Method and system for collecting and disseminating data produced by medical devices, particularly those used in intensive care units

• US 9,436,800 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2001
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Capsule Technologie (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Capsule Technologie (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Forrester, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TRAN N
• Application Number:
  US10/258,244
• Publication Number:
  US 20030200116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 5,633 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0002 Serial port, e.g. RS232C
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a system for collecting medical data produced by medical devices (1) situated, for example, in intensive care units and for disseminating said information to the health professionals using computer equipment (5).

The process and the system include the following software modules:

• • (I) one service module (DS) (21),
  • (II) a data storage module (DDS) (25),
  • (III) control modules (DAC) (26) accessible from any point of said computer communications network and controlling the distribution of said data D,
  • (IV) a device interface module (DDI) (23), configured as a function of the specifications of said transmitter devices (1),
  • (V) a communications interface module (DCI) (22),
  • (VI) a configuration interface module (DCP) (28),
  • (VII) a data portal module (DDP).

Claims

1. A method for distributing medical data, wherein medical data is generated by different types of medical devices using different communication protocols and translated by a medical data processing device connected to the medical devices by different communication ports into a common format, to processing devices each executing an associated data analysis software, comprising:

connecting at least one of the medical devices to the medical data processing device via a communication port, using one of multiple communications interface (DCI) modules, each of which activates and controls a communication port type and connects one or more of the medical devices to a communications network;

receiving, by the medical data processing device, medical data generated by at least one of the medical devices using a communication protocol specific to the at least one of the medical devices, wherein the generated medical data is read using one or more of multiple device interface (DDI) modules, wherein one or more DDI modules connected to one or more of the DCI modules, and wherein each DDI module is configured for a medical device to establish and maintain a connection with a connected medical device;

translating, by the medical data processing device, the generated medical data from the at least one of the medical devices into the common format, using respective DDI modules, wherein the common format comprises an organization of generated medical data supplied by different types of medical devices, wherein the common format is compatible with clinical data processing applications executing on the processing devices;

storing, by a storage of the medical data processing device, the medical data and the translated medical data using a Data Store (DDS) module; and

transmitting, by the medical data processing device, the translated medical data to at least one of the processing devices, using a distribution modules, wherein at least one of the distribution modules is integrated in the associated data analysis software associated with the at least one of the processing devices.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

activating at least one of the DCI modules by any one of the DDI modules that requires for a first time one of the communication port, and

wherein each medical device is connected to said communications network over a DCI module such that an associated DDI module is configured to exchange at least one of the medical data or commands with any one of said processing devices.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

converting the medical data to a communications format of the associated data analysis software; and

transmitting the converted medical data to the any one of the processing devices.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising processing, in said DDS module, requests for historical data.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein each of said DDI modules simultaneously assures:

communication of the medical data transmitted by the associated one of said medical devices, and low-level communication by using the associated one of the DCI modules.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the medical data includes sporadic parameters and/or data curves as output from said medical devices.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein a DCP module is configured to update a directory of the medical data processing device.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing the DDI modules, via a directory, information about to the medical devices and to the DCI modules.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the medical devices are one or more of:

cardiac monitors, ventilators or infusion pumps.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring physical branchings of the medical devices to the communication ports, medical device identifiers, and respective communication parameters for the medical devices by a Control Panel (DCP) module.