Controlled use medical applicaton

• US 8,893,120 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner PA
• Original Assignee: Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner PA
• Inventors: Pinsky, Howard, Chen, Gen-nan, Halpern, Daniel A., Swartz, Stephen J, Henson, Trent W
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Henry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shyu, Jing-Yih
• Application Number:
  US12/697,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20110191767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,754 Days
• US Class Current: 717/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Various systems, machine-readable media, and methods for controlled use of medical applications using virtualization are described herein. In various embodiments, a virtualized medical application container can be created, including creating an image of a clean version of an operating system, installing a medical application on the image, and initializing the medical application on the image. Various embodiments include receiving an indication of a request for metered use of the medical application; requesting permission for metered use of the medical application, wherein the metered use includes at least one of a single use, a defined number of uses, unlimited use, or timed use executing at least a portion of the medical application; and controlling usage of the medical application to comply with at least one of medical informatics standards and medical informatics regulations.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to;

create a virtualized medical application container, including to;

create an image of a clean version of a client operating system;

install a medical application on the image, wherein the medical application is selected from a plurality of medical applications developed for heterogeneous operating environments;

initialize the medical application on the image;

receive an indication of a request for metered use of the medical application;

request permission for metered use of the medical application, wherein the metered use includes at least one of a single use, a defined number of uses, unlimited use, or timed use;

execute at least a portion of the medical application; and

control execution of the medical application to comply with at least one patient data privacy issue related to at least one of medical informatics standards and medical data subject to medical informatics regulations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to create the virtualized medical application container include instructions to:

configure the medical application to communicate with a client application on the client operating system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to initialize the medical application include instructions to:

restrict access of the medical application to a network interface of the client operating system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to create the image of the clean version of the client operating system include instructions to:

create the client operating system file system, virtual memory and cache space, kernel drivers, and bootstrap binaries.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to install the medical application on the image include instructions to:

install no other software on the image.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

create a copy of the virtualized medical application container; and

store the copy of the virtualized medical application container on at least one of the one or more servers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to install the medical application on the image include instructions to:

install a third-party medical application executable, library, configuration file, and database management product.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to store product information about the medical application on one or more servers, wherein the product information includes at least one of a medical application name, a category, a manufacturer, a price per defined measured use, food and drug administration (FDA) clearance information, a user comment, or a user rating.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a medical application library to provide medical applications developed by third parties; and

wherein the medical application is sourced from the medical application library.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

create a virtualized medical application container, including to;

create an image of a clean version of a client operating system;

install a medical application on the image, wherein the medical application is selected from a plurality of medical applications developed for heterogeneous operating environments;

initialize the medical application on the image;

receive an indication of a request for metered use of the medical application;

request permission for metered use of the medical application, wherein the metered use includes at least one of a single use, a defined number of uses, unlimited use, or timed use;

execute at least a portion of the medical application; and

control execution of the medical application to comply with at least one patient data privacy issue related to at least one of medical informatics standards and medical data subject to medical informatics regulations.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to create the virtualized medical application container include instructions to:

configure the medical application to communicate with a client application on the client operating system.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to initialize the medical application include instructions to:

restrict access of the medical application to a network interface of the client operating system.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to create the image of the clean version of the client operating system include instructions to:

create the client operating system file system, virtual memory and cache space, kernel drivers, and bootstrap binaries.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to install the medical application on the image include instructions to:

install no other software on the image.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

create a copy of the virtualized medical application container; and

store the copy of the virtualized medical application container on at least one of the one or more servers.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to install the medical application on the image include instructions to:

install a third-party medical application executable, library, configuration file, and database management product.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to store product information about the medical application on one or more servers, wherein the product information includes at least one of a medical application name, a category, a manufacturer, a price per defined measured use, food and drug administration (FDA) clearance information, a user comment, or a user rating.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

source the medical application from a medical application library, the medical application library to provide medical applications developed by third parties.

19. A method comprising:

creating a virtualized medical application container, including;

creating an image of a clean version of a client operating system;

installing a medical application on the image, wherein the medical application is selected from a plurality of medical applications developed for heterogeneous operating environments;

initializing the medical application on the image;

receiving an indication of a request for metered use of the medical application;

requesting permission for metered use of the medical application, wherein the metered use includes at least one of a single use, a defined number of uses, unlimited use, or timed use;

executing at least a portion of the medical application; and

controlling execution of the medical application to comply with at least one patient data privacy issue related to at least one of medical informatics standards and medical data subject to medical informatics regulations.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the creating the virtualized medical application container includes:

configuring the medical application to communicate with a client application on the client operating system.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the initializing the medical application includes:

restricting access of the medical application to a network interface of the client operating system.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the creating the image of the clean version of the client operating system includes:

creating the client operating system file system, virtual memory and cache space, kernel drivers, and bootstrap binaries.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the installing the medical application on the image includes:

installing no other software on the image.

24. The method of claim 19, including:

creating a copy of the virtualized medical application container; and

storing the copy of the virtualized medical application container on at least one of the one or more servers.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the installing the medical application on the image includes:

installing a third-party medical application executable, library, configuration file, and database management product.

26. The method of claim 19, including:

storing product information about the medical application on one or more servers, wherein the product information includes at least one of a medical application name, a category, a manufacturer, a price per defined measured use, food and drug administration (FDA) clearance information, a user comment, or a user rating.

27. The method of claim 19, including:

sourcing the medical application from a medical application library, the medical application library to provide medical applications developed by third parties.