WO2016097514A1

WO2016097514A1 - Systems for distributed management of medical equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2016097514A1
Application number: PCT/FR2015/053228
Authority: WO
Inventors: Landry Stéphane ZENG EYINDANGA; Benoit Pelletier; Jacques Cayuela
Original assignee: Bull Sas
Priority date: 2014-12-18
Filing date: 2015-11-26
Publication date: 2016-06-23
Also published as: FR3030801B1; FR3030801A1

Abstract

A system for distributed management of a plurality of items of medical equipment (4), this system comprising: - a drive device (2) integrated into each of the items of medical equipment (4); - a multi-user sharing device (1) configured to communicate, to said drive device (2) integrated into a predefined item of medical equipment from amongst said plurality of items of medical equipment, a predetermined task to be executed by said predefined item of medical equipment, and to retrieve the data resulting from the execution, by said predefined item of medical equipment, of the task communicated.

Description

SYSTEMS FOR DISTRIBUTED EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT

MEDICAL

The present invention relates generally to the management of medical equipment in a medical environment, and more particularly to distributed management of connected medical equipment.

The term "medical environment" means any environment comprising a plurality of functional medical equipment such as a hospital, a clinic, or a laboratory. Medical equipment refers here to any system, device or instrument intended for use in a medical environment such as a scanner, microscope, radiology apparatus, centrifuge, analyzer, or incubator.

Medical environments are undergoing profound changes under the increasing pressure of their users (health workers, technicians, health regulatory authorities, financiers, operators for example). They are often blamed for under-capacity, poor equipment management, inefficient processes, and high structural costs. Several problems are at the origin of these reproaches.

The fact that most medical equipment is immobile is a first problem. Indeed, these medical equipment can not move or be used concurrently or shared. We often have to move patients or medical specialists to the different units where these devices are located. Moreover, the analyzes to be carried out in the laboratory of a hospital establishment and coming from the operating theaters mingle with the other analyzes to be carried out. It is, therefore, common for block personnel to move to the laboratory, or vice versa, that the laboratory personnel go to the block for the samples to be analyzed urgently, with the consequent loss of time. This has the effect of lengthening the time of care and greatly reduces the chances of survival of patients.

In this respect, the movement (including on rails) of medical equipment, for the care of patients in adjoining rooms or to make them immediately available, is limited to scanners physically coupled with computer control systems and can not allow interoperability with other systems, or multi-user collaboration. Similarly, remote control, exclusively applicable to so-called motorized microscopes, is limited to the control of certain components of these microscopes (for example, turntables, filter change devices, focusing and magnification changing devices) without allowing moving from place to place in the medical environment.

A second problem stems from the method of obsolete sharing of these equipments because, in the absence of integrated tools for sharing management, the first-come-first-served service regardless of its priority.

A third problem is the ability of today's medical systems to support a growing amount of information. Indeed, the equipment must handle large volumes of data input or output of their treatments. Medical images, for example, are produced by equipment at very high resolutions. Each image must be stored before and after its treatments. The medical protocols provide for the exchange of these data between different services, equipment, or systems, external or internal to the medical structure through very often poorly sized networks. As a result, managing large volumes of data (collection, transfer, storage, provisioning) is one of the biggest challenges of existing medical systems.

A fourth problem lies in the absence of a guarantee of confidentiality, and / or a security of the system including access to the results of treatments.

An object of the present invention is, therefore, to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.

Another object of the present invention is to provide systems for distributed management of connected medical equipment to improve the efficiency of medical structures.

Another object of the present invention is the optimization of the use of medical equipment, allowing a reduction of the setting time by patient load, reduced overhead costs, and reduced workload for health care staff.

To this end, the invention relates to a system for distributed management of a plurality of medical equipment, this system comprising,

a control device integrated into each of the medical equipment;

a multi-user sharing device configured to communicate, to said control device integrated with a predefined medical equipment of said plurality of medical equipment, a predetermined task to be performed by said predefined medical equipment, and to retrieve the data resulting from the execution by said predefined medical equipment, of the task communicated.

According to various implementations, the multi-user sharing device is, in addition, configured

to geo-locate said predefined user equipment;

to evaluate the priority of said predetermined task;

- to add or delete medical equipment from said plurality of medical equipment.

The control device is configured to control the movement of the predefined medical equipment.

The system for distributed management of a plurality of medical equipment further comprises a human-machine interface for defining said predetermined task.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly and concretely on reading the following description of preferred embodiments, given below with reference to the appended drawings in which:

Fi G.1 schematically illustrates modules of a distributed management system of a plurality of medical equipment; FiG.2 schematically illustrates interactions, in one embodiment, between modules of the distributed management system.

FIG. 1 shows a system for distributed management of a plurality of medical equipment 4, this system comprising a multi-user sharing device 1 dedicated to the management of tasks, data, medical equipment 4, and users;

a control device 2 equipping each of the medical equipment 4;

human-machine interfaces 3 (HMI) giving access to the proposed functions, respectively, by the control device 2 and by the multi-user sharing device 1.

The medical equipment 4 is connected to the multi-user sharing device 1 via suitable communication networks. In one embodiment, the medical equipment 4 is connected to the local network of the medical environment via a wired or wireless network (such as Ethernet, InfiniBand, Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G / 4G / 5G, fiber , ADSL, SDSL, CAN). The connection link between a medical device 4 and the multi-user sharing device 1 may be different from one medical device 4 to another depending on the needs of the latter (a transfer of images requiring a greater flow rate than required for transfer of samples, configuration data or commands).

The multi-user sharing device 1 provides sharing functions of the medical equipment 4 between several users as well as data management functions at the input and output of the processes (tasks) performed by the mobile medical equipment 4. For this, the multi-user sharing device 1 comprises the following functional modules:

a data management module 11 configured to retrieve data produced by the medical equipment 4 resulting from the execution of a predefined task via the human machine interface 3, this data recovery function implementing appropriate access protocols for medical equipment 4;

store the previously recovered data. The choice of media, formats and storage technologies is at the discretion of the system administrator; and

visualize results, via tools adapted to users' needs; task management module 12 configured to schedule and track preprogrammed tasks so as to allow reservation of medical equipment 4 or visualization of the progress of execution of a task;

evaluate the priority of a scheduled task so that the order of the tasks to be performed by medical equipment can be changed; communicating a scheduled task to medical equipment for execution; and

send notifications to users through a flexible and configurable system (channel, frequency, format for example); module 13 for managing medical equipment 4 to add, delete, modify or more generally any function for the administration of medical equipment 4;

geo-locate, in a discrete environment, medical equipment 4 based on existing techniques and technologies (for example by using the IP address of the medical equipment 4, or the identifier of the connection terminal to which is connected medical equipment 4);

determine the condition of the medical equipment 4 (for example, "on", "off", "busy (task in progress)", or "on maintenance");

track the movements of medical equipment 4 thanks to its geolocation in the medical environment module 14 for the management of users allowing o define the access rights / user roles following a user profile definition step;

o add, delete, or modify one or more user accounts.

The evaluation by the task management module 12 of the priority of a scheduled task may be, for example, depending on

- rights granted to the user or service to which this user belongs, or more generally according to his user profile;

- the location of the task (such as emergency department, operating theater, analytical laboratory, or general consultation); or

- a priority level assigned by the user (very high, high, or standard for example).

In one embodiment, the multi-user sharing device 1 is included in a server 5 communicating with the medical equipment 4 and accessible from user terminals (such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone ) via client applications integrating human-machine interfaces 3.

The control device 2 integrated with medical equipment 4 connected to the multi-user sharing device 1 comprises:

a notification module 21 making it possible to notify the beginning and the end of a task, the putting into service / out of service, and the opening / closing of a session;

a data access module 22 providing data access functions for medical equipment 4 such as technical data (parameters, states, configuration data) or functional data (result of processing, geolocation, messages by examples) ;

a module for controlling the movement of the equipment covering, inter alia, the management of the control commands;

a configuration module 24 for carrying out the configuration functions generally embedded in the equipment 4, covering, among other things, initialization, parameterization, switching on / off;

- A processing module 25 for performing control functions, generally embedded in medical equipment 4, covering technical functions such as remote control, supervision and monitoring of operation;

a multi-user management module 26 allowing shared use (integrating, for example, authentication, access control, privilege management or session management functions) and collaborative functions (information exchange , communication management, interoperability).

In order to promote the mobility of medical equipment 4, the latter are advantageously provided with rechargeable batteries guaranteeing a satisfactory autonomy, preferably of several hours.

In an exemplary implementation, the medical environment is a hospital comprising an operating theater. This operating room includes a shared intervention room, the organization of which differs in the treatment or not emergencies. The operating room is a technical platform with its own staff, made available to surgeons and anesthetists. Usually, the technical platforms of the hospitals include postoperative monitoring rooms (recovery rooms) and several units, each unit comprising several intervention rooms, the units being specialized (such as ophthalmology, cardiology and interventional radiology). A block manager frequently ensures the proper functioning of the operating theater, in a sometimes delicate context, the surgeon can be both a client of the block and a member of the management or owner of property shares of the institution.

This hospital comprises medical equipment 4, in this case a mobile microscope 4, which a surgeon wishes to use during an operation. This mobile microscope 4 must, therefore, move to a room placed near the operating room. This room includes a desktop computer, having a web browser for access to the client functions of the mobile microscope 4. This computer is connected to the sharing device multi-user 1 by a wireless connection 802. 11a, with a speed of 30 Mbps.

The functions of the mobile microscope 4 are provided by the onboard control device 2 and adapted to the constraints of this equipment 4. In fact, in addition to a processing module 25 and a configuration module 24 for the control (covering the technical functions such as the remote control, supervision or monitoring of the operation) and the configuration (covering, among other things, initialization, parameterization, switching on / off) of the mobile microscope 4 which are generally present therein, a notification module 21;

an access module 22 to the technical data of this medical equipment 4, and to the functional data (results, geolocation, messages);

a module 23 for managing the movement of this medical equipment 4; and

a module 26 for multi-user management (a shared management of a plurality of users) and collaborative management (information exchange, interoperability) are integrated into the mobile microscope 4.

It is possible for the surgeon, wishing to carry out the analysis of organic tissues during an operation, to reserve this mobile microscope 4 which will move to the desired location of the medical environment.

The server 5 has an 802.11a wireless connection, with a speed of 30 Mbps and a 100 Gbps Ethernet wired connection allowing it bidirectional communication with the mobile microscope 4 and the user terminal of the surgeon which includes man-machine interfaces 3.

Referring to FIG. 2, the interactions in the illustrative implementation described above for distributed processing of medical equipment 4 include the following steps: - Initialization (step E1a) of the medical equipment 4 such as its startup, the launch of the piloting device 2 installed therein;

updating (step E1b) of the list of medical equipment 4 available, that is to say visible to the multi-user sharing device 1;

- issuing (step E1) a reservation request (in this case, by the surgeon) from a user terminal, after providing the required information via a human-machine interface 3;

validation (step E2), by the multi-user sharing device 1, of the reservation request on the basis of the information provided;

programming (step E3) of the request in the form of a task, while taking into account its priority, in the multi-user sharing device 1 or, more generally, in a central information system;

communication (step E4) of the task programmed to the mobile medical equipment 4, and more specifically to the control device 2 installed therein;

updating (step E5) of the list of tasks to be performed at the level of the control device 2 integrated in the medical equipment 4;

execution (step E6) of the task on the medical equipment 4 in accordance with the programming. The medical equipment 4 has previously moved to the place of execution of the task following the path 20;

sending (step E7) by the medical equipment 4 of an end-of-task notification to the surgeon via the human-machine interface 3;

sending (step E8) by the medical equipment 4 of the same notification to the multi-user sharing device 1;

access (step E9) to the results of the execution of the task programmed by the surgeon;

- Access (step E10) by the multi-user sharing device 1 to the results of the execution of the scheduled task.

The above example of using a mobile medical equipment 4 by a surgeon during an intervention in a particular place (such as an operating theater) of the medical environment illustrates the particular context of the use of shared medical equipment 4: - on the one hand in the definition of priorities and the management of emergencies, the management of the use of medical equipment can not be carried out without a link with the management of the operating theaters;

- And secondly in securing the transport and speed of analysis of the samples taken by the surgeon, the appropriate analysis equipment being advantageously close to the place of sampling (in particular the operating room).

It follows that, for example, analytical laboratories, not necessarily placed near the operating theaters, can respond in a short time to the demands of the surgeons, and in particular during the treatment of emergencies.

Advantageously, the distributed medical equipment management system 4 is used for mobile medical equipment, making it possible to avoid moving patients or medical specialists in such a way as to reduce the management times and to increase the chances of survival of the patients. patients.

Claims

A system for distributed management of a plurality of medical equipment (4), the system comprising

- a control device (2) integrated with each of the medical equipment (4);

a multi-user sharing device (1) providing medical equipment sharing functions (4) between multiple users configured to communicate, to said driver device (2) integrated with a predefined medical equipment from said plurality of medical equipment, a predetermined task to be performed by said predefined medical equipment, and to recover the data resulting from the execution, by said predefined medical equipment, of the task communicated.

2. The system of the preceding claim, wherein the multi-user sharing device (1) is further configured to geo-locate said predefined user equipment.

The system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the multi-user sharing device (1) is further configured to evaluate the priority of said predetermined task.

The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the multi-user sharing device (1) is further configured to add or delete medical equipment from among said plurality of medical equipment (4).

The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the control device (2) is configured to control the movement of the predefined medical equipment (4).

The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a human-machine interface (3) for defining said predetermined task.