System and method of medical device alarm management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9852265-B1
Application number	US-201615281717-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2016
Priority date	Sep 30, 2016
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods of medical device alarm management include receiving alarm data from a plurality of medical devices. The alarm data includes a plurality of alarms from the plurality of medical devices. A summary of the received alarms from the plurality of medical devices is visually presented. Upon receiving a selection of a medical device of the plurality of medical devices, an identification of each of the alarms from the selected medical device is visually presented. A frequency of each of the alarms from the selected medical device is visually presented.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for medical device alarm management, the system comprising:
a plurality of medical devices that produce medical device data and generate a plurality of alarms based upon analysis of the medical device data;
a processor that receives alarm data identifying each of the plurality of alarms from each of the plurality of medical devices, the processor receives the medical device data from the plurality of medical devices and categorizes each of the plurality of alarms in the alarm data into a plurality of alarm types based upon the alarm data, and aggregates the alarm data to a total number of alarms, the processor calculates a device contribution to the plurality of alarms by each device of the plurality of medical devices;
a graphical display operable by the processor to visually present a summary of the plurality of alarms identified in the received alarm data, the summary comprising the total number of alarms, the device contribution to the plurality of alarms by each device, and an alarm type from the plurality of alarm types for each of the plurality of alarms; and
a user input device communicatively connected to the processor and operable to receive at least one user input of a selection of a medical device of the plurality of medical devices wherein upon receiving the selection of the medical device, the processor operates the graphical display to visually present an identification of each of the alarms from the selected medical device and a frequency of each alarm identification of the plurality of alarms from the selected medical device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the medical device data comprises at least one of patient physiological data and device technical data.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of medical devices are located across a plurality of locations.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the processor aggregates alarm totals from the medical devices at each location of the plurality of locations and operates the graphical display to visually present alarm totals for each of the plurality of locations.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor receives the alarm data in real time and updates the visual presentation of the total of the plurality of alarms and the visual presentation of the identification of each of the alarms in real time to reflect the received alarm data.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
wherein the processor operates the graphical display to visually present at least one alarm threshold setting that defines at least one alarm and to visually present the medical device data associated with the at least one alarm;
wherein upon receiving an adjustment to the at least one alarm threshold setting with the user input device, the processor operates the graphical display to visually present the adjustment to the at least one alarm threshold setting; and
wherein the processor calculates a retrospective number of alarm events based upon the medical device data and the adjustment to the at least one alarm threshold setting.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein upon receiving an input at the user input device to accept the adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting, the processor electronically communicates the adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting to at least one medical device of the plurality of medical devices to adjust at least one alarm threshold setting of the at least one medical device.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
wherein the processor operates the graphical display to visually present a lower threshold limit and an upper threshold limit that define at least one alarm and to visually present the medical device data associated with the at least one alarm;
wherein upon receiving an adjustment to the at least one of the lower threshold limit and the upper threshold limit, the processor operates the graphical display to visually present the adjustment; and
wherein the processor calculates percentages of the medical device data below the lower threshold limit, above the upper threshold limit, and within the lower threshold limit and upper threshold limit, after the adjustment.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor electronically provides an adjustment recommendation to a user associated with at least one medical device of the plurality of medical devices.

10. A method of medical device alarm management, the method comprising:
receiving alarm data from a plurality of medical devices, the alarm data comprising a plurality of alarms from the plurality of medical devices;
aggregating a total alarm burden from the total number of alarms from each of the plurality of medical devices;
calculating a contribution by each medical device to the total alarm burden;
creating a summary of the received alarm data from the plurality of medical devices by determining an alarm identification of each alarm of the plurality of alarms and frequency of each alarm identification in the plurality of alarms;
visually presenting the calculated contribution by each medical device to the total alarm burden;
visually presenting the summary of alarms received from the plurality of medical devices; and
upon receiving a selection of a medical device of the plurality of medical devices, visually presenting the alarm identifications of each of the alarms from the selected medical device and the frequency of each alarm identification of the plurality of alarms from the selected medical device.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving a selection of a time period for consideration and determining an alarm burden created by each of the plurality of medical devices.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
calculating a contribution from each alarm identification to the total alarm burden;
visually presenting the contribution from each alarm identification to the total alarm burden.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving medical device data from the plurality of medical devices; and
visually presenting the medical device data resulting in at least one alarm of the plurality of alarms in the alarm data.

14. The method of claim 13 , herein medical device data is visually presented in a histogram of medical device data.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising visually presenting current alarm threshold settings in connection with medical device data.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
receiving an adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting;
visually presenting the adjustment to the at least one alarm threshold setting; and
calculating and visually presenting a number of alarm events based upon the medical device data with the adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising upon receiving a user input to accept the adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting, electronically communicating the adjustment to at least one alarm threshold setting to at least one medical device of the plurality of medical devices to adjust at least one alarm threshold setting of the at least one medical device.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the medical device data is physiological data, and the alarm events are physiological parameter alarm events.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the visual presentation comprises a heat tree map representing a number of alarms from each medical device as a size of a graphical icon and an assessment of the number of alarms from each medical device

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Treacy Stephen Thomas
• Hak Marriaine Sien
• Stover Mary Jane

Classifications

• G06F19/3418 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F19/322

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08B5/222

  Personal calling arrangements or devices, i.e. paging systems (selective calling systems and call receivers H04W84/00, H04W68/00) · CPC title

• G16H40/67 Primary

  for remote operation · CPC title

• G16H40/20

  for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms · CPC title