Supervising and recovering software components associated with medical diagnostics instruments

• US 9,489,251 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2011
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bio-Rad Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bio-Rad Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Gabel, Shlomo, Tamir, Eliran
• Primary Examiner(s): Bonzo, Bryce
• Assistant Examiner(s): Arcos, Jeison C
• Application Number:
  US13/311,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20130145204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,799 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4.21, 712/28
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A system for applying a recovery mechanism to a network of medical diagnostics instruments is provided herein. The system includes the following: a plurality of medical diagnostics instruments, each associated with a network connected component; a plurality of communication modules, each associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of network connected components, wherein each one of the plurality of communication modules is arranged to report on malfunctioning components that are network connected with the corresponding component, and a recovery module, configured to: (i) obtain reports from the communication modules; (ii) re-establish the malfunctioning components; and (iii) notify all communication modules of the re-establishment of the malfunctioning components, wherein the communication modules are further configured to re-establish connection between the corresponding components and the re-established components.

Claims

1. A system for applying a recovery mechanism to a plurality of computer software components that control medical diagnostics, the system comprising:

a plurality of medical diagnostics instruments, each associated with a computer software component;

a plurality of communication modules, each associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of the computer software components, wherein each one of the plurality of communication modules is arranged to report on malfunctioning computer software components; and

a recovery module, configured to;

(i) periodically obtain reports from the communication modules every certain period of time, the reports enabling a determination of whether computer software components are malfunctioning;

(ii) reload the malfunctioning computer software components, wherein reloading the malfunctioning computer software component of a first medical diagnostics instrument comprises creating, at a communication layer, a client for providing a service to another computer software component of a second medical diagnostic instrument; and

(iii) notify all communication modules of the reloading of the malfunctioning computer software components;

wherein each communication module is further configured to re-establish a connection between the corresponding one of the plurality of the computer software components and the reloaded computer software components.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery module is further configured to reload the malfunctioning computer software components according to a specified priority list of computer software components.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery module is further configured to reload critical malfunctioning computer software components prior to other malfunctioning computer software components according to specified criteria.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery module is further configured to reload the malfunctioning computer software components groupwise, according to specified inter-dependencies among network-connected components.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery module is further configured to terminate an operation of one or more network-connected computer software components upon failure of a reloading thereof.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recovery module is further configured to carry out the notifying based on a predefined priority order of computer software components.

7. A method of applying a recovery mechanism to software components that control medical diagnostics instruments, the method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of medical diagnostics instruments, each associated with a software component via a plurality of communication modules;

every certain period of time, obtaining a report from the communication module, each report enabling a determination of whether software components are malfunctioning;

determining, from an obtained report, an occurrence of a malfunctioning of a software component;

reloading the malfunctioning software component upon analyzing the obtained report, wherein reloading the malfunctioning software component of a first medical diagnostics instrument comprises creating, at a communication layer, a client for providing a service to another software component of a second medical diagnostic instrument;

notifying all communication modules of the reloading of the malfunctioning software component; and

re-establishing a connection between the software components and the re-established software component, via the communication modules.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out according to a specified priority list of software components.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out such that it is reloaded prior to other malfunctioning software components, according to specified criteria.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out according to specified inter-dependencies among network-connected software components.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising terminating an operation of one or more network-connected software components upon failure of a reloading thereof.

12. The method according to claim 7, wherein the notifying is carried out based on a predefined priority order of software components.

13. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the computer program product comprising:

computer code for monitoring software components associated with a medical instrument, each associated with a software component via a plurality of communication modules;

computer code for obtaining, every certain period of time, a report from the communication modules, each report enabling a determination of whether software components are malfunctioning;

computer code for determining, from an obtained report, an occurrence of a malfunctioning of a software component;

computer code for reloading the malfunctioning software component upon analyzing the obtained report, wherein reloading the malfunctioning software component of a first medical diagnostics instrument comprises creating, at a communication layer, a client for providing a service to another software component of a second medical diagnostic instrument;

computer code for notifying all communication modules of the reloading of the malfunctioning software component; and

computer code for re-establishing a connection between the software components and the reloaded software component, via the communication modules.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out according to a specified priority list of components.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out such that it is reloaded prior to other malfunctioning software components, according to specified criteria.

16. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the reloading of the malfunctioning software component is carried out group-wise, according to specified inter-dependencies among network-connected software components.

17. The computer program product according to claim 13, further comprising computer code for terminating an operation of one or more network-connected software components upon failure of a reloading thereof.

18. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the notifying is carried out based on a predefined priority order of software components.