Distributed medical sensing system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8977336-B2
Application number	US-201213624500-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2012
Priority date	Apr 8, 2011
Publication date	Mar 10, 2015
Grant date	Mar 10, 2015

Abstract

A distributed medical sensing system including a first body sensing device configured to sense medical characteristics, the first body sensing device being located in a first sterile field and a second body sensing device configured to sense medical characteristics, the second body sensing device being located in a second sterile field, the second sterile field being spaced from the first sterile field. The system also includes a computing device outside of the first and second sterile fields and communicatively coupled to the first and second body sensing devices, the computing device configured to respectively receive first and second medical characteristic data from the first and second body sensing devices, process the first and second medical characteristic data, and transmit the processed first and second medical characteristic data to respective first and second user interface devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A distributed medical sensing system, comprising:
a first medical sensing device configured to collect and timestamp first medical sensing data;
a second medical sensing device configured to collect and timestamp second medical sensing data, the first and second medical sensing devices being located in a first sterile field and being associated with different medical sensing modalities;
a hub communicatively coupled to the first and second medical sensing devices and including a real-time clock, the hub being configured to transmit synchronization signals to the first and second medical sensing devices based on the real-time clock, wherein the first and second medical sensing devices are configured to respectively timestamp the first and second medical sensing data based on the synchronization signals received from the hub;
a bedside controller communicatively coupled to the hub and configured to provide user control of the first and second medical sensing devices, wherein the bedside controller includes a touch screen display configured to provide a first graphical user interface (GUI) corresponding to at least one of the first and second medical sensing devices such that a first aspect of a medical workflow associated with the sterile field is controllable with a user input via the first GUI, wherein the first GUI is automatically provided in response to at least one of the first and second medical sensing devices being communicatively coupled to the hub, and wherein the at least one of the first and second medical sensing devices collects medical sensing data in response to a corresponding user input received at the bedside controller via the first GUI;
a control room controller communicatively coupled to the hub and disposed outside of the sterile field, wherein the control room controller is configured to provide a second GUI such that a second aspect of the medical workflow associated with the sterile field is controllable with a user input via the second GUI, wherein the bedside controller and the control room controller are configured to simultaneously control the first and second aspects of the medical workflow in response to respective first and second user inputs associated with the first and second aspects of the medical workflow in the first sterile field, wherein the first and second aspects of the medical workflow are different; and
a centralized computer communicatively coupled to the hub, wherein the centralized computer is configured to receive the first and second medical sensing data from the hub and temporally co-register the first and second medical sensing data based on the timestamps attached thereto.

2. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization signals comprise one of square-wave clock signals and edge based clock signals.

3. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , further including a conductor coupled between the hub and the at least one of the first and second medical sensing devices configured to carry the synchronization signals therebetween.

4. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 ,
wherein the medical sensing modality associated with the first medical sensing device is one of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging, intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging, optical coherence tomography (OCT), forward looking IVUS (FL-IVUS), fractional flow reserve (FFR), coronary flow reserve (CFR), and angiography; and
wherein the medical sensing modality associated with the second medical sensing device is a different one of IVUS imaging, IVPA imaging, OCT, FL-IVUS, FFR, CFR, and angiography.

5. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the centralized computer includes a master real-time clock, the centralized computer being configured to synchronize the real-time clock of the hub with the master real-time clock.

6. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 5 , further including a plurality of hubs communicatively coupled to the centralized computer and each having a real-time clock, the centralized computer being configured to synchronize the real-time clock in each of the plurality of hubs with the master real-time clock.

7. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 6 ,
wherein the plurality of hubs are within different procedure rooms; and
wherein the centralized computer is disposed in a different room than the sterile field.

8. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 7 , wherein the centralized computer is located in a different building from the sterile field.

9. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of hubs are in different buildings from each other.

10. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 7 ,
wherein the plurality of hubs are in the same building; and
further including a site manager communicatively interposed between the plurality of hubs and the centralized computer, the site manager being operable to manage data transmission between the plurality of hubs and the centralized computer.

11. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 6 , wherein the centralized computer includes a scalable array of compute engines.

12. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the centralized computer is configured to process the first and second medical sensing data received from the hub and transmit the processed first and second medical sensing data to at least one of the bedside controller and the control room controller.

13. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 12 , further including a data store located outside of the sterile field, the data store being configured to store at least the processed first and second medical sensing data.

14. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the first and second medical sensing devices include a catheter configured to enter into a vessel of a body.

15. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 14 , wherein the catheter includes a sensor configured for one of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and a fractional flow reserve (FFR) determination.

16. The distributed medical sensing system of claim 1 , further including a site manager communicatively interposed between the hub and the centralized computer, the site manager being operable to manage data transmission between the hub and the centralized computer.

17. A method of collecting medical data, comprising:
coupling a bedside controller and a control room controller to a hub, wherein the bedside controller is disposed within a sterile field and the control room controller is disposed outside the sterile field;
coupling a first body sensing device to the hub, the first body sensing device including a first sensor disposed thereon;
coupling a second body sensing device to the hub, the second body sensing device including a second sensor disposed thereon, the first and second body sensing devices being associated with different sensing modalities, wherein the bedside controller includes a touch screen display configured to provide a first graphical user interface (GUI) corresponding to at least one of the first and second body sensing devices such that a first aspect of a medical workflow associated with the sterile field is controllable with a user input via the first GUI, and wherein the first GUI is automatically provided in response at least one of the first and second body sensing devices being coupled to the hub, and wherein the control room controller is configured to provide a sec

Assignees

• Volcano Corp

Inventors

• Huennekens R Scott
• Sheehan David M
• Spencer Jason
• Kerr Rex
• Clark Bill
• Mansker Richard E

Classifications

• G06Q50/22 Primary

  Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services · CPC title

• A61B8/565

  involving data transmission via a network · CPC title

• A61B5/0013

  Medical image data (A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence) · CPC title

• G16H30/20 Primary

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

• A61B8/54

  Control of the diagnostic device · CPC title