Methods and systems to quantify clinical cannulation skill

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12548469-B2
Application number	US-202217864545-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2022
Priority date	Jul 15, 2021
Publication date	Feb 10, 2026
Grant date	Feb 10, 2026

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a system for evaluating a user during a physical cannulation simulation. The system includes a physical cannulation simulator and one or more sensors configured to measure data during the physical cannulation simulation by the user using the physical cannulation simulator. The system further includes one or more processors configured to receive the data measured by each of the one or more sensors and calculate metrics using the data. The one or more processors are further configured to apply a model to the metrics to determine a composite simulation success score and compare the composite simulation success score to a threshold score. In response to comparing the composite simulation success score to the threshold score, the one or more processors are configured to output an indication of one or more of an absolute performance or a relative performance for the first user during the physical cannulation simulation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
(a) a physical cannulation simulator; (b) one or more sensors, wherein each sensor of the one or more sensors is configured to measure data during a physical cannulation simulation by a first user using the physical cannulation simulator, wherein the one or more sensors comprise an infrared sensor system, and wherein the infrared sensor system comprises an infrared detector in or on a needle tip and a plurality of infrared emitters arranged throughout a simulated fistula within the physical cannulation simulator, wherein the plurality of infrared emitters comprises a series of infrared emitters embedded atop a signal processing circuit, wherein the series of infrared emitters are arranged in order of increasing frequency, wherein each in the series of infrared emitters are actuated at different frequencies, and wherein the data output by the infrared detector comprises an amount of infrared received of each emitter signal; and (c) one or more processors, wherein the signal processing circuit receives the amount of infrared received of each signal from the infrared detector and outputs voltage data to the one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
(i) receive the data measured by each of the one or more sensors;
(ii) calculate a plurality of metrics using the data, wherein calculating the plurality of metrics includes:
(1) estimate a needle tip location based on data output by the infrared detector;
(2) compare the voltage data to a voltage model trained based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the series of infrared emitters, spacing measurements between each infrared emitter in the series of infrared emitters, and one or more characteristics of the infrared detector; and
(3) determine an X-Y-Z position of the infrared detector within the simulated fistula based on the comparison of voltage data and the voltage model;

(iii) apply a model to the plurality of metrics to determine a composite simulation success score;
(iv) compare the composite simulation success score to a threshold score; and
(v) in response to comparing the composite simulation success score to the threshold score, output an indication of one or more of an absolute performance or a relative performance for the first user during the physical cannulation simulation.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise one or more of:
(a) an optical hand tracking sensor system; (b) a pressure sensor system; (c) an electromagnetic position sensor system; (d) an infrared sensor system; and (e) an external camera system.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the optical hand tracking sensor system comprises an optical hand tracking sensor module installed above the physical cannulation simulator.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the pressure sensor system includes an arrangement of one or more pressure sensors wearable on a hand of the first user, wherein the arrangement of one or more pressure sensors includes a pressure sensor set on a tip of each of one or more fingers of the hand of the first user when worn on the hand of the first user.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the electromagnetic position sensor system comprises an electromagnetic position generator located external to the physical cannulation simulator and an electromagnetic position sensor located inside or on a needle held by the user during the physical cannulation simulation.

6 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the infrared sensor system comprises one or more infrared emitters located within the physical cannulation simulator and an infrared sensor located in a needle held by the user during the physical cannulation simulation.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the data comprises one or more of:
(a) hand position data; (b) finger position data; (c) needle insertion pressure data; (d) time series data; (e) touchpoint data; (f) force data; (g) needle location data; (h) needle presence data; and (i) needle movement data.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
extract, based on an initial calibration for each of the one or more sensors and segmentation of the data, a threshold for each of the plurality of metrics.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each metric of the plurality of metrics comprises one or more of:
(a) a time metric; (b) a location metric; (c) a force metric; (d) a statistical feature; and (e) a threshold selection feature.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the time metric comprises one or more of:
(a) a total time from a start of a palpation to an end of the palpation; and (b) a total duration of a needle tip moving under a skin surface of the physical cannulation simulator.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the location metric comprises one or more of:
(a) a ratio of correct movement; (b) a ratio of accurate touchpoints; (c) a path length; (d) a distance to motor; (e) a needle tip path length; (f) an average needle angle; and (g) a velocity profile.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the force metric comprises one or more of:
(a) a touchpoint total; (b) a touch frequency; (c) a touchpoint time; (d) a touchpoint force; (e) a force integration; (f) a jerk metric; and (g) a pinch force metric.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the statistical feature comprises one or more of:
(a) an average absolute difference between each metric and a mean value for the respective metric; (b) an average of a root sum of squares for each metric; and (c) an average difference between each metric and the mean value for the respective metric.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the threshold selection feature comprises one or more of:
(a) an indication of a hesitation before reaching a first flashback; (b) an indication of a fast needle steering motion; (c) an indication of more than a threshold number of major peaks in pinch force data; (d) an incorrect judgment of a fistula location; (e) an indication of infiltration danger; and (f) a dangerous infiltration angle.

15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the model comprises a series of weights to apply to each metric of the plurality of metrics.

16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the model comprises a machine learning model.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
after outputting the indication of the one or more of the absolute performance or the relative performance for the first user during the physical cannulation simulation, receive an input as to whether the first user passed or failed the physical cannulation simulation; and adjust the model based on the input as to whether the indication of the first user passed or failed the physical cannulation simulation and the comparison of the composite simulation success score to the threshold score.

18 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the voltage data comprises a series of voltage measurements captured at different moments throughout the physical cannulation simulation, and wherein the X-Y-Z position of the infrared detector within the simulated fistula comprises a series of X-Y-Z positions of the infrared detector within the simulated fistula at the different moments throughout the physical cannulation simulation.

19 . A method to quantify cannulation skills on a physical cannulation simulator, the method comprising:
(a) measuring, by one or more se

Assignees

• Univ Clemson Res Foundation

Inventors

• Singapogu Ravikiran
• Liu Zhanhe
• Zhang Ziyang
• Petersen Lydia
• Moline David
• Shukla Devansh

Classifications

• G06F3/014

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• G09B23/285 Primary

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