Sterilization process management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10874759-B2
Application number	US-201916359552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2019
Priority date	Mar 20, 2018
Publication date	Dec 29, 2020
Grant date	Dec 29, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a system including an image capture device and a computing device configured to receive a test image from the image capture device corresponding to a first surgical instrument, determine an identity type of the first surgical instrument using the test image in a machine vision technique, determine whether the first surgical instrument is flagged, and perform at least one operation in response to whether the first surgical instrument is flagged.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an image capture device;
a computing device communicatively coupled to the image capture device, the computing device comprising one or more computer processors and a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
receive a test image from the image capture device corresponding to a first surgical instrument;
determine an identity type of the first surgical instrument using the test image in a machine vision technique by:
receiving a plurality of images corresponding to a plurality of surgical instruments comprising a first set of images that include surgical instruments having the identity type;
generating a first set of feature values based on a visual representation of a surgical instrument from the plurality of surgical images in an image from the plurality of images, wherein the first set of feature values correspond to features usable to determine the identity type of the surgical instrument from the plurality of surgical images;
applying the first set of feature values for the first set of images to a first model to determine affiliation with a plurality of clusters based on shared features of the first set of images;
assigning the test image to a cluster from the plurality of clusters based on affiliation, wherein the cluster is associated with the identity type;

determine whether the first surgical instrument is flagged; and
perform at least one operation in response to whether the first surgical instrument is flagged.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device comprises a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
adjust a confidence of the determination of the identity type based on an identity parameter.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a datastore comprising one or more records for the first surgical instrument.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein a flag is derived from the one or more records from the datastore.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first surgical instrument is flagged based on a record for the first surgical instrument not being present in the datastore;
wherein to perform at least one operation the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to perform a record management operation to the record for the first surgical instrument based on the determination of the identity type, wherein the record management operation comprises adding the record to the datastore.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the record management operation comprises adding details associated with the first surgical instrument manually.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein to determine the identity type of the first surgical instrument, the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
determine, with the image capture device, whether an article message is present on a surgical instrument; and
determine the identity type of the first surgical instrument using a machine vision technique based on whether the article message is present.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the article message is a bar code, QR code, visual indication of an alphanumeric sequence, or combinations thereof.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the bar code comprises color coded bar code stripes.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein to determine whether the article message is present occurs responsive to determining if a receipt or purchase order is available for the device; and
if available, adding the receipt or purchase order to the record.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a display communicatively coupled to the computing device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first surgical instrument is flagged based on an economic status of the first surgical instrument,
wherein the computing device comprises a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
present, via the display, a visual indication of the economic status of the first surgical instrument.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first surgical instrument is flagged based on special handling instructions for the first surgical instrument;
wherein to perform at least one operation the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to present the special handling instructions on the display.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first surgical instrument is flagged based on whether the first surgical instrument is missing from a group;
wherein to perform at least one operation the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to present the group and a location associated with the group.

15. A system comprising:
an image capture device;
an analytical device;
a computing device communicatively coupled to the image capture device and the analytical device, the computing device comprising one or more computer processors and a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
determine, based on a machine vision technique from the image capture device, that a wrapped package is assembled with a group of one or more surgical instruments by:
receiving an image of a surgical instrument and a background surface from the image capture device,
pre-processing the image responsive to receiving the image, further comprising:
generating a mask from the image by removing the background surface;
removing noise from the mask, and
applying the mask to the image,

receive a sterilization status for the group from the analytical device; and
perform at least one operation based on the sterilization status.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein to perform at least one operation the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to flag a record in a datastore for the one or more surgical instruments in the group based on the sterilization status.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein to apply the mask, the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to align the mask with a feature.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein to generate a mask, the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
apply a background subtraction to the image;
modify color channels of the image;
apply a morphological operator.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein to remove noise from mask the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
extract a plurality of connected components from the image;
determine a first group of connected components that are smaller than a first threshold dimension; determine a second group of connected components that are larger than a second threshold dimension; and
remove a connected component from the first and second group that is within a threshold di

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Co

Inventors

• Ma Judy J
• Bommarito G Marco
• Fish Amelia
• Chhoun Rothanak
• Dimeo Christina M
• Shrivastav Maneesh

Classifications

• A61L2/28 Primary

  Devices for testing the effectiveness or completeness of sterilisation or disinfection, e.g. indicators which change colour · CPC title

• G06V10/945

  User interactive design; Environments; Toolboxes · CPC title

• A61L2/24 Primary

  Apparatus using programmed or automatic operation · CPC title

• A61L2103/15

  Laboratory, medical or dentistry appliances, e.g. catheters or sharps · CPC title

• G06V2201/034

  of medical instruments · CPC title