Operating devices in an operating room

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12336774-B2
Application number	US-202017138777-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2020
Priority date	Dec 31, 2019
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

Described are methods and systems for operating devices in an operating room (OR), according to some embodiments. An OR hub can provide an operations user interface (UI) that is provisioned by a hub software developer to enable authorized users to access permitted software functions run by the system software on the OR hub to operate one or more medical devices in the OR. The operations UI can be configured to prevent an interaction of the one or more medical devices and the OR hub with a user until that user is authenticated through the operations U. In some embodiments, the operations UI of the OR hub implements role-based security in which the operations UI provides an authenticated user with different sets of permitted software and/or security functions based on a type of credential possessed by the authenticated user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for improving cybersecurity of an operating room, comprising:
at an operating room (OR) hub storing patient data and coupled to one or more medical devices in the operating room, the one or more medical devices comprising an imaging device:
preventing a user from interacting with the imaging device until the user is authenticated through an operations user interface (UI) during a surgical procedure on a patient;
permitting, via the operations UI, a medical practitioner having an operator credential to perform a plurality of permitted software functions comprising operating the imaging device via the OR hub to capture an image or video of the patient during the surgical procedure, storing the image or video of the patient in a case file, and transmitting at least a portion of the case file to an external device via a preconfigured network connection, but preventing the medical practitioner from changing one or more imaging device access privileges of the OR hub, changing the preconfigured network connection, and changing the plurality of permitted software functions;
permitting, via the operations UI, a hospital network administrator having an administrator credential to change the operator credential of the medical practitioner, access audit logs comprising information related to usage of the permitted software functions including metadata generated at the OR hub based on user interactions with the operations UI, and change the preconfigured network connection, but preventing the hospital network administrator from changing the plurality of permitted software functions; and
permitting a hub software developer having a developer credential to configure the plurality of permitted software functions, wherein the operations UI is configured to prevent any hospital personnel having the operator credential or the administrator credential from altering the metadata generated at the OR hub based on user interactions with the operations UI.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
running system software to operate a firewall on the OR hub to control inbound and outbound network connections to the operating room.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system software comprises an operating system of the OR hub.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the system software is configured to allow the plurality of permitted software functions corresponding to the one or more medical devices to run on the OR hub.

5. The method of claim 2 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator having the administrator credential to select one of a plurality of permitted communication protocols to change the preconfigured network connection between the OR hub and the external device; and
automatically provisioning a firewall to allow the preconfigured network connection.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the medical practitioner having the operator credential to access the external device via the preconfigured network connection.

7. The method of claim 6 , comprising:
enabling the preconfigured network connection when the medical practitioner is permitted to operate the imaging device during the surgical procedure; and
disabling the network connection to the networked device when the medical practitioner is logged out of the operations UI.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein changing the preconfigured network connection between the OR hub and the external device comprises:
prompting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator to select a network port of the OR hub and a device identifier of the external device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external device comprises an SFTP server or a DICOM server.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more medical devices comprises surgical lights, an insufflator, an audio and video (AV) router, or a printer.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the medical practitioner having the operator credential to access patient data generated by the OR hub or the one or more medical devices during the surgical procedure.

12. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
storing patient data on an encrypted memory of the OR hub, the patient data generated based on user interactions between the medical practitioner and the operations UI during the surgical procedure.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the patient data comprises audio, video, or textual data generated by one or more permitted software functions of the permitted software functions accessed by the medical practitioner during the surgical procedure.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the imaging device comprises an endoscope camera, and wherein the patient data comprises the image or video captured by the endoscope camera.

15. The method of claim 12 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator having the administrator credential to select one of a plurality of permitted communication protocols to change the preconfigured network connection between the OR hub and the external device; and
automatically provisioning the firewall to allow the preconfigured network connection.

16. The method of claim 15 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the medical practitioner to select the external device for exporting the patient data outside of the operating room through the preconfigured network connection.

17. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator to individually enable or disable communication ports of the OR hub to control local connections between the OR hub and the one or more medical devices.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the communication ports comprise a USB port or a serial port.

19. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
restricting, via the operations UI, the medical practitioner having the operator credential from accessing the metadata generated at the OR hub; and
permitting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator having the administrator credential to view the metadata.

20. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
coupling the OR hub to a touch panel; and
providing the operations user interface (UI) for display on the touch panel.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein permitting the medical practitioner to perform a plurality of permitted software functions comprises:
configuring settings of surgical lights, an endoscope camera, or an insufflator based on inputs of the medical practitioner received by the operations UI.

22. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
permitting, by the operations UI, the hospital network administrator having the administrator credential to assign the operator credential to one or more other medical practitioners to allow the one or more other medical practitioners to operate the one or more medical devices and to access one or more preconfigured network connections during surgical procedures.

23. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
preventing, via the operations UI, any hospital personnel from executing software functions other than one or more of the plurality of permitted software functions set by the hub software developer.

24. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
permitting, via the operations UI, the hospital network administrator having the administrator credential to run one or more security functions from

Assignees

• Stryker Corp

Inventors

• Mahadik Amit A
• Paramasivan Ramanan
• BHAT Suraj
• Jila Afshin
• Aggarwal Manoj
• Choudhary Sourabh

Classifications

• A61B2560/0487

  Special user inputs or interfaces · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title

• G16H30/20

  for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS · CPC title

• A61B90/361

  Image-producing devices, e.g. surgical cameras · CPC title

• G16H20/40

  relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture · CPC title