial or the syringe a second time, subsequent to the step of manually using the syringe to draw the active principle from the vial;

calculating, by the digital assistant appliance, the weight of the active principle contained in the syringe on the basis of the first and second weighings;

comparing, by the digital assistant appliance, the calculated weight of the active principle contained in the syringe with preset dosing weights corresponding to the active principle to determine if the calculated weight corresponds to a preset dosing weight corresponding to the active principle;

if it is determined that the calculated weight corresponds to the preset dosing weight, transferring, by the operator, the active principle from the syringe to the medical instrument; and

if it is determined that the calculated weight does not correspond to the preset dosing weight, providing a warning to the operator, by the digital assistant appliance.