Patent Issued for Platform independent realtime medical data display system (USPTO 11038969)

2021 JUL 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Kapila Venkata, Ramakrishna (Vijayawada, IN), Lawrence, Ebith Bersingh (Kerala, IN), Subramaniam, Ganesh (Bangalore, IN), filed on December 11, 2019, was published online on June 15, 2021.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11038969 is Murata Vios Inc. (Woodbury, Minnesota, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Patient treatment experiences within hospitals and other healthcare facilities can vary in numerous ways, including differences in initial interaction between a patient and caregivers, diagnosis, progression of treatment, physical movement of a patient within a facility, length of stay, recovery, and rehabilitation. For example, in some cases, a patient initiates interaction with a hospital by arriving at an emergency room to have an immediate need (such as an injury, heart failure, sudden pain, or other sudden health emergency) addressed by the hospital staff. From there, the patient may be rushed into surgery, scheduled for surgery at a later time, given one or more medications, scheduled for a later diagnostic consultation, treated and released, removed to an intensive care unit, moved to a recovery ward, or any other myriad actions could be taken with respect to the patient. As another example, in some cases, a patient initiates interaction with a hospital by scheduling a surgical procedure. In such a scenario, the patient may, for example, arrive at the hospital, be prepped for surgery, undergo the surgical procedure, spend an amount of time in a recovery ward, and then be moved to a general hospital ward before being released from the hospital and sent home.

“In many cases, one or more surgical procedures make up part of a treatment plan for a patient. There are multiple environments that patients can be transitioned through after a surgical procedure. Immediately after a procedure, patients are gradually brought back to a stable condition, after which they are discharged to the home or a long-term care setting. The initial recovery process starts in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for patients requiring 24/7 clinician oversight. An ICU has the necessary equipment to monitor patient status and high staffing ratios to aid patient recovery. This environment can be very expensive for patients, as it is often the highest per-day cost out of any room in the hospital-leaving this environment as soon as possible is beneficial as it minimizes overall cost. For hospitals that are built around critical-care, ICU patient throughput is a highly scrutinized metric for the efficiency of their overall operations-it is the hospital’s most expensive environment to staff and resource, and keeping patients there longer than necessary means another patient must wait for a bed to become available prior to receiving treatment. The transition of patients out of the ICU is therefore preferred for both hospitals and patients, but the risks associated with premature discharge often prevents early release of a patient.

“While a patient is located in the ICU, basic vital sign data needed to determine patient stability are measured, recorded, tracked, and trended, a process which can often be clinical staff dependent, and which can restrict a clinician to a particular physical location where they can monitor patients and review vital signs and other data in person (e.g., by viewing a bedside ECG display that utilizes sensors connected to a patient). Patient vital signs that are collected can include: blood pressure, body temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygenation, heart rhythm (via ECG), and heart rate. Along with this, there are soft metrics also used such as patient responsiveness and visual assessment.

“In some cases, the recovery process can include moving a patient to a recovery room, either directly after surgery, or after a period of time spent in an ICU. As with ICUs, patient monitoring within a recovery room environment also includes a heavy reliance on clinician interpretation of any data that is generated, and this data may or may not be easily available to the original physician overseeing the patient’s recovery.

“From an ICU or recovery room, a patient can often be moved to a general ward. General wards often include lower caregiver to patient staffing ratios and less or no vital sign monitoring. In many cases, vital signs are often not monitored on a near constant basis, but rather nurses will make rounds to measure key vital signs. Additionally, such vital sign measurement can often be limited to a few basic parameters such as body temperature and blood pressure. After the general ward, the next phase in patient recovery progression is often discharge of the patient. It is generally considered best for patients to reach home and recover in this more comfortable environment as soon as possible. Being released from a hospital to continue recovery at home can minimize the risk of contracting unrelated in-hospital complications, and can better allow family members to aid with recovery, at lower-cost to the patient.

“During the management of patients in multiple in-hospital and out-of-hospital environments, various stakeholders (human and non-human) are interested in consuming realtime medical data associated with patient status and the care received. These realtime medical data are often resident in disparate human and non-human sources, and are communicated to stakeholders through various modalities. Furthermore, coordinating care in a patient-centric manner is difficult as many stakeholders are continuously changing.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This specification describes methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing realtime medical data that are obtained from a monitoring device to a client device. In particular, the system can provide realtime medical data to a client device regardless of a type of a client device’s platform. The system uses different types of connections to establish a connection between the client device and the system and to transfer realtime medical data between the client device and the system. For example, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection can be used to establish a connection between the client device and the system and a websocket connection can be used to transfer realtime medical data between the client device and the system. By using an HTTP connection, the system can initially establish a connection between the system and any client device compatible with an HTTP connection.

“In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a method performed, for example, by a computing system having one or more computers executing computer instructions stored on one or more non-transitory computer storage devices. The method can include receiving, by a service broker from a client device through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection, a first request for a web page, the first request including patient information for a particular patient; in response to the first request, determining, by the service broker, a particular web page based on the patient information for the particular patient, the particular web page displaying a first user interface; providing, by the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection, the particular web page to establish a websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; receiving, by the service broker from the client device through the websocket connection, a second request for first real time medical data, the second request identifying a medical data protocol that defines one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; obtaining, by the service broker from one or more data sources, a first set of real time medical data samples that includes respective values of the one or more attributes for the first real time medical data; generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; and providing, by the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection, a second user interface to present the first real time medical data.

“The method can optionally include one or more of the following features. In response to loading the particular web page on the client device, the particular web page can be configured to invoke the client device to establish the websocket connection between the client device and the service broker. Establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device can include receiving, by the service broker from the client device, a websocket connection request that is invoked in response to loading the particular web page on the client device; and in response to the websocket connection request, providing, by the service broker to the client device a websocket connection response to establish the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device. The method can further include pushing, by the service broker to the client device, medical data asynchronously through the web socket connection.

“Generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data can include identifying, by the service broker, respective values for an identification, a sample rate, a plot time, and buffer information from the second request including the respective values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data, based on the value of the identification, determining a particular waveform of one or more waveforms that are monitored by a monitoring device in real time, based on the respective values of the plot time, the sample rate, and the buffer information, writing, by the service broker, the particular waveform in a buffer using the sampling rate for the plot time, and based on the particular waveform written in the buffer, generating, by the service broker, the first real time medical data.

“The method can further include storing the generated first real time medical data in a database. Providing the first real time medical data can include reading, by the service broker, the first real time medical data stored in the database, and providing, by the service broker to the client device, the first real time medical data through the websocket connection. The client device can be a subscriber to the service broker for medical data. The websocket connection can be established between the service broker and the client device using communications based on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

“The particular web page can simultaneously display (i) the first user interface provided from the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection and (ii) the second user interface that presents the first real time medical data provided from the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection. The method can further include receiving, by the service broker from the client device through the websocket connection, a third request for second real time medical data, the third request including respective values of the one or more data attributes for the second real time medical data; receiving, by the service broker from the one or more data sources, a second set of real time medical data samples; generating the second real time medical data from the second set of real time medical data samples based on the values of the one or more data attributes for the second real time medical data; and updating, by the service broker, the second user interface to present the second real time medical data instead of the first real time medical data while maintaining the first user interface.

“The subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in particular implementations and can result in one or more of the following advantages. A conventional system uses the same type of connection to establish a connection between a client device and the conventional system and to transfer realtime medical data between the client device and the conventional system. In comparison, a system described in this specification uses different types of connections to establish a connection between a client device and the system and to transfer realtime medical data between the client device and the system. In particular, by using a versatile type of connection, e.g., an HTTP connection, to establish a connection between the client device and the system, the system can establish a data connection to any client device that is compatible with the connection type regardless of the client device’s platform. Thus, the system improves the compatibility and the flexibility to manage realtime medical data by allowing caregivers and other interested parties to review realtime medical data collected from patients using a standard interface (e.g., a web browser) on a remote computing device. The system provides data integrity without the need for a specialized application.

“Moreover, the system does not require additional brokers to establish a connection between the client device and the system. This reduces the number of network devices in the entire network such that less network resources can be used to transfer the same data between the system and the client device. Thus, network resources can be used efficiently.

“Furthermore, a conventional system requires a new connection between a client device and the conventional system whenever transferring realtime medical data. Thus, even if a connection was established before, a new connection should be established to transfer new realtime medical data. In comparison, the system described herein does not require any subsequent connection process to transfer realtime medical data once a connection to transfer realtime medical data is established between the system and the client device, Thus, the system uses less network resources comparing to the conventional system.

“The subject matter described in this specification can be implemented so as to realize one or more of the following advantages. Compared to a conventional system, the disclosed techniques are more efficient. The disclosed system determines whether a current deployment manifest deployed in a deployment system is outdated and provides a notification, to a client device, indicating whether the current deployment manifest is outdated. In response to the notification, a determination as to whether the current deployment manifest should be upgraded or when the current deployment manifest is upgraded can be made. As a result, the system can avoid downtime by upgrading service implementations while the system is not performing other tasks or the system is not busy. Thus, the system can perform the upgrade to the service implementations efficiently.

“The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

“Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a service broker from a client device through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection, a first request for a web page, the first request including patient information for a particular patient; in response to the first request, determining, by the service broker, a particular web page based on the patient information for the particular patient, the particular web page displaying a first user interface; providing, by the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection, the particular web page to establish a websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; receiving, by the service broker from the client device through the websocket connection, a second request for first real time medical data, the second request identifying a medical data protocol that defines one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; obtaining, by the service broker from one or more data sources, a first set of real time medical data samples that includes respective values of the one or more attributes for the first real time medical data; generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; and providing, by the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection, a second user interface to present the first real time medical data.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in response to loading the particular web page on the client device, the particular web page is configured to invoke the client device to establish the websocket connection between the client device and the service broker.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device comprises: receiving, by the service broker from the client device, a websocket connection request that is invoked in response to loading the particular web page on the client device; and in response to the websocket connection request, providing, by the service broker to the client device a websocket connection response to establish the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: pushing, by the service broker to the client device, medical data asynchronously through the web socket connection.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data attributes defined in the medical data protocol include at least one of an identification, a sample rate, a plot time, and buffer information.

“6. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data comprises: identifying, by the service broker, respective values for an identification, a sample rate, a plot time, and buffer information from the second request including the respective values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data, based on the value of the identification, determining a particular waveform of one or more waveforms that are monitored by a monitoring device in real time, based on the respective values of the plot time, the sample rate, and the buffer information, writing, by the service broker, the particular waveform in a buffer using the sampling rate for the plot time, and based on the particular waveform written in the buffer, generating, by the service broker, the first real time medical data.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing the first real time medical data comprises: reading, by the service broker, the first real time medical data stored in the database, and providing, by the service broker to the client device, the first real time medical data through the websocket connection.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a subscriber to the service broker for medical data.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the web socket connection is established between the service broker and the client device using communications based on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular web page simultaneously displays (i) the first user interface provided from the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection and (ii) the second user interface that presents the first real time medical data provided from the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection.

“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving, by the service broker from the client device through the websocket connection, a third request for second real time medical data, the third request including respective values of the one or more data attributes for the second real time medical data; receiving, by the service broker from the one or more data sources, a second set of real time medical data samples; generating the second real time medical data from the second set of real time medical data samples based on the values of the one or more data attributes for the second real time medical data; and updating, by the service broker, the second user interface to present the second real time medical data instead of the first real time medical data while maintaining the first user interface.

“12. A system comprising: one or more computers and one or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a service broker from a client device through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection, a first request for a web page, the first request including patient information for a particular patient; in response to the first request, determining, by the service broker, a particular web page based on the patient information for the particular patient, the particular web page displaying a first user interface; providing, by the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection, the particular web page to establish a websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device; receiving, by the service broker from the client device through the websocket connection, a second request for first real time medical data, the second request identifying a medical data protocol that defines one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; obtaining, by the service broker from one or more data sources, a first set of real time medical data samples that includes respective values of the one or more attributes for the first real time medical data; generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data; and providing, by the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection, a second user interface to present the first real time medical data.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein, in response to loading the particular web page on the client device, the particular web page is configured to invoke the client device to establish the websocket connection between the client device and the service broker.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein establishing the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device comprises: receiving, by the service broker from the client device, a websocket connection request that is invoked in response to loading the particular web page on the client device; and in response to the websocket connection request, providing, by the service broker to the client device a websocket connection response to establish the websocket connection between the service broker and the client device.

“15. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more data attributes defined in the medical data protocol include at least one of an identification, a sample rate, a plot time, and buffer information.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein generating the first real time medical data based on the values of the values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data comprises: identifying, by the service broker, respective values for an identification, a sample rate, a plot time, and buffer information from the second request including the respective values of the one or more data attributes for the first real time medical data, based on the value of the identification, determining a particular waveform of one or more waveforms that are monitored by a monitoring device in real time, based on the respective values of the plot time, the sample rate, and the buffer information, writing, by the service broker, the particular waveform in a buffer using the sampling rate for the plot time, and based on the particular waveform written in the buffer, generating, by the service broker, the first real time medical data.

“17. The system of claim 12, wherein the particular web page simultaneously displays (i) the first user interface provided from the service broker to the client device through the HTTP connection and (ii) the second user interface that presents the first real time medical data provided from the service broker to the client device through the websocket connection.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Kapila Venkata, Ramakrishna. Platform independent realtime medical data display system. U.S. Patent Number 11038969, filed December 11, 2019, and published online on June 15, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11038969.PN.&OS=PN/11038969RS=PN/11038969

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