Filtering data from analytical devices

Abstract

The present invention discusses a computer-implemented method and associated apparatus, a networked system, a computer-readable medium, and a computer program element. The computer-implemented method generates a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication received from a first analyzer network (10A). The first analyzer network includes at least one analysis device (P1A-P7A) configured to generate a message. The method includes: receiving, at a data processing agent (23), a message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to a message in the first analyzer network (10A); providing, at the data processing agent (23), at least one message filter configuration based on the message priority indication of the message; and transmitting the message filter configuration or a portion thereof to a second analyzer network (10B) including a second analysis device (P1B-P7B).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for generating a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication received from a first analyzer network, and associated apparatus, networked system, computer program element, and computer-readable medium. Background Art

[0002] In a clinical care environment, analysis devices of medical samples may be used at or near the point of care. Such analysis devices are referred to as "point of care (POC) test devices". The analysis devices may communicate various status messages containing information about the technical status of the test device, for example, with a central server.

[0003] The POC devices (analytical devices) send a large number of device messages (analytical device status data) representing, for example, events, analysis results, or other analytical device status information to the POC IT data management system.

[0004] Typical POC devices generate a large number of device messages. Therefore, coherent monitoring of information related to the status of a large number of POC devices may be challenging. Therefore, such POC devices and their management systems can be further improved. Summary of the invention

[0005] According to a first aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented method for generating a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication received from a first analyzer network, wherein the first analyzer network comprises at least one analysis device configured to generate analysis device status data. The method comprises:

[0006] receiving, at a data processing agent, a message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to analysis device status data in a first analyzer network;

[0007] providing, at the data processing agent, at least one message filter configuration based on analyzing the message priority indication of the device status data; and

[0008] The message filter configuration, or a portion thereof, is transmitted to a second analyzer network comprising a second analyzing device.

[0009] The effect of this is that the message viewing preferences of a large number of analytical device users can be captured and used to generate message filter configurations that can be used to filter analytical device state data that appears on other analytical devices and their management systems. The analytical device state data capture and filtering can occur automatically and continuously and be updated to reflect changes in user behavior, or reactions to analytical device state data generation based on changes in the context of the analyzer generating a given message.

[0010] This has the effect of enabling important analytical device status data regarding the internal state of the analytical device to be more clearly reported to the user.Typically, a typical analytical device system contains many analytical devices and may generate thousands of analytical device status data items per hour.

[0011] The method described herein enables application of message filters based on user input received from the user interface of one or more POC data management systems or analyzers.After filtering, potentially important analytical device status data related to the internal state of the POC analyzer is more prominently displayed.

[0012] A data processing agent (server) communicatively coupled to a POC data management system and / or a mobile display device may encounter capacity limitations when attempting to push (transmit) a large number of messages to be displayed on the GUI of the POC data management system and / or the mobile display device. In one example, a modern web display framework employs one or more data bindings between the data processing agent (server) and the GUI in the POC data management system and / or the mobile display device.

[0013] When the number of messages displayed at the POC data management system and / or mobile display device is reduced, the performance of the data processing agent (server) is improved because, in the example, there are fewer data bindings between the GUI and the data processing agent (server) that need to be serviced simultaneously. Specifically, the data processing agent (server) can experience a reduction in working memory (RAM) usage and a reduction in communication latency with the POC data management system and / or mobile display device. Specifically, the mobile device servicing the data bindings can experience an improvement in battery life.

[0014] Another effect is that the operation of the POC data management system or mobile device can be simplified. For example, the POC data management system can maintain a database of analytical device status data that grows at a rate of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of messages per hour. In the POC data management system, the analytical device status data can be displayed as a list of message boxes, optionally displayed in an "infinite feed", so that the user can scroll through the message list.

[0015] Managing a message feed with an ever-increasing number of such messages is a technical problem because currently, all messages that need to be displayed on the feed must be buffered in a working memory, processed by the GUI display software and ultimately loaded in the video buffer of the POC data management system as the user scrolls in the GUI of the POC data management system.

[0016] As the size of the message feed increases, the amount of data to be switched between the working memory, the video buffer, and the GUI of the POC data management system also increases. This results in more computational work required to display the message feed to the user, resulting in greater power consumption at the POC data management system and increased latency in displaying a scrollable feed of analytical device status data. When the POC data management system is hosted or accessed by a portable device, such as a smart phone or tablet computer, the problem is further complicated by the need to transmit the large data display feed of the POC data management system GUI over a wireless data connection that may be limited in bandwidth, latency control, or reliability.

[0017] According to the techniques of the present specification, when a GUI is operated in a display mode that displays only messages with higher relevance, it may be necessary to cache fewer low-relevance items of analytical device state information for display on the GUI. Based on a number of message priority indications applied to analytical device state data, the message filters discussed herein may be automatically generated to select the most relevant messages for a given user category or context. Highly relevant messages may be stored in short-term storage, such as random access memory (RAM) or another low-latency memory storage device. Messages with lower relevance may be stored in non-volatile memory.

[0018] Although the GUI software discussed herein may choose to display all analytical device status data, it may also choose to display only the most relevant messages, resulting in a more responsive display and greatly reducing the working memory requirements of the associated GUI software running on the POC data management system, even when displaying highly relevant messages.

[0019] According to a second aspect, there is provided an apparatus configured to host a data processing agent for processing data from an analysis device. The apparatus comprises:

[0020] -Communication interface;

[0021] - data storage; and

[0022] - A processor coupled to the communication interface and the data memory.

[0023] The communication interface is configured to receive one or more data items including a priority indication transmitted from the first analytical device management system to the data processing agent via the communication network.

[0024] The processor is configured to receive a message priority indication from the communication interface indicating a priority assigned to the analysis device status data item and generate or update a message filter configuration stored in the data store based on the assigned message priority.

[0025] The communication interface is further configured to transmit the message filter configuration, or a portion thereof, to a second analyzer network comprising a second analysis device.

[0026] According to a third aspect, there is provided a networked system for analyzing device management, the networked system comprising:

[0027] - a first set of one or more analysis devices configured to analyze a patient medical sample and generate analysis device status data;

[0028] - a first analysis device management system configured to receive at least one analyzer message from one or more analysis devices included in the first group of one or more analysis devices;

[0029] - an instrument configured to host a data processing agent for processing data received from the first analytical device management system and / or the first set of one or more analytical devices; and

[0030] - a second set of one or more analysis devices configured to analyze a patient medical sample;

[0031] - a second analysis device management system configured to receive at least one analyzer message from one or more analysis devices comprised in the second group of one or more analysis devices; and

[0032] - a communication network configured to communicatively connect the first analytical equipment management system, the instrument configured to host the data processing agent, and the second analytical equipment management system.

[0033] The instrument is configured to receive a message priority indication generated by a first analysis device management system and / or at least one analysis device in the first analyzer network, the message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to the analysis device status data. The instrument is configured to generate or update a message filter configuration based on the message priority of the analysis device status data. The instrument is configured to transmit the message filter configuration or a portion thereof to a second analysis device management system and / or a second group of one or more analysis devices. The second analysis device management system and / or at least one analysis device in the second group of one or more analysis devices is configured to receive additional messages from within the second analyzer network and display the additional messages according to the priority assigned in the received message filter configuration.

[0034] According to a fourth aspect, a computer program element is provided, comprising computer readable instructions for controlling the apparatus according to the second aspect, the computer readable instructions being adapted to perform the method steps of the first aspect when executed by a processing unit of the apparatus.

[0035] According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium or signal having stored or encoded thereon the computer program element of the fourth aspect.

[0036] According to a sixth aspect, there is provided a method of operating an analysis device management system and / or an analysis device, the analysis device management system and / or the analysis device being configured to:

[0037] receiving a plurality of analysis device status data items from at least one analysis device in a second analyzer network;

[0038] requesting a message filter configuration from the apparatus according to the second aspect via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device status data items received from the second analyzer network,

[0039] receiving a message filter configuration from an apparatus according to the second aspect via a communications network; and

[0040] At least one analytic device state data item of the plurality of analytic device state data items is filtered according to the message filter configuration to generate a filtered plurality of messages.

[0041] According to an embodiment of the sixth aspect, the method further comprises:

[0042] The filtered plurality of analysis device status data items are displayed via a user interface of the analysis device management system.

[0043] According to a seventh aspect, there is provided an apparatus configured to host an analytical device management system for processing data from one or more analytical devices of a medical sample.

[0044] The instrument includes:

[0045] -Communication interface;

[0046] - data storage; and

[0047] - A processor coupled to the communication interface and the data memory.

[0048] The communication interface is configured to receive a plurality of analysis device status data items from at least one analysis device in the second analyzer network, and request a message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one of the plurality of messages received from the second analyzer network. The communication interface is configured to receive the message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network and store the message filter configuration in the data storage. The processor is configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device status data items according to the message filter configuration stored in the data storage to generate a plurality of filtered messages.

[0049] Optional embodiments are defined in the dependent claims, to which the reader is now referred, and are discussed further in the present specification.

[0050] Certain terms will be used in this patent application, and their expressions should not be interpreted as limited to the specific terms selected but rather as related to the general concept behind the specific terms.

[0051] As used herein, the terms “comprises / comprising / includes / including,” “has / having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion.

[0052] The terms "patient sample" and "biological sample" refer to one or more materials that may contain an analyte of interest. Patient samples may be derived from any biological source, such as physiological fluids, including blood, saliva, ocular lens fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, sweat, urine, feces, semen, milk, ascites fluid, mucus, synovial fluid, peritoneal fluid, amniotic fluid, tissue, cultured cells, etc. Patient samples may be pretreated before use, such as preparing plasma from blood, diluting viscous fluids, lysing, etc. Processing methods may include filtration, distillation, concentration, inactivation of interfering components and addition of reagents. Patient samples can be used directly when obtained from the source, or they can be used after pretreatment to change the sample characteristics. In some embodiments, the initial solid or semi-solid biological material becomes a liquid by dissolving or suspending in a suitable liquid medium. In some embodiments, the sample is suspected of containing a specific antigen or nucleic acid.

[0053] As used herein, the term "analytical device" includes any instrument used to obtain measurements related to a patient's medical condition.

[0054] In one example, the analytical device can be an automated analyzer of medical samples for obtaining measurements related to a patient's medical condition. For example, the analytical device can measure light absorption, fluorescence, electrical potential, or other physical or chemical reaction properties to provide measurements. Typically, such patient samples are processed prior to analytical testing. For example, blood sampled from a patient is centrifuged to obtain serum, or treated with an anticoagulant to obtain plasma.

[0055] The analytical tests of the analyzer are intended to determine the presence and / or concentration of an analyte in a patient sample. Thus, "analyte" is a general term for a substance about which information about its presence and / or concentration is intended to be obtained. Examples of analytes include glucose, coagulation parameters, endogenous proteins (e.g., proteins released by the myocardium), metabolites, nucleic acids, and the like.

[0056] Alternatively, the analytical device is a handheld or mobile device including sensors configured to acquire measurements from a patient.

[0057] An "analytical device" may include a portable device that is communicatively connectable to a smartphone, tablet PC, or other computing device, for example, via a USB (TM), WiFi (TM), or Bluetooth (TM) connection. Such a portable device may be configured to perform analytical tests.

[0058] The measurements may include data collected from sensors such as a smartphone. By way of example only, the measurements may be data obtained by a smartphone accelerometer characterizing the extent of a patient's tremor. The measurements may be a photograph of a skin condition obtained using a smartphone camera. The measurements may be a sound recording obtained using a smartphone microphone. The measurements may be a video obtained using a smartphone, for example, to assess a patient's gait. In this way, standard features of a smartphone, tablet PC, or other computing device may perform the functions of an analysis device. An application executing on a smartphone or other computing device is able to obtain such data and transmit it to a data processing agent.

[0059] An “analytical device” may be configured to be available near a patient's room, in which case it is often referred to as a “point of care (POC) device.” However, the techniques discussed herein are not limited to POC devices and may be applied to many types of laboratory analytical systems that generate message data.

[0060] As used herein, "patient health parameter" encompasses any aspect of patient physiology that can be measured or indicated by analyzing one or more analytes of a patient sample. Thus, the analytical device can be used in a point-of-care environment such as, but not limited to, blood glucose testing, coagulation testing, blood gas and electrolyte analysis, urine analysis, cardiac marker analysis, hemoglobin diagnostics, infectious disease testing, cholesterol screening, or nucleic acid testing NAT. Results can be viewed directly on the POC analyzer or sent to a POCT system and displayed in a laboratory information system with central laboratory results, or displayed next to imaging results in a hospital information system.

[0061] As used herein, the term "analytical data" encompasses any data describing the results of measurements of one or more patient health parameters performed by a POC analyzer of a biological sample that has been analyzed. In the case of calibration, the analytical data includes the results of the calibration, i.e., the calibration data. Specifically, the analytical data includes an identifier of a patient sample for which the analysis has been performed and data describing the results of the analysis, such as measurement data.

[0062] As used herein, the term "point of care" POC or "point of care environment" is defined to mean a location at or near a patient care site where medical or medically-related services (such as medical testing and / or treatment) are provided, including but not limited to a hospital, emergency department, intensive care unit, primary care facility, medical center, patient home, physician's office, pharmacy, or urgent care site.

[0063] As used herein, the term "point of care testing" POCT covers the analysis of one or more patient samples in a point of care setting. POCT is usually accomplished by using mobile, portable and handheld instruments, but in cases where handheld devices are not available, small benchtop analytical devices or fixed analytical devices may also be used, the purpose of which is to collect patient samples and obtain analytical data in a (relatively) short period of time, at or (relatively) close to the patient's location.

[0064] POCT is performed using a variety of POC analytical devices, such as (but not limited to) analyzers for glucose, coagulation, blood gas, urinalysis, cardiac, and molecular testing. Results can be viewed directly on the POC analyzer or sent to the POCT system and displayed in the laboratory information system along with the central laboratory results or displayed next to the imaging results in the hospital information system.

[0065] The term "portable computing device" encompasses any electronic device that can be easily moved from one location to another, particularly any handheld battery-powered mobile device, including but not limited to a cellular telephone, a satellite phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant ("PDA"), a smart phone, a navigation device, a smart book or reader, a combination of the foregoing, a tablet computer, or a laptop computer.

[0066] As used herein, the term "point of care device management system" (POC-DMS) means a data processor configured to communicate with and manage one or more POC devices via a computer network to enable a POC coordinator to manage the POC devices, or to enable maintenance personnel to monitor the devices. Optionally, the POC-DMS is a terminal computer connected to the same network to which the POC devices are connected. Optionally, the POC-DMS can be provided as a server, virtual machine, or virtualized server remotely hosted to the network to which the POC devices are connected, thereby enabling remote management of the POC devices. For example, it is not essential that the POC devices (analytical devices) are connected to the same subnet or network branch as the POC-DMS.

[0067] The "analytical device" generates many data messages (analytical device status data) in normal operation and when encountering fault conditions. The messages may be displayed to the user via a display on the analytical device or transmitted to a point of care management system (POC-DMS) attached to or remote from the network to which the analytical device is connected. The skilled person will appreciate that modern automated analytical devices generate a wide range of messages.

[0068] Some message types define messages containing assay results of tests performed on the analytical device. Other messages contain feedback about the status of the analytical device, such as: hardware heartbeats, specific hardware failures (such as messages reporting motor overheating or lid jams), network information (such as LDAP or DHCP lookup messages), reagent information, temperature information, incremental counts of the number of assays performed, battery charge, software or firmware update requests, user login information, audit log messages, security certificate messages, memory capacity information, etc.

[0069] The term "context" in relation to an analytical device refers to the collection of observations that can be made by or around the analytical device in situations, locations, and / or operating conditions that distinguish different uses of the analytical device. "Context" represents a classifiable technical concept related to the environment in which the analytical device is used. The presence of context can be detected or iterated based on input stimuli detected by sensors of the analytical device, or through the fusion of context information such as network addresses.

[0070] Furthermore, example categories of technical concepts that may represent context may be the use of analytical equipment in "teaching laboratories", "maintenance departments", and "accident and emergency departments".

[0071] Technical input stimuli originating from the sensors of the analytical device can be used as input to a series of logical rules. The rules enable inference in which context the analytical device is operating. A simple example of a change in context can be bringing the analytical device from a room with an acceptable temperature to a room that is too cold to reliably perform an assay. A change in context can be inferred because an electronic thermometer included in the analytical device can report the temperature of the analytical device over time. Alternatively, the movement of the analytical device to a "maintenance department" may result in the broadcasting of multiple exception messages from the analytical device related to the disassembly of the analytical device, such as hardware interlock signals.

[0072] Data fusion from more than one input stimulus can more accurately determine the context. For example, by monitoring only the temperature of an analysis device, it is not possible to determine whether the analysis device has moved rooms, or whether the temperature of the same room has changed. However, information from an external database (such as a network address database or a wireless network registry) can enable more accurate tracking of analysis devices around hospital rooms. Offline fusion of information from a user database with sensor data from an analysis device can enable detection of the usage history of the analysis device.

[0073] The term "message type" refers to the fact that for each analysis device a restricted alphabet or range of messages is transmitted from the analysis device based on the state of the analysis device. The message range may be defined in the messaging description.

[0074] The term "message filter" may refer to a functional mapping applied to one or more input messages. The filter performs a "many-to-few mapping" based on a message transfer function. The message filter transfer function (message filter configuration) may be calculated in many different ways, such as using logical rules to identify which analysis device messages have been marked with a message priority indication by a user. Messages with a message priority indication above a given threshold may pass through the message filter, while messages with a progressive priority indication below a given threshold will not pass through the message filter. Many different types of "message filters" may be provided that provide a "many-to-few mapping" of analysis device messages based on previously selected message priorities.

[0075] The term "message priority indication" refers to a measure of relevance assigned to an analysis device status data item output by, for example, an analysis device, but is not limited thereto, and a message priority indication may be assigned to any message present on a communication network. In the present application, the term "message priority indication" may at least refer to whether a message should be displayed to a user of the POC-DMS. For example, multiple repetitive hardware heartbeat messages issued once every 10 seconds by each analysis device and a large number of analysis devices may not need to be displayed to a clinical user of the POC-DMS, because the clinical user of the POC-DMS may be more interested in messages announcing test results.

[0076] The "message priority indication" may be assigned in many different ways and according to many different logic rules that will be discussed further in this application. In one example, a user of the POC-DMS may mark an analytical device status data item displayed in the GUI of the POC-DMS as "unimportant", where such an action indicates that the analytical device status data so marked has a logical condition of low priority. If the user does not mark an analytical device status data item displayed in the GUI of the POC-DMS as "unimportant", the lack of an action indicates that the unmarked analytical device status data has a logical condition of high priority.

[0077] Of course, the above is only one of many schemes for assigning priorities to analysis device status data items. In the present application, priorities can be assigned to analysis device status data items not only at the POC-DMS, but also at one or more analysis devices. For example, modern analysis devices often have screens, menus, and the ability to view outgoing messages. Users can assign priorities to analysis device status data items based on the historical records of analysis device status data (in other words, users can mark historical data sets of analysis device status data).

[0078] For example, the POC-DMS and / or analytical device may execute a daemon during operation that monitors how a user views analytical device status data displayed on a display of the POC-DMS and / or analytical device. For example, messages that are not actively viewed by a user after a certain period of time may be classified as "unimportant" by the daemon.

[0079] Furthermore, the skilled person will recognize that the assignment of a binary "unimportant" or "important" classification to the analytical device status data is arbitrary, and that many other priority assignment schemes may be used with the analytical device status data without departing from the description herein. Specifically, for example, the priority of the message may be classified according to a discrete numerical scheme or a continuous numerical scheme to enable thresholds.

[0080] As used herein, the term "communication network" encompasses any type of wired or wireless network, including but not limited to WIFI, GSM, UMTS or other wireless digital networks, or wired networks such as Ethernet, etc. For example, the communication network may include a combination of wired networks and wireless networks. The analysis device status data may be transmitted via the communication network.

[0081] The term "server" encompasses any physical or virtual machine with a physical or virtual processor that can accept requests and respond accordingly. It should be clear to those of ordinary skill in the field of computer programming that the term machine can refer to the physical hardware itself, or to a virtual machine such as a JAVA virtual machine (JVM), or even to a separate virtual machine that runs different operating systems on the same physical machine and shares the computing resources of the machine. The server can run on any computer, including dedicated computers, which are also commonly referred to as "servers" or shared resources such as virtual servers. In many cases, a computer can provide several services and have several servers running. Therefore, the term server should encompass any computerized device that shares resources with one or more client processes. The server can receive, process and transmit analysis device status data.

[0082] The term "server interface" encompasses any hardware, firmware, and / or software based module operable to execute program logic to allow communication with an external entity, such as a server or another interface.

[0083] The term "data processing agent" refers to a computer-implemented software module executed on one or more computing devices (such as a server) that is capable of receiving analytical device state data from a point-of-care device and annotation data from a user or operator, and associating the analytical device state data with the annotation data. The "data processing agent" may be implemented on a single server, or on multiple servers, and / or on an Internet-based "cloud" processing service such as Amazon AWS (TM) or Microsoft Azure (TM). The "data processing agent" or a portion thereof may be hosted on a virtual machine. The data processing agent may receive, process, and transmit analytical device state data.

[0084] The term "user interface" includes any suitable software and / or hardware for interaction between an operator and a machine, including but not limited to a graphical user interface for receiving commands from an operator as input and also providing feedback and conveying information to the operator. In addition, a system / device may display several user interfaces to serve different types of users / operators. A user interface may display analytical device status data items.

[0085] In the field of bedside or point-of-care testing, tests are typically performed by nurses, medical personnel or physicians, but also by pharmacists, who are collectively referred to herein as "operators". However, anyone holding the required credentials may be an operator. A point-of-care coordinator (POCC) may simultaneously be an operator of a POC analyzer, and an operator of a POC analyzer may also simultaneously be a point-of-care coordinator (POCC) and, therefore, a user of a portable computing device.

[0086] Thus, the present application generally discusses a system that allows a user to mark messages from an analytical device as, for example, "unimportant" in a POCIT data management system (DMS). This also eliminates clutter from the device message log, as subsequent messages of the same type may be hidden from the user, at least for a given amount of time.

[0087] Configurations of messages marked as “unimportant” and “important” can be shared, collected, and stored. Furthermore, such message filtering configurations can be generated for a given geographic location, network location, user login credentials, and technical background.

[0088] In addition, when new equipment is put into operation, users can download default message filters or combined message filters from existing POC-DMS systems. For example, these settings can be based on settings collected from users in other hospitals and my settings. Thus, the system can learn from system users whether a given type of message is marked as "important" or "unimportant" in a given context, for example, worldwide or by country. Based on the collective notification preferences of users in a specific context, the most commonly used automatic notification configurations are installed.

[0089] For example, categorizing the analytical device data in such a manner enables the display software to store the more relevant analytical device data in short-term memory such as RAM and store the less relevant analytical device data in non-volatile memory such as a hard drive or solid-state memory. The more relevant analytical device data can then be displayed via a GUI with reduced latency and reduced working memory requirements. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0090] Figure 1 A networked system for analyzing device management according to one aspect is schematically illustrated.

[0091] Figure 2 The message transmission and reception flow in the system for analyzing device management is schematically shown.

[0092] Figure 3 An example of a point of care (POC) device is schematically shown.

[0093] Figure 4An example of a server configured to host a data processing agent according to one aspect is schematically illustrated.

[0094] Figure 5 An example of a data message output from a point-of-care device in an example context is schematically illustrated.

[0095] Figure 6 An example of generating a message filter configuration based on analyzing message priority indications of device status data is schematically shown.

[0096] Figure 7 An example of an instance of a context recognition engine capable of tracking the context of a single analysis device is schematically illustrated.

[0097] Figure 8 An example of a context recognition engine capable of using multiple instances to track the context of a single analysis device is schematically illustrated.

[0098] Fig. 9A Schematically illustrated is a user adding a message priority indication associated with an analytical device message via a GUI on an analytical device management system (POC-DMS).

[0099] Fig. 9B Schematically illustrated is a user adding a message priority indication associated with an analytical device message via a GUI on an analytical device management system (POC-DMS).

[0100] Fig. 9C Additional GUI features of the analytical device management system (POC-DMS) are schematically shown.

[0101] Fig. 10A The installation of a message filter configuration on a POC-DMS is schematically shown.

[0102] Fig. 10B The installation of a message filter configuration on a POC-DMS is schematically shown.

[0103] Fig.11 A flow chart of a method according to the first aspect is schematically shown.

[0104] Note: The accompanying drawings are not drawn to scale, are provided for illustration only, and are only used for a better understanding of the present invention, and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention. No limitation on any feature of the present invention should be inferred from these drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0105] Point of care (POC) analyzers, also known as medical sample analysis devices, are typically managed by servers, particularly hardware management servers, also known as point of care data management systems (POC-DMS). Such servers provide connectivity for POC analyzers and manage test results, operators, quality control, and analyzers. For example, one POC-DMS can manage all POC analyzers in a hospital, hospital department, or medical testing center.

[0106] Management of POC systems is challenging, with potentially dozens of sites, hundreds of POCT devices / kits, and thousands of operators to manage to ensure test quality. One challenge in developing a strategy for managing POCT data involves how a networked POC system can handle the large amounts of feedback data generated by analytical devices in a way that is unobtrusive to the POC team. The POC team is typically responsible for determining the test menu, selecting the technology, developing policies and procedures, ensuring training and regulatory compliance, and providing advisory assistance to the ultimate operators of the POC technology.

[0107] The POC analyzers send a large amount of data consisting of regular device messages (analytical device data) to the system for analytical device management (POC-DMS). Device messages enable the analytical device to notify the user about device usage, system warnings, system events, errors or other events related to the technical status of one or more POC analyzers. Automatically managing the large amount of data generated and automatically determining the technical relevance of the data can be challenging.

[0108] Figure 1 A networked system 10 for analytical device management is schematically shown. The networked system 10 for analytical device management includes a first network 10A. The first network 10A may be divided into one or more local area networks (LANs) or wide area networks (WANs) corresponding to a first location 18A housing analytical devices and a second location 19A housing analytical devices. For example, the first location 18A may represent a local clinic and the second location 19A may represent a general hospital. The number of locations in the first network 10A of the networked system 10 is not essential to the functionality of the system.

[0109] The system includes one or more analysis devices (point of care POC devices) P1A to P7A, optionally a portable computing device 26A (such as a smart phone) and a server 12A communicatively connected via a communication network 16. In an example, the server 12A may host a data processing agent 23 according to the first aspect. In other examples, the data processing agent may be hosted by a cloud computing service distributed across multiple servers and computing devices. Specifically, the communication network 21 is configured to communicatively connect one or more analysis devices P1A to P7B.

[0110] For example, the communication network 21 may include one or more of a local area network LAN provided by, for example, Ethernet, a Wi-Fi network, and / or a wide area network WAN such as the Internet. The communication network may include a mobile telecommunication network such as a 3G, 4G or 5G system 28 and / or a hospital PACS network.

[0111] Optionally, the communication network 16 may connect the server 12 directly to the analytical devices (POC devices) P1A to P7B (not shown).

[0112] Optionally, the communication network 21 interfaces with an internal communication system 22A of the health facility 18A. For example, the internal communication system 22A can be considered an intranet. Firewalls and other security measures known to those skilled in the art can be set between the internal communication system 22A and the communication network 21 to ensure security and confidentiality. The analysis devices P1A to P7A can communicate with the data processing agent 23 hosted on the server 40, for example, by communicating via the internal communication system 22 and the communication network 16.

[0113] The analysis devices P1A to P7A are provided and configured to analyze one or more patient samples to measure one or more patient health parameters. According to the disclosed embodiments, the analysis devices P1A to P7A may include mobile, portable and handheld instruments, but may also include small benchtop analyzers or fixed devices 14.

[0114] For example, tests performed by the analytical device may include, but are not limited to, blood glucose testing, coagulation testing, blood gas and electrolyte analysis, urine analysis, cardiac marker analysis, hemoglobin analysis, infectious disease testing, cholesterol screening, or nucleic acid testing. Several functional and / or operational aspects of the analytical devices P1A to P7A may be configured or customized using one or more analyzer parameters.

[0115] For example, the analyzers P1A to P7A are located at a first location 18A (corresponding to a local clinic). The fixture 14 may be located at a second location 19A (corresponding to a general hospital, for example).

[0116] To identify a specific analytical device P1A to P7A, an analyzer identifier code is provided for each analytical device, in particular in the form of an identifier tag such as a barcode and / or an RFID tag or a serial number. Optionally, such an identifier can be linked to an entry in a database of a system for analytical device management.

[0117] For example, the analyzers P1A to P7A are configured to transmit analysis device status data (event messages) from the analyzers to the server 12 via the communication network 16 .

[0118] The networked system 10 for analytical device management further includes a point of care data management system (POC-DMS) hosted on, for example, a server 12A. The purpose of the POC-DMS is to monitor and control one or more analytical devices P1A-P7A in a defined area or network branch. For example, a POC administrator can use the POC-DMS hosted on the server 12A to track the status of one or more analytical devices P1A-P7A, to monitor the usage of consumables, and a variety of other management activities.

[0119] A particular problem is that the large number of analysis devices P1A-P7A connected to the network 10A generates thousands or tens of thousands of analyzer data messages per hour reflecting the internal conditions of the analysis devices P1A-P7A, many or all of which are displayed to the POC administrator. For example, when displayed together on the graphical user interface (GUI) of the POC-DMS server 12A, it may be difficult to determine the status of a single analysis device P1A quickly enough. This can cause delays when browsing the messages in the GUI.

[0120] Furthermore, the POC-DMS server may be accessed by remote devices over limited bandwidth connections, such as smartphone 26A. Attempting to display all of the thousands or tens of thousands of analyzer data messages reflecting conditions within the analyzer devices P1A-P7A on the smartphone POC-DMS management application GUI may result in unacceptable data communication delays due to the large amount of data being transferred.

[0121] The networked system 10 for analyzing device management also includes Figure 1 The further network 10B is shown, which is essentially a mirror image of the network 10A. Compared to the first network 10B, the further network 10B represents a network of analytical devices operating at a different hospital site, or in a different country or hospital department. For the sake of brevity, the description of the individual components provided above with respect to the network 10A also applies to the illustrated components of the further network 10A. The skilled person will appreciate that the further network 10B may have an architecture that differs significantly from the architecture shown.

[0122] Specifically, the second POC-DMS 12B will also encounter the problem of how to process and / or display the large amount of analysis device message data output from the analysis devices P1B-P7B.

[0123] Figure 2The message sending and receiving flow in the system for analyzing device management is schematically shown. A first network 18A including an analyzing device P1A (such as an analyzing device) and a point of care device management system (POC-DMS) 12A is connected to the POC-DMS 12A via a communication link 21 such as the Internet. Optionally, additional networks 18B, 18C, 18D, ... are connected via the communication link 21. An analyzing device such as P1A in the first network 18A generates a large number of status messages every hour. Conventionally, all of these messages are displayed at the graphical user interface of the point of care device management system (POC-DMS) 12A, and it is difficult to determine which messages should not be displayed.

[0124] Another network 18E, also communicatively coupled via network 21, may contain a similar selection of analytical devices (such as P1B), and there is also the problem of difficulty in selecting messages for display at the graphical user interface of the graphical user interface of the point of care device management system (POC-DMS) 12B. Therefore, such systems may be further improved.

[0125] Figure 3 An example of a point of care (POC) device according to one aspect is schematically illustrated.

[0126] The illustrated example of the analysis device 20 includes a power source 22 configured to provide power to the analysis device 20. For example, the power source 22 can be a lithium ion battery or a mains power supply that enables the analysis device 20 to be portable. The power source 22 provides power to other elements of the analysis device 20. Other elements include, for example: a sensor device 24, an electromechanical subassembly 26, a sample processing portion 28, and an analysis unit 30. A control and communication subsystem 32 interfaces with the previously listed modules. A communication link 34 enables data transfer to and from the analysis device 20.

[0127] For example, the sensor device 24 may include a photometer for measuring optical transmission characteristics through a fluid sample, although many other types of sensors may be used depending on the application of the analytical device 20.

[0128] The electromechanical subassembly 26 is configured to receive sample ampoules or sample cartridges and load them into the sample processing portion 28 so that they can be analyzed by the sensor device 24. After analysis, the electromechanical subassembly 26 can eject the sample ampoule or sample cartridge.

[0129] The sample processing portion 28 may perform pre-analysis functions, such as stirring or heating the sample to a desired analysis temperature.

[0130] Analysis unit 30 may receive data from sensor device 24, including representations of samples contained in sample processing portion 28. Analysis unit 30 may perform one or more data processing operations on the data from sensor device 24. For example, analysis unit 30 may ensure that results from sensor device 24 are within expected boundaries.

[0131] After analysis, the analysis unit 30 may transmit the data from the sensor device 24 via the communication and control unit 32 to the system for analysis device management via the communication network 21 and finally to the data processing agent 23 hosted on, for example, a server.

[0132] The skilled person will appreciate that the description of a generic analysis device 40 is provided for illustrative purposes and that an actual analysis device may include fewer or more modules and functionalities.

[0133] One or more analytical devices P1A-P7A in the network generate a wide range of analytical device status data and transmit it to the data processing agent 23 via the communication network 21. One or more modules of the analytical devices P1A-P7A may be configured to generate different types of analytical device status data (e.g., event data, result data, calibration data, maintenance-related data).

[0134] For example, power supply 22 may generate analysis device status data "batt_lo_10%" to indicate that power supply 22 has only 10% of its capacity remaining.

[0135] For example, the power supply 22 may generate the analysis device status data "batt_shutdown" to indicate that the power supply 22 has simply shut down the battery due to a battery failure, or the battery is depleted.

[0136] For example, the mechatronic subassembly 26 may generate analytical device status data "motor_PCB_HB" as a repetitive "heartbeat signal" indicating its continued operation.

[0137] For example, the sensor device 24 may generate a photometer printed circuit board "heartbeat" signal. In addition, the sensor device 24 may generate analysis device status data "photometer_clean_warn" indicating that the onboard LED and / or laser needs cleaning.

[0138] For example, the sample handling portion 28 may report analytical device status data "door_jam" to signal that a sample handling door of the analytical device has not been closed to safely contain the sample.

[0139] For example, the control and communication unit 32 may generate analysis device status data in the form of a "temp_hi_90%" signal, which indicates that the operating temperature of the analysis device is approaching an unsafe temperature that may provide inaccurate results. For example, the control and communication unit 32 may generate analysis device status data in the form of a "temp_auto_shutdown" signal, which indicates that the analysis device 20 is shutting down due to excessive temperature.

[0140] The control and communication unit 32 can also transmit analysis device status data as an analysis status sequence ("scan_barcode", "report_barcode", "assay_loaded", "test_result"), so that the status of the individual tests can be tracked.

[0141] The control and communications unit 32 may provide reporting of analysis device status data regarding aspects of the software configuration of the analysis device 20, such as: the status of internal memory; the current software or firmware version; and security parameters, such as the success or failure of a password; and networking aspects, such as reporting network configuration settings, the network or MAC address of the analysis device; and optionally network uptime and downtime.

[0142] Optionally, the analytical device state data is time stamped by the control and communication unit 32 to achieve an accuracy of 10 seconds, one second, 0.1s, 0.01s or even higher, as achieved by, for example, the Ethernet Time Protocol or the Network Time Protocol. This enables the data processing agent 23 hosted by the remote server to reconstruct the sequence of received analytical device state data relative to the time of occurrence of the event that triggered the generation of the analytical device state data.

[0143] Of course, the control and communication unit 32 may generate more complex analysis device status data including concatenated groups of individual event messages based on rules contained in the control and communication unit 32 of the analysis device 20 .

[0144] Optionally, analytical device status data may be concatenated with test result data obtained from analysis of a patient sample.

[0145] As known to those skilled in the art, the analysis device status data may be transmitted as a data packet encapsulated according to the communication system 16A used in the system for analysis device management. The data packet includes the analysis device status data and may include any necessary arrangement of header information to enable the analysis device status data to be reliably routed to the data processing agent. The data packet may include only one payload information bit (e.g., in the case of a heartbeat tag). Alternatively, the data packet may include a large amount of information (e.g., several kilobytes or megabytes). The control and communication unit 32 of the analysis device 20 may be configured to buffer multiple analysis device status data messages for a given amount of time and, for example, cascade the messages into one data packet. This may result in longer battery life for the handheld analysis device.

[0146] The skilled person will appreciate that the foregoing description of the analysis device 20 also applies to analysis devices P1B-P7B that are communicatively coupled to further communication network 10B.

[0147] Figure 4 An example of a server 40 configured to host a data processing agent according to one aspect is schematically illustrated.

[0148] In this example, the server 40 includes a mainboard 42 that includes a random access memory 44, a read-only memory 46, a central processing unit 47, an input / output interface 48, a data storage interface 50 (such as an interface to a non-volatile memory 49), a display interface 52, and a communication interface 54, however, technicians will understand that more or fewer modules with other functions may be configured for many different types of servers.

[0149] The central processing unit 47 of the server 40 is configured to obtain computer readable instructions from, for example, the interfaced non-volatile memory 49 that, when executed, instantiate a data processing agent for generating a message filter configuration in the random access memory 44 of the server 40 .

[0150] The communication interface 54 of the server is configured to interface with the communication network 21. The analysis device status data from the analysis devices P1A to P7A is received at the server 40 via the communication interface 54 of the server.

[0151] Optionally, the analysis device status data is provided directly to the random access memory 54 by processing and analysis by the central processing unit 47. Optionally, the analysis device status data is written to the non-volatile memory 49 for subsequent analysis.

[0152] Optionally, the analysis device state data may be written (cached) to an external file storage device (not shown). Upon request by the central processing unit 47, a request for the analysis device state data may be sent to the external file storage device via the communication network 21. The external file storage device may transmit the analysis device state data to the server 40 pending authentication and authorization, where the analysis device state data may then be processed and combined with the annotation data.

[0153] The benefit of the aforementioned optional embodiment is that large amounts of analytical device status data can be robustly stored until they are needed for processing. It is not essential that message filter configuration is performed at the same time as receiving message priority indications and / or performing analytical device status data as the data is received. Alternatively, the two types of data may be linked in a post-processing step using, for example, timestamp data.

[0154] Optionally, when the data processing agent receives the message priority indication, the message filter configuration is updated or generated immediately.

[0155] The data processing agent 23 is instantiated on the server 40 according to machine-readable instructions obtained, for example, from the random access memory 44 or the read-only memory 46, the input / output interface 48, or the data storage interface 50. Therefore, the data processing agent 23 is configured to receive one or more analytical device status data items, and / or one or more message priority indication data items. The data processing agent 23 instantiated on the server 40 is configured to generate a message filter configuration based on the technology to be discussed later, and transmit the message filter configuration as a data structure (signal) to one or more additional care point devices P1B-P7B that can be communicatively coupled to the additional communication network 10B.

[0156] Optionally, the server 40 hosting the data processing agent 23 is configured to display the message priority indication data and / or the message filter configuration on a local display via a local display driver 56 .

[0157] Figure 5 An example of a problem caused by a continuous messaging flow of analysis device status data from an automated POC analyzer P1A to a POC-DMS 12A is schematically illustrated. In the illustrated scenario, the analysis device P1A transmits the analyzer status data as a message selected from a message set 60. Figure 5 The example of shows an example of analysis device status data types that may be received by the data processing agent 23.

[0158] Graph 62 shows the analysis device status data generated by the analysis device over time T, with graph 61 showing the twelve hour morning shift. The repetitive heartbeat signal "photo_pcb_HB" indicates that the photometer is operating reliably, but a large number of messages are generated in a timely manner. At analysis device initialization, the BIOS checks to ensure that the software (firmware) loaded onto the analysis device is of the correct version, as indicated by event message 62 "software_vers_ok". Shortly thereafter, the user of the analysis device logs onto the device using the correct password, which is reported to the data processing agent using further transmission of analysis device status data "pwd_ok" 63. During the shift, a sequence of eight analysis runs is performed, as shown by the repetitive sequence of: reporting of analysis device status data, scanning of barcodes, reporting of barcodes, loading of assays, and provision of test results. At around T = 09:30 in the morning, the analysis device begins reporting a low battery alarm "batt_lo_10%" 64 in the form of analysis device status data transmitted to the data processing agent 23.

[0159] Throughout the time that the automated POC analyzer P1A is operating, the "motor_pcb_HB" 65 and "photo_pcb_HB" 66 signals are repeatedly asserted by repeatedly sending message data to the POC-DMS 12A. These message data inform the POC-DMS 12A that the corresponding hardware subsystems of the POC P1A are operating normally. However, when displayed in the GUI of the POC-DMS 12A, such message data may obscure more important messages, such as "batt_lo_10%" 64. Furthermore, the storage and manipulation of a large number of "heartbeat" signals (such as the "motor_pcb_HB" 65 and "photo_pcb_HB" 66 signals) in the working memory (random access memory) 44 becomes cumbersome and prone to high delays when such messages may alternatively be immediately archived in a non-volatile memory (such as a database). The problem is further compounded when additional devices from different manufacturers operate on the network 10A, as the source of the analytical device message data may be unknown to the POC-DMS 12A, or transmit the data in an unknown or partially unknown format.

[0160] According to a first aspect, there is therefore provided a computer-implemented method for generating a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication received from a first analyzer network 10A, wherein the first analyzer network comprises at least one analyzing device P1A configured to generate analyzing device status data. The method comprises:

[0161] receiving, at the data processing agent 23, a message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to analysis device status data in the first analyzer network 10A;

[0162] At the data processing agent 23, based on analyzing the message priority indication of the device status data,

[0163] providing at least one message filter configuration 72; and

[0164] The message filter configuration 72 or a part thereof is transmitted to a second analyzer network 10B comprising a second analyzing device P1B of a medical sample.

[0165] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0166] At the data processing agent 23, a plurality of message priority indications are received from one or more further analyser networks, and wherein a message filter configuration 72 is generated based on the plurality of message priority indications.

[0167] The data processing agent 23 receives, from the POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A, a plurality of message priority indications assigned to the analysis device status data in the first network 10A.

[0168] In the example, an operator of the user interface 24A of the POC-DMS 12A marks a first set of messages as "unimportant" (meaning they do not need to be displayed by the POC-DMS 12A in normal use). Implicitly, the unmarked messages are "important" (and need to be displayed by the POC-DMS 12A in normal use).

[0169] For example, management software hosted on the POC DMS 12A may include a user interface 24A having a selection button that enables a user to mark particular messages as "unimportant," thereby creating a message priority indication associated with the particular message types marked "unimportant."

[0170] In the example, after a particular message is marked as "unimportant" in the POC-DMS 12A, the message priority indication associated with the particular message type marked as "unimportant" is immediately and directly transmitted from the POC-DMS 12A to the data processing agent 23. This enables the message importance indication to be transmitted to the data processing agent 23 for further processing with minimal latency.

[0171] Most conveniently, the message priority indication is appended as a field or tag to the analytical device status data associated therewith.

[0172] In an example, the analytical device status data is a communication conforming to the "HL7" protocol (Health Level Seven, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) and / or the ASTM protocol (eg, ASTM 1394 LIS2).

[0173] In other words, the message priority indication is concatenated or inserted into the analysis device status data of its reporting priority. In this case, when the analysis device status data is received at the data processing agent 23, the message priority indication can be read, extracted or decapsulated from the analysis device status data.

[0174] It is not essential that the message priority indication is concatenated or inserted into the analysis device status data, or is otherwise transmitted together with the analysis device status data. In an example, the message priority indication is transmitted separately to the analysis device status data.

[0175] In the example, the POC-DMS 12A maintains a local database of message priority indications. For each type of message received from the analysis device in the first network 10A, the record associated with the message type in the local database of message priority indications in the POC-DMS 12A is incremented with a classification of "important" or "unimportant" provided by the user via the GUI of the POC-DMS 12A.

[0176] In this example, the data processing agent 23 may be configured to periodically or irregularly poll the local database of message importance stored at the POC-DMS 12A to pass a copy of the local database of message priority indications, or a subset of the local database of message priority indications, to the data processing agent 23 for further processing. In this manner, a large database of message priority indication information may be passed to the data processing agent 23 when the network is not too busy, or the data processing agent 23 may poll the POC-DMS 12A to obtain a small portion of the information stored in the local database of message priority indications.

[0177] In an example, the POC-DMS 12A may continuously or in batches forward the message priority indications to a message storage database accessible to the data processing agent 23 via the Internet, so that the data processing agent 23 can access the message priority indications at any time.

[0178] The message priority indication may be a binary indication for each type of message received at the POC-DMS 12A. However, the message priority indication may be a continuous number (e.g., in the range of zero to five), or the message priority indication may be selected from an alphabetical list of message priority categories. A subset of message types may enable different types of priority indications, depending on the type of message.

[0179] In high-level terms, the POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A receives messages selected from a finite set (or alphabet) of message types. The finite set of message types is defined by considerations such as the types of POC analyzers and other devices connected to the first network 10A and configured to communicate with the first POC-DMS 12A, the manufacturers of the devices connected to the first network 10A, the software configurations of the devices connected to the first network 10A, and the types of tests performed by the devices connected to the first network 10A. If a message can be generated by the analysis device P1A and transmitted to the first POC-DMS 12A, it should be considered to be within the finite set of message types.

[0180] Message filters applied to messages sent by analysis devices (P1B-P7B) in the second network 10B and received at the POC-DMS 12B in the second network 10B operate according to a message filter configuration 72. The message filter configuration 72 is derived based at least in part on message priority indications received from analysis devices P1A-P7A in the first network 10A.

[0181] The message filter configuration 72 is a mapping between a finite set of message types (as input) and a preferred subset of message types (the message types displayed to the user at the POC-DMS 12B in the second network 10B). The preferred set of message types is a subset of the entire set of message types. The mapping between the entire set of message types and the preferred set of message types is provided based on, for example, a message priority indication received via the GUI of the POC-DMS at the POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A.

[0182] The skilled person will appreciate that, within the definition of the message filter configuration 72, there are a wide variety of ways to generate the message filter configuration 72 so that it performs the task of displaying a preferred subset of message types from the entire set of message types.

[0183] In an example, the message filter configuration 72 may be generated based on a threshold of message priority indications received for a single message type.

[0184] In an example, the message filter configuration 72 may be generated based on logical rules that are affected by multiple message types.

[0185] In an example, the message filter configuration 72 may be generated based on considerations of network configuration, user information, and / or context of the origin of a given message resulting in a message priority indication.

[0186] In the example, the message filter configuration 72 is generated by the data processing agent 23 according to the identity of a specific user of the first POC-DMS 12A. For example, the identity of the specific user can be obtained from the login credentials of the POC-DMS 12A. In this example, a plurality of message filter configurations 72 are generated corresponding to the number of users of the POC-DMS 12A. When the specific user logs on to the second POC-DMS 10B based on the second network 12B, the second POC DMS 10B is configured to request the message filter configuration 72 from the data processing agent 23 corresponding to the identity of the specific user. In this way, for example, the message filter configuration 72 preferred by the specific user of the POC-DMS 12A, 12B can be transferred between work locations.

[0187] According to an embodiment, providing a message filter configuration includes:

[0188] identifying a type of the analysis device status data associated with the message priority indication;

[0189] as well as

[0190] inserting or updating a record in a data structure defining a message filter configuration 72, wherein a value in the record stores a priority assigned to the identified type of analysis device status data;

[0191] as well as

[0192] Based on the message priority indication 72 corresponding to the type of identified message, the value stored in the record is adjusted to provide a message filter configuration.

[0193] Figure 6 An example of generating a message filter configuration 72 based on analyzing the message priority indications of the device status data is schematically shown. For example, a count of the total number of message priority indications and the number of message priority indications marked as "unimportant" for each type of message is collected in the message accumulation database 68. The message accumulation database 68 may be continuously accumulated at the data processing agent 23, stored as a local database at the POC-DMS 12A, or stored elsewhere on the Internet and polled as necessary. Qualitative inspection of the message accumulation database 68 reveals that the user of the POC-DMS 12A considers the heartbeat signal ending with "HB" to be somewhat unimportant, but does not cancel any "test_result" messages.

[0194] In this example, a category importance ratio is calculated for each message type using the results provided in the category importance data structure 69. For each type, the category importance ratio represents the number of messages of a given type marked as "not important" divided by the total number of messages of that type received.

[0195] In this example, an overall importance ratio is calculated for each message type and the result is provided in an overall importance data structure 70. The total number of messages of any type is accumulated. For each type of message, the number of messages marked as "not important" is divided by the total number of messages of any type.

[0196] An example of a message filter configuration is a data structure 72 containing, for each type of message, a binary indication of whether a given message type should be displayed when received at a further POC-DMS 12B in the second network of analysis devices 12B.

[0197] The message filter configuration 72 is generated based on the message priority indication received at the POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A.

[0198] In the example, the message filter configuration 72 is generated based on the filter rule set 71. Figure 6 In FIG. 7 , the first filter rule in the filter rule set 71 defines that if the category importance ratio is less than a given ratio (0.15), a message of a given type may be displayed.

[0199] The second filter rule in the filter rule set 71 defines that messages of a given type may be displayed if the following two conditions are met: first, if the overall importance ratio for messages of the given type is less than a given ratio (0.1), and second, if the message type is not of type "test_result".

[0200] Thus, one or more filtering rules are applied to the received message priority indication to generate a message filter configuration 72. The skilled person will appreciate that the two rules provided are examples and that many filtering rules may be provided that enable message importance discovery.

[0201] The data processing agent 23 may then transmit the message filter configuration 72 to the POC-DMS 12B in the second network 10B. The POC-DMS 12B in the second network 10B uses the message filter configuration 72 received from the data processing agent 23 to filter the incoming message set received from the analysis devices P1B-P7B in the second network 10B.

[0202] The message filter configuration 23 may be provided based on analyzing the message priority indication of the device status data in a number of different ways.

[0203] The analysis device state data generated by the analysis device is optionally time stamped. Alternatively or additionally, the message priority indication is optionally time stamped when a user marks a message type in the message type set as "unimportant" using the POC-DMS 12B. Thus, the weight provided to the message filter configuration 72 by an individual message priority indication may vary based on the time at which the individual message priority indication is provided, or alternatively based on the time stamp of the analysis device state data associated with the individual message priority indication.

[0204] According to an embodiment, the message filter configuration is partially or completely adjusted as a time-based function.

[0205] According to an embodiment, at least one value stored in a record of the message filter configuration 72 is adjusted based on the time of generation of the analytical device status data to which the message priority data is linked.

[0206] According to an embodiment, at least one value stored in a record of the message filter configuration 72 is adjusted based on the time of generation of the message priority data linked to the analysis device status data item.

[0207] For example, the message filter configuration 72 may be recalculated at the end of each year, month, week, or day to exclude message priority data generated more than a given amount of time in the past. This ensures that the message filter configuration 72 does not deviate to the extent that certain message types can no longer be displayed.

[0208] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0209] obtaining network configuration data at least partially characterizing a network configuration of said analysis device in a first analyzer network 10A, said message priority indication originating from said first analyzer network; and

[0210] Based at least in part on the network configuration data of the first analyzer network 10A, a message filter configuration is generated or updated.

[0211] Back to Figure 1 , the first network 10A includes a first branch in a first medical institution (local clinic) 18A and a second branch in a second medical institution (general hospital) 19A. The first branch includes at least handheld analysis devices P5A and P6A of type "1", a handheld analysis device P4A of type "2", and several desktop analysis devices. The second branch in the medical institution 19A includes at least handheld analysis devices P2A and P3A of type "1", and a handheld analysis device P1A of type "2". In addition, the second branch in the medical institution 19A has a different arrangement of desktop analysis devices.

[0212] The network configuration data may be obtained, for example, by performing SNMP analysis (Simple Network Management Protocol) on the analysis device data of the first network 10A to obtain the network topology. Alternatively or additionally, the POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A may include a registry data structure that provides details about the network configuration of the first network 10A. This information may be discovered by reference to the MAC address of a device on the network, a manufacturer registration number stored in the firmware of the analysis device, or the IP or network address of the analysis device.

[0213] An advantage of generating or updating a message filter configuration based at least in part on network configuration data is that it may be known that a given type of analysis device P1A-P7A generates an excessive number of messages of a type that is not required to be viewed at the POC-DMS 12A. The present embodiment identifies the presence of POC P2A, P3A types in the network 10A. Upon identifying a type of POC P2A, P3A that generates an excessive number of messages of a type that is not required to be viewed at the POC-DMS 12A, one or more entries may be added to the message filter configuration 72 that is capable of filtering messages of a type that is not required to be viewed at the POC-DMS 12A. However, if the presence of POC P2A, P3A types is not found in the network 10A, then such entries need not be added to the message filter configuration 72 and the entries are omitted from the message filter configuration 72.

[0214] As analytical devices P1A-P7A are moved around different departments of the hospital and used in different environments, taken away for repair, used in a teaching environment, or even removed from the hospital for use by community nurses during a series of patient home visits, the pattern of analytical device messages describing the internal conditions of analytical devices P1A-P7A will change.

[0215] For example, an analytical device present in a hospital may be maintained at an acceptable operating temperature, but an analytical device left in a community nurse's car overnight during the winter may fall below the acceptable operating temperature, triggering an analytical device data stream including a low temperature limit notification. Transmission, storage, and display of such a message to the POC administrator on the POC-DMS GUI would be unnecessary, since for the purposes of this example, leaving a POC analyzer in an icy car overnight may be acceptable provided it is used at an acceptable temperature. However, in practice, it is difficult for a POC administrator to monitor the operating background of a large number of devices under his or her responsibility to determine whether such a situation caused by background changes is problematic.

[0216] Such subtle or significant changes to the analysis device state data pattern can be used to identify the usage context of each analysis device in the analysis device set P1A-P7A. The user of the POC-DMS 12A can assign different priorities to the analysis device state data originating from different contexts, so that when one or more analysis devices are identified to be used in different usage contexts in the future, the analysis device state data can be automatically filtered according to the usage context of the analyzer.

[0217] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0218] identifying, using the context identification engine 78, one or more contexts of the first analyzer network 10A and / or the first analyzer management system 12A and / or the at least one analyzing device P1A from which the message priority indication originated; and

[0219] Based on the identified context, a message filter configuration is provided or updated.

[0220] According to an embodiment, a plurality of message filter configurations are generated corresponding to the identified plurality of contexts.

[0221] According to an embodiment, a first plurality of analysis device state data items originating from analysis devices present in an identified first context are assigned a first plurality of message priority indications. A second plurality of analysis device state data items originating from analysis devices present in an identified second context are assigned a second plurality of message priority indications. A first message filter configuration 72 is generated using the first plurality of message priority indications to filter subsequent analysis device state data originating from analysis devices in the identified first context. A second message filter configuration is generated using the second plurality of message priority indications to filter subsequent analysis device state data originating from analysis devices in the identified second context.

[0222] Optionally, the same rule set may be used to generate the first message filter configuration and the second message filter configuration, wherein the same rule set is applied to the first plurality of message priority indications to generate the first message filter configuration, and wherein the same rule set is applied to the second plurality of message priority indications to generate the second message filter configuration.

[0223] Optionally, a first rule set may be used to generate a first message filter configuration 72a, wherein the first rule set is applied to a first plurality of message priority indications to generate the first message filter configuration. A second rule set may be used to generate a second message filter configuration 72b, wherein the second rule set is applied to a second plurality of message priority indications to generate the second message filter configuration, and wherein the second rule set is different from the first rule set.

[0224] Optionally, the context recognition engine 78 includes a first instance of tracking one or more usage contexts of the first analysis device.

[0225] Optionally, the context recognition engine 78 includes a second instance that tracks one or more usage contexts of a second analysis device, wherein the plurality of usage contexts of the first instance are different than the usage contexts of the second instance.

[0226] Optionally, the first instance 78a of the context recognition engine 78 is a first finite state machine and the second instance 78b of the context recognition engine is a second finite state machine. The first finite state machine and the second finite state machine include the same arrangement of states and / or state transitions. The first finite state machine and the second finite state machine receive input stimuli from at least one of the POC management system (POC-DMS) and / or one or more analysis devices P1A-P7A.

[0227] Optionally, the first instance 78a of the context recognition engine 78 is a first finite state machine and the second instance 78b of the context recognition engine 78 is a second finite state machine. The first finite state machine and the second finite state machine include different arrangements of states and / or state transitions. The first finite state machine and the second finite state machine receive input stimuli from at least one of the POC management system (POC-DMS) and / or one or more analysis devices P1A-P7A.

[0228] As noted, in an example, the message filter configuration 72 may be generated based on consideration of the usage context of the analytical devices P1A-P7A that generates analytical device status data items (messages) connected to associated message priority indications.

[0229] The usage context of the analysis device P1A may be inferred based on a number of different input stimuli, as will be discussed subsequently.

[0230] In the example use case, the first context is that the POC-DMS 12A and the associated analytical devices P1A-P7A are located in an accident and emergency ward. In the accident and emergency ward, a large number of portable analytical devices P1A-P7A will be transported between compartments and are mainly powered by batteries, although the number of tests they perform may be slightly lower than the average number of tests. For example, data communication is carried out via a wireless network (such as secure Wi-Fi). In a busy accident and emergency ward, machine accidents such as dropping the analytical device P1A on the floor or even misplacing the analytical device P1A in a storage cabinet may be more common. Therefore, the analytical devices P1A-P7A in the accident and emergency context may report more "low battery" messages, data communications, accelerometer vibration messages, or wireless communication configuration messages than the average. Some of these messages may become repeated and used to associate POC-DMS 12A in the accident and emergency department context.

[0231] For example, the second context is that of a POC-DMS 12A and associated analytical devices P1A-P7A located in a pathology laboratory. In this case, high throughput usage of analytical devices P1A-P7A may mean that quality control reminders, component or reagent fill level reminders, and a large number of tests per hour, etc., are more prevalent than average at the associated POC-DMS 12A located in the pathology laboratory than in other contexts.

[0232] For example, the third context is that of a POC-DMS 12A and associated analytical devices P1A-P7A located in a teaching environment. Modern analytical devices P1A-P7A may generate a large number of messages, but some of these messages may be distracting in a teaching or training environment, especially when the results are not used in a "live" medical case. Thus, for example, a user of an associated POC-DMS 12A in a teaching or training environment may prefer to enhance the importance of basic test result messages and de-emphasize the importance of repetitive hardware monitoring messages.

[0233] Each of these example contexts has specific characteristics that cause the message flows arriving at the POC-DMS 12A in each context to be technically significantly different. The differences in messages may result from qualitative differences between the contexts of use. Therefore, message filtering may be adjusted based on the context in which the analysis device P1A-P7A is used. This is particularly advantageous when the portable analysis device P1A-P7A is switched between contexts in rapid succession, such as when the analysis device is moved from a teaching environment to an accident and emergency environment.

[0234] The context recognition engine can use a wide range of information available from at least one of the network 10A, the POC-DMS 12A, or the analysis devices P1A-P7A to infer or discover the context in which a given analysis device P1A-P7A is operating. Generating different message filter configurations 72 to filter messages from analysis devices P1A-P7A in different contexts means that messages that are not relevant when the analysis device is present in the first context but are relevant when the analysis device is in the second context can be automatically displayed without user intervention at, for example, a POC-DMS 12B of a second network 10B that has received multiple message filter configurations 72 generated by the data processing agent 23.

[0235] Figure 7 A unique instance of a state machine 78 is shown that models the context of a single analytical device P1A.

[0236] Based on the previous discussion of potential use cases, a state machine could have "Accident and Emergency," "Pathology Laboratory," and "Educational Environment" states, as well as an "Undetermined state."

[0237] exist Figure 7 In the example of, the assignment of states to backgrounds, the mapping of state transitions between states, and the selection of a combination of input stimuli (signals) or input stimuli defining transitions between states are provided as illustrative examples. The skilled person will appreciate that more or fewer states may be provided based on the number of backgrounds to be tracked. State transitions between states may be provided in many different ways. The input stimuli defining transitions between such states may be obtained from a variety of different sources available to the data processing agent 23.

[0238] The state machine 78 in the context recognition engine includes a starting edge 80 pointing to an indeterminate state 82. In the absence of conditions indicating that the state should change to "Teaching" 86, "A&E" 84, or "PATH" 88, the state machine stays around the indeterminate state 81, indicating that the context cannot be determined at present. In this case, the message filter configuration 72 is output as a default message filter configuration suitable for many different contexts.

[0239] Optionally, when the context recognition engine recognizes that the analysis device P1A is in an uncertain context, all records in the message filter configuration 72a for all types of messages are set to be unified to ensure that all messages are forwarded from the data processing agent.

[0240] The data processing agent 23 may detect that the user has logged into the analysis device P1A in the "student" state. The state machine exits the "indeterminate" state and enters the "teaching" state 86. The state machine remains in the "teaching" state 86 until the POC-DMS 10A detects that the user has logged out of the analysis device P1A, in which case the state machine re-enters the "indeterminate" state.

[0241] When the context recognition engine identifies that the analysis device P1A is in the "teaching" state, a record associated with the message type in the message filter configuration 72 may be set to ensure that analyzer status data not relevant to the teaching task is not displayed to the student via the GUI of the analysis device P1A, B or POC-DMS 23A, B.

[0242] In this example, starting from the indeterminate state 82, when it is detected that the network configuration "NETWORK_CONFIG" of the network 10A matches the pre-assigned condition, the state machine transitions to the "A&E" state 83. For example, when the analysis device P1A is used in conjunction with a unique arrangement of other network devices indicative of an "A&E" department, the network configuration may be changed to match the condition "NETWORK_CONFIG". Alternatively, the network configuration may be looked up in a network configuration directory to show that the network address (or IP address) of the analysis device matches the network address range of the "A&E" department.

[0243] When the context identification engine identifies that analysis device P1A is in the "A&E" context, the message priority indication associated with analysis device data output from analysis device P1A in the "A&E" context is used to generate message filter configuration 72c.

[0244] exist Figure 7 In the example of , when “NETWORK_CONFIG” is not asserted, the state machine leaves “A&E” and returns to the indeterminate state 82 .

[0245] exist Figure 7 In the example of , when the context recognition engine recognizes that the "ASSAY_TYPE" signal has been inserted, implying that the analysis device is performing an assay that can only be performed in a pathology laboratory context, the state machine transitions to the "PATH" state 88 and remains in this state until the "ASSAY_TYPE" signal changes to a state that defines that the analysis device is not performing an assay that can only be performed in a pathology context.

[0246] When the context identification engine identifies that analysis device P1A is in the "PATH" context, the message priority indication associated with analysis device data output from analysis device P1A in the "PATH" context is used to generate message filter configuration 72d.

[0247] Figure 8 An example of a context recognition engine 78 is schematically shown, which maintains multiple unique instances 78a, 78b for each active (on) analysis device (POC device) in the first network 10A, included in a portion of the context recognition engine capable of tracking the context of a single analysis device.

[0248] For example, the context recognition engine 78 uses the first context recognition instance 78a to track the context of the analysis device P1A. In this example, the context recognition instance 78a can be a finite state machine as discussed above with the four possible states discussed above, but the skilled person will understand that more or fewer states can be applied, or different context tracking methods can be applied.

[0249] The context recognition engine 78 uses the second context recognition instance 78b to track the context of the analysis device P2A. In this example, the context recognition instance 78b is also a finite state machine with the four possible states discussed above, but the skilled person will understand that more or fewer states may be applied, or different context tracking methods may be applied.

[0250] The context recognition engine 79 receives input signals for inferring the context of P1A and P2A from analysis device data output by P1A and P2A themselves, from a login server, etc., such as a network address server.

[0251] Thus, the message priority indication provided with respect to the analysis device data output by P1A is indexed as one of the four available contexts currently identified by the context identification instance 78a. The message priority indication provided with respect to the analysis device data output by P1B is indexed as one of the four available contexts currently identified by the context identification instance 78b. One way to provide the message priority indication in this example is by the user marking the analysis device data from P1A and P1B as "not important" using the GUI 24A of the POC-DMS 12A, although other message priority indication methods discussed in this document may also be used.

[0252] Thus, the time series of analytical device data received from P1A is schematically shown in time series 90a. Between T=00:00 and T=05:00, P1A is in background "1", as indicated at region 91 of time series 90a. Between T=05:00 and T=12:00, P1A is in background "2", as indicated at region 92 of time series 90a.

[0253] The time series of analytical device data received from P2A is schematically shown in time series 90b. Between T=00:00 and T=06:00, P1A is in background "2", as indicated at area 93 of time series 90b. Between T=06:00 and T=12:00, P1A is in background "1", as indicated at area 94 of time series 90b.

[0254] The multiple message priority indications regarding the analytical device data in context "1" received from P1A or P2A are used to generate the message filter configuration F1(x) 72a.

[0255] The multiple message priority indications regarding the analytical device data in context "2" received from P1A or P2A are used to generate the message filter configuration F2(x) 72b.

[0256] The message filter configurations F1 ( x ) and F2 ( x ) may then be stored in the memory 96 .

[0257] In this way, multiple message filter configurations 23a, 23b may be generated depending on the context in which the analysis devices are used. Optionally, the message filter configurations may be assembled from message priority indications originating from analysis device data output from different analysis devices at different times but in a shared context, but this is not essential.

[0258] Using a state machine to track the context of analytical device P1A may be beneficial because it can enforce sequential dependencies between contexts based on the arrangement of state machine transitions. For example, the transition of analytical device P1A between the accident and emergency department context and the teaching context is understandable in a teaching hospital where it is physically possible for analytical devices to be exchanged between such departments. However, it may not be possible to bring analytical device P2A from the teaching context to the home visit context.

[0259] The skilled person will appreciate that the use of a finite state machine to track the context of the analysis device is not essential, and a finite state machine is used in this description to illustrate the concept of context tracking. A finite state machine can be beneficially used to track a finite set of contexts with designed context transition rules. Alternatively or in combination, context identification can employ one or a combination of hierarchical state machines. Alternatively, the presence of the analysis device in a particular context can be determined based on a voting scheme detected by stimuli received from the analysis device or a POC-DMS or a Bayesian classifier.

[0260] In the example, a unique instance of the context recognition engine is maintained for each active (on) analysis device in the first network 10A. This enables simultaneous tracking of multiple portable analysis devices P1A-P7A in different contexts or as they move between different contexts, and for processing messages from each of the multiple portable analysis devices P1A-P7A that are filtered based on the context of each of the multiple analysis devices P1A-P7A.

[0261] Optionally, if the unique instance 78a of the context recognition engine 78 for an active (on) analysis device is unable to associate the analysis device with a context based on a contemporaneous set of inputs using the context recognition engine 78, then the context is determined to be in an indeterminate (unknown) state, which provides a default message filter configuration for message priority selection associated with analysis device state data from a POC in an indeterminate context.

[0262] In an example, the context of a single portable analysis device may be modeled by an instance in a context recognition engine as one or more states in a finite state machine 78 (abbreviated as state machine). Input 76 to the finite state machine 78 may be obtained from any data available to the POC-DMS 10A in the first network, which provides a rich source of input data for context determinations made by the context determination engine.

[0263] For example, the finite state machine 78 may take as input 76 one or more of network configuration information for a single analytical device or multiple analytical devices, analytical device internal operating information, user login information for a particular POC, user authentication data, geographic location data for the analytical device, and information about the type of assay performed on the particular analytical device from the POC-DMS 10A in the first network. Additional sources of information may be obtained from at least the POC-DMS 10A to enable the determination of context.

[0264] For example, the state machine 78 may provide as output a plurality of message filter configurations 72a, 72b, 72c, and 72d. Each of the plurality of message filter configurations 72a, 72b, 72c, and 72d corresponds to a state in the state machine 78.

[0265] When a single analysis device P1A is identified, a unique instance of state machine 78 is instantiated within the context recognition engine. The unique instance of state machine 78 tracks the context associated with the single analysis device P1A. If the context associated with the single analysis device P1A cannot be identified, the unique instance of state machine 78 that models the context of the single analysis device P1A remains in an indeterminate state 82.

[0266] There are instances of message filter configurations for one or more states of a unique instance of state machine 78 that models the context of a single analysis device P1A. Where there is only one instance of state machine 78, modeling the context of a single analysis device P1A between three contexts and one undetermined context, four instances of message filter configurations 72a, 72b, 72c, and 72d are provided.

[0267] According to the embodiment, the one or more backgrounds are determined in various ways. Specifically, the background determination may be based on one or any combination of the following data:

[0268] (i) The context determination may be based on network configuration data that at least partially characterizes the device configuration of the first analyzer network. For example, the presence or absence of certain types of analysis devices on the network 10A enables identification of the device context. For example, certain types of analysis devices are not portable and are only used in pathology laboratories, while other types of analysis devices are portable. In addition, the network server may maintain a registry of network addresses. When analysis device data is received from an expected range of network addresses, the registry of network addresses may be used to determine that the analyzer data has been received from one of several device contexts.

[0269] (ii) The context determination may be based on internal configuration data of at least one of the analysis devices that sent the message, which was subsequently assigned a message priority indication. For example, the type of message sent by the analysis device itself enables the identification or inference of the operating context of the analysis device. The internal configuration data may relate to tests that the analysis device is capable of performing, information about the software configuration and firmware version of the analysis device, information about the maintenance status of the analysis device, etc.

[0270] (iii) The context determination may be based on battery life data of at least one analysis device that sent the message that was subsequently assigned the message priority indication. For example, an analysis device used in a home visiting nurse context may not be charged as frequently as an analysis device used in an accident and emergency room context (due to proximity to more charging outlets), and thus the battery life data and / or recharging data associated with the analysis device may enable some inference of the context of use of the analysis device.

[0271] (iv) The context determination may be based on quality control data of at least one analytical device that sent the message, which was then assigned a message priority indication. Quality control data related to the results provided by the analytical device may provide insight into the maintenance status of the analytical device. For example, an analytical device that is frequently used may need to be recalibrated more frequently.

[0272] (v) The context determination may be based on the type of assay performed on the associated at least one analytical device at or near the time when the message priority indication was generated. For example, a particular assay type may only be provided in certain departments of a hospital, so receiving a message priority indication associated with analytical device data of a particular assay type can further infer the source context of the analytical device data.

[0273] (vi) Context determination may be based on the time at which the message priority indication and / or the analyzed device data was generated. For example, the time at which the analyzed device data item was generated may be compared to a staff shift pattern to provide additional information to infer usage context (use by a certain subset of staff enables inference of usage context).

[0274] (vii) The context determination may be based on location data of at least one analysis device and / or the first analysis device management system. For example, the location data may include GPS coordinates of one or more analysis devices. The location data may include a separation distance between an analysis device and its analysis device management system (POC-DMS) 12A. For example, the location data may include a geo-fence condition, wherein one or more geographic boundaries are defined, and the presence or absence of multiple analysis devices within the geo-fenced area is represented by a binary vector.

[0275] (Viii) The context determination may be based on operator data and / or authentication data of at least one analytical device and / or the first analytical device management system.

[0276] (ix) The context determination may be based on the content of the analyzer data. For example, when a user logs onto the analysis device P1A, the analysis device management system (POC-DMS) 12A may query the user database to obtain user classification data about the user. For example, the user classification data may include the user's job title, the user's authentication status, the user's shift schedule data, etc.

[0277] (x) The context determination may be based on a count of a number of messages received from at least one analysis device.

[0278] (xi) The context determination may be based on log data defining a previous configuration of the first analyser network and / or the first analytical device management system POC DMS1 , as well as metadata obtained from further information sources.

[0279] The skilled person will appreciate that many other data sources may be used by the context recognition engine to enable recognition of the usage context of the analysis device.

[0280] Once the data processing agent 23 has generated one or more message filter configurations 72, whether via Figure 6 The rule-based approach shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 With the additional contact information shown, one or more message filter configurations 72 may optionally be applied to subsequent analysis of device data originating within network 10A.

[0281] In other words, one or more message filter configurations 72 may provide a degree of feedback to the same message that enabled the POC-DMS 12A to generate the message filter configurations 72 .

[0282] The data processing agent 23 may store the message filter configuration 72 upon completion of the message filter configuration 72 in a data storage unit co-located with the data processing agent 23 or in a remote location.

[0283] In addition, the one or more message filter configurations 72 may be transmitted to the one or more additional networks 12B and / or the one or more additional analytical device management systems POC-DMS 12B. When the one or more additional networks 12B and / or the one or more additional analytical device management systems POC-DMS 12B have received the one or more message filter configurations 72, the message filter configurations 72 generated in the first network 10A may be applied for filtering to display analytical device data generated from within the one or more additional networks 10B.

[0284] In this way, the data processing agent 23 uses the message priority indication generated in the first network 10A to assemble or update one or more "smart filters". The one or more "smart filters" can then be electronically transmitted to another network 10B including an analysis device so that the improved message filtering performance obtained at the first network 10A can also be experienced in the other network 10B.

[0285] Optionally, the analysis device management system in one or more additional networks 10B POC-DMS 12B is configured to request from the data processing agent 23 a version of the message filter configuration 72 generated by the data processing agent 23. Upon receiving a request for an updated version of the message filter configuration 72 generated by the data processing agent 23 from the analysis device management system in one or more additional networks 10B POC-DMS 12B, the data processing agent 23 is configured to send the message filter configuration 72 to the analysis device management system in the additional network or networks 10B POC-DMS 12B.

[0286] According to an embodiment, for at least one type of message, the message filter configuration includes multiple priority elements corresponding to different identified contexts of the first analyzer network 10A and / or the first analysis device management system 12A, and / or at least one analysis device P1A from which the message priority indication originates.

[0287] According to an embodiment, it is further provided that: at the data processing agent 23, a request is received to send at least one message filter configuration to a second analysis device management system 12B in the second analyzer network 10B and / or a second analysis device P1B of a medical sample in the second analyzer network;

[0288] At the data processing agent 23, receiving information defining the geographic location and / or context of the second analytical device management system 12B and / or the second analytical device P1B;

[0289] obtaining at least one message filter configuration based on information defining a geographic location and / or context of the second analytical device management system 12B and / or the second analytical device P1B; and

[0290] The obtained at least one message filter configuration is sent to the second analysis device management system 12B and / or the second analysis device P1B.

[0291] According to this embodiment, the message filter configuration 72 is adjusted based on the location of the second analytical device management system 12B and / or the second analytical device P1B. National health systems are often organized along different lines. For example, an automatically generated message filter configuration 72 suitable for a first country may not be suitable for a second country.

[0292] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0293] comparing the message filter configuration to a reference message filter configuration;

[0294] identifying a deviation between the message filter configuration and the reference message filter configuration; and

[0295] The message filter configuration is updated to reduce or eliminate a deviation between the message filter configuration and the reference message filter configuration.

[0296] There is a small chance that, due to operator error, messages of potentially overwhelming importance are assigned a lower priority than they should be given at the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A. For example, repeated warning messages displayed at the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A call attention to the fact that an uninformed user of the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A may hypothetically and repeatedly assign the category "unimportant" to an expired calibration deadline. It is obviously undesirable that such unwanted input leads to the generation of a message filter configuration that is used in the originating network 10A or forwarded to another network 10B.

[0297] According to the present embodiment, the generated message filter configuration is compared with the reference message filter configuration. For example, the reference message filter configuration contains overwhelming message filter records of system messages of overwhelming importance, such as calibration warnings or patient safety warnings. Before the message filter configuration is applied to the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A in the first network 10A or forwarded to the other network 10B to be installed on the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12B in the other network, the deviation from the reference message configuration is reset or eliminated. Therefore, the propagation of incorrect or partially correct message filter configurations is avoided.

[0298] According to a second aspect, there is provided an apparatus 40 configured to host a data processing agent 23 for processing data from an analysis device 20, the apparatus comprising:

[0299] - Communication interface 54;

[0300] - data storage 44; and

[0301] A processor 47 coupled to the communication interface 54 and to the data memory 44 .

[0302] The communication interface 54 is configured to receive one or more data items including the priority indication transmitted from the first analytical device management system 12A to the data processing agent 23 via the communication network 10A.

[0303] Processor 47 is configured to receive a message priority indication from communication interface 54 indicating a priority assigned to an analysis device status data item and to generate or update a message filter configuration stored in data storage 44 based on the message priority.

[0304] The communication interface 54 is further configured to transmit the message filter configuration or a part thereof to a second analyzer network 10B comprising a second analysis device P1B of the medical sample.

[0305] The instrument 40 hosting the data processing agent 23 may be a separate server connected to the first network 10A. The instrument 40 hosting the data processing agent 23 may be a computer hosting the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A. In such a case, the message priority indication from the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A will need to be transmitted from the analytical equipment management system POC-DMS 12A to the separate server connected to the first network 10A.

[0306] The instrument 40 hosting the data processing agent 23 may be a cloud server accessible via the Internet (such as provided by Amazon EC2(TM) or Microsoft Azure(TM) services as two examples). In such a case, the message priority indication from the analytical device management system POC-DMS 12A will need to be transmitted over the Internet to such a cloud service.

[0307] When a message priority indication is input into or detected by the analytical device management system POC-DMS 12A, the data processing agent 23 can continuously (in other words, "in real time") update the message filter configuration 72, wherein the continuously recalculated message filter configuration 72 is transmitted from the data processing agent 23 to another network 10B.

[0308] Alternatively, the message filter configuration 72 may be updated by the data processing agent 23 in batch mode. The analytical device management system POC-DMS 12A may store an archive of message priority indications in a local, network or cloud storage device. The data processing agent 23 may then poll the local, network or cloud storage device to receive the archive of stored message priority indications. Optionally, the data processing agent 23 imposes a time limit or other form of limit on the amount of message priority indications received to reduce the amount of data passed to the data processing agent 23. In other words, it is possible, but not essential, for the data processing agent 23 to generate the message filter configuration "in real time". Optionally, the data processing agent 23 may generate the message filter configuration according to a fixed schedule, such as once every day at 3 am.

[0309] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0310] displaying analysis device status data generated by the first analysis device via the first analysis device management system 12A or the user interface 24A of the first analysis device P1A in the first analyzer network 10A;

[0311] receiving a message priority indication via the first analytical device management system 12A or the user interface 24A of the first analytical device P1A; and

[0312] The message priority indication is transmitted to the data processing agent 23 .

[0313] The display of the POC-DMS 12A, 12B or an associated mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet computer 26A, 26B may be optimized for user response. When the analyzer network generates hundreds or thousands of messages a minute, a large amount of communication overhead may be generated between the data processing agent 40 (server) and the POC-DMS 12A, 12B or an associated mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet computer 26A, 26B. The ability of the data processing agent 40 to filter messages based on the significance of a particular message to the user as observed by the data processing may enable a significant reduction in communication and / or display overhead.

[0314] For example, the data processing agent 40 and an application providing the GUI 100 executed on the POC-DMS 12A, 12B or an associated mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet computer 26A, 26B establish a synchronous data binding between analysis device status messages received at the data processing agent 40 and the messages displayed on the GUI 100.

[0315] Optionally, a synchronous data binding is established between the data processing agent 40 and the POC-DMS 12A, 12B and / or an application providing execution of the GUI 100 on an associated mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet computer 26A, 26B based on the message filter configuration 72. For example, a synchronous data binding would not be established for analytical device status messages of a type that the user had previously marked as “unimportant”.

[0316] During the data binding process, the elements bound to the data automatically reflect each data change.By reducing the number of "unimportant" messages displayed on the GUI 100, the processing load on the data processing agent 40 or another server hosting the data processing agent 40 is reduced.

[0317] Typical examples of protocols that support data binding are “Backbone.js” (TM), “Polymer” (TM), “Vue.js” (TM), “AngularJS” (TM), “Google Web Toolkit” (TM), “Windows Presentation Foundation” (TM), etc.

[0318] Fig. 9A It is schematically shown that a user adds a message priority indication associated with an analytical device message via a GUI 100 on an analytical device management system (POC-DMS).

[0319] Analysis device messages are sent to the POC DMS 12A periodically. The user can mark these messages as "unimportant" (this is an example of a message priority indication) using a dialog button or other input device 108 of the GUI. In this way, analysis device messages in the event feed received at the POC DMS 12A can be filtered by a message filter configuration generated based on the user marking as "unimportant", so that the messages can be automatically hidden from the user. Another effect of this is that the message feed remains clear and only the most important messages are notified to the user. In addition, messages with high relevance can be cached in a short-term memory such as RAM, while less relevant messages can be stored in a long-term memory such as a hard drive or solid-state memory, or stored on a remote server.

[0320] The GUI 100 of the analytical device management system (POC-DMS) may display a thumbnail 102 indicating the currently selected analytical device (device). Messages from the currently selected analytical device are displayed in a device message feed 104. As a safety feature, the device message feed may enable selection of messages (analytical device messages) across various modes of display, one of which always supports display of "all" messages. In the illustrated case, a selector 106 shows that only messages previously given a priority of "important" are displayed. A user-operated cursor 108 may be used to mark the analytical device message "Battery low (error code 343)" as not important".

[0321] Fig. 9B Schematically illustrated is a user adding a message priority indication associated with an analytical device message via a GUI on an analytical device management system (POC-DMS).

[0322] Optionally, after the user has operated cursor 1082 to mark the analytical device message "Battery Low (Error Code 343)" as unimportant, dialog box 110 is displayed to enable the user to confirm or cancel the message priority indication selection made.

[0323] Fig. 9C Additional GUI features of the analytical device management system (POC-DMS) are schematically shown.

[0324] Specifically, for example, when the View "All" button of GUI 100 is selected, messages previously marked as unimportant are displayed, optionally in different colors, in message feed 104. This enables the user to perform a safety check on the filtered messages to ensure that important messages are not missed from the feed.

[0325] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0326] At the data processing agent 23, receiving a plurality of message filter configurations 72 generated from a corresponding plurality of analyzer networks;

[0327] At the data processing agent 23, the plurality of message filter configurations 72 are processed to obtain a combined message filter configuration.

[0328] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0329] receiving a request from an analytical device management system (POC-DMS) in another network including analytical devices; and

[0330] The combined message filter configuration is communicated to an analysis device management system (POC-DMS) in the further network and / or the combined message filter configuration is communicated to one or more analysis devices in the further network.

[0331] According to the embodiment, there is further provided:

[0332] receiving, at a second analysis device management system 12B in the second analyzer network 10B, at least a portion of the message filter configuration generated by the data processing agent 23;

[0333] receiving, at the second analysis device management system 12B, a further analysis device status data item generated by a second analysis device P1B in the second analyzer network 10A;

[0334] comparing the further analysis device state data item to the at least a portion of the message filter configuration; and

[0335] The further analytical instrument status data items are displayed to the operator of the second analytical instrument management system 12B according to the mode indicated by the message filter configuration as being suitable for displaying the further message.

[0336] According to an embodiment, the method further comprises:

[0337] receiving, at a second analysis device management system 12B in a second analyzer network 10B, at least a portion of a message filter configuration 72 generated by a data processing agent 23;

[0338] receiving, at the second analysis device management system 12B, a further analysis device status data item generated by a second analysis device P1B in the second analyzer network 10B;

[0339] comparing the further analysis device state data item to at least a portion of the message filter configuration 72; and

[0340] The further analytical instrument status data items are displayed to the operator of the second analytical instrument management system 12B according to the display mode indicated by the message filter configuration as being suitable for displaying the further message.

[0341] Fig. 10A It is schematically shown that in another network 10B, the message filter configuration generated by the data processing agent 23 is installed on the analysis device management system (POC-DMS).

[0342] Optionally, the analysis device management system (POC-DMS) 12B in the second network 10B may automatically poll the data processing agent 23 for updated or new message filter configurations and request permission to install the updated or new message filter configurations using a pop-up box 122 .

[0343] Optionally, the user may request an updated or new message filter configuration via GUI 100 and confirm permission to install the updated or new message filter configuration using pop-up box 122 .

[0344] The GUI 120 is optionally displayed on a display of an analysis device management system (POC-DMS) 12B, for example, in a second network 10B remote from the first network 10A used to generate the message filter configuration.

[0345] Fig. 10B Schematically illustrating the installation of a message filter configuration on an analysis device management system (POC-DMS) in a second network 10B using a GUI 100 on an analysis device management system (POC-DMS) in a second network 10B. In this case, the user can select between a message filter configuration obtained from a specific country 124 or a global message filter configuration 126.

[0346] Optionally, the analysis device management system 12B in the second analyzer network 10B is configured to directly archive the analysis device status data from at least one analysis device P1B-P7B based on the message filter configuration. For example, the analysis device management system 12B is configured to store the received analyzer status data items in a non-volatile memory or a database, and based on the message filter configuration, not display the analysis device status data on the graphical user interface 24B of the analysis device management system 12B.

[0347] Thus, in the specific example, it can be seen that when the user marks the analysis device message type as "not important", the analyzer management system (POC-DMS) in the first network 10B generates a message to notify the data processing agent 23 about the change in preference as well as the country information. Based on the preferences collected from all the correct hospitals, the most common preferences for each type of analysis device message are calculated for the country and the world.

[0348] When a new analytical device "B" arrives at hospital "B", the user is presented with the choice to download smart defaults for that type of device. The user can choose to adopt smart defaults for their country or the world. In this example, based on the country's most preferred device message configuration, the user is presented with possible default configurations where only device messages "QC out of range" and "Battery low" are the only important message types or the world's most preferred device message configuration where "Battery low" messages are typically marked as unimportant. Based on the selections made by the user, the upcoming device messages will be automatically marked with a selected set of important and unimportant settings.

[0349] According to a third aspect, there is provided a networked system 10 for analyzing device management, the networked system comprising:

[0350] - a first set of one or more analysis devices P1A-P7A configured to analyze a patient medical sample and to generate analysis device status data;

[0351] a first analytical device management system 12A configured to receive analytical device status data from one or more analytical devices comprised in the first group of one or more analytical devices P1A-P7A;

[0352] - an instrument 40 configured to host a data processing agent 23 for processing data received from the first analytical device management system 12A and / or the first group of one or more analytical devices P1A-P7A; and

[0353] - a second set of one or more analysis devices P1B-P7B configured to analyze a patient medical sample;

[0354] a second analytical device management system 12B configured to receive analytical device status data from one or more analytical devices comprised in the second group of one or more analytical devices P1B-P7B; and

[0355] - A communication network 21 configured to communicatively connect the first analysis equipment management system 12A, an instrument configured to host a data processing agent 23, and the second analysis equipment management system 12B.

[0356] The instrument 40 is configured to receive a message priority indication generated by the first analytical device management system 12A and / or at least one analytical device P1A-P7A in the first analyzer network 10A, the message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to the message.

[0357] The instrument 40 is configured to generate or update a message filter configuration based on the message priority of the first device message.

[0358] The instrument 40 is configured to transmit the message filter configuration, or a portion thereof, to the second analytical device management system 12B and / or the second set of one or more analytical devices P1B-P7B.

[0359] The second analysis device management system 12B and / or at least one analysis device of the second group of one or more analysis devices P1B-P7B is configured to receive further analysis device status data items from within the second analyzer network and to display the further analysis device status data items according to the priority assigned in the received message filter configuration.

[0360] According to a fourth aspect, a computer program element is provided, comprising computer readable instructions for controlling an apparatus according to the second aspect, the computer readable instructions being adapted to perform the method steps of the first aspect or embodiments thereof when executed by a processing unit of the apparatus.

[0361] According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium or signal having stored or encoded thereon the computer program element of the fourth aspect.

[0362] According to a sixth aspect, there is provided a method of operating an analysis device management system 12B and / or analysis devices P1B-P7B, the analysis device management system and / or analysis devices being configured to:

[0363] receiving a plurality of analysis device status data items from at least one analysis device P1B-P7B in the second analyzer network 10B;

[0364] requesting a message filter configuration from the apparatus 40 according to the second aspect via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device status data items received from the second analyzer network 10B,

[0365] receiving a message filter configuration from the apparatus 40 according to the second aspect via the communication network 10B; and

[0366] At least one analytic device state data item of the plurality of analytic device state data items is filtered according to the message filter configuration to generate a filtered plurality of messages.

[0367] According to an embodiment of the sixth aspect, the method further comprises:

[0368] Via the user interface 24B of the analytical device management system 12B, the filtered plurality of analytical device status data items are displayed.

[0369] According to an embodiment of the sixth aspect, the analysis device management system stores the analysis device state data of the type assigned to the first state in a long-term memory (optionally, a hard disk drive or a solid-state memory). The analysis device management system stores the analysis device state data of the type assigned to the second state in a short-term memory (optionally, a random access memory). For example, the analysis device state data of the type assigned to a low state or a state of "unimportant" is stored in the long-term memory. The analysis device state data of the type assigned to a high state or "important" is stored in the short-term memory.

[0370] According to an embodiment of the sixth aspect, displaying the filtered plurality of analysis device status data items via the user interface 24B of the analysis device management system 12B includes: reading analysis device status data of a type assigned to the second status from a short-term memory, and displaying the analysis device status data read from the short-term memory.

[0371] According to a seventh aspect, there is provided an apparatus configured to host an analytical device management system for processing data from one or more analytical devices of a medical sample.

[0372] The instrument includes:

[0373] -Communication interface;

[0374] - data storage;

[0375] - display interface; and

[0376] - A processor coupled to the communication interface and the data memory.

[0377] The communication interface is configured to receive a plurality of analysis device status data items from at least one analysis device in the second analyzer network, and request a message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one of the plurality of messages received from the second analyzer network. The communication interface is configured to receive the message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network and store the message filter configuration in the data storage. The processor is configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device status data items according to the message filter configuration stored in the data storage to generate a plurality of filtered analysis device status data.

[0378] According to an embodiment of the seventh aspect, the display interface is configured to generate a graphical user interface capable of displaying filtered status data of a plurality of analysis devices.

[0379] According to an embodiment of the seventh aspect, the data storage device includes a long-term memory and a short-term memory. For example, the long-term memory may include a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive or a solid-state drive. For example, the short-term memory may include a random access memory (RAM). Analysis device state data of a type that has been assigned to a first state is stored in the long-term memory. Analysis device state data of a type that has been assigned to a second state is stored in the short-term memory. For example, analysis device state data of a type that has been assigned to a low state or a state of "unimportant" is stored in the long-term memory. Analysis device state data of a type that has been assigned to a high state or "important" is stored in the short-term memory.

[0380] According to an embodiment of the seventh aspect, the instrument is configured to: display a plurality of filtered analysis device status data items via a display interface by reading analysis device status data of a type assigned to a second state from a short-term memory, and display the analysis device status data that has been read from the short-term memory via the display interface.

[0381] According to an eighth aspect, there is provided an apparatus configured to host an analytical device management system for processing data from one or more analytical devices. The apparatus comprises:

[0382] -communication device;

[0383] - data storage device; and

[0384] - Processor means coupled to the communication means and to the data storage means.

[0385] The communication device is configured to receive a plurality of analysis device status data items from at least one analysis device in the second analyzer network, and request a message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one of the plurality of messages received from the second analyzer network. The communication device is configured to receive the message filter configuration from the instrument according to the second aspect via the communication network and store the message filter configuration in the data storage device. The processor device is configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device status data items according to the message filter configuration stored in the data storage device to generate a plurality of filtered messages.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method (130) for generating a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication received from a first analyzer network (10A), wherein the first analyzer network includes at least one analysis device (P1A) configured to generate analysis device status data, wherein the method comprises: receiving (132), at a data processing agent (23), a message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to said analysis device status data in said first analyzer network (10A); At the data processing agent (23), based on the message priority indication of the analyzed device status data, providing (134) at least one message filter configuration (72), wherein providing the message filter configuration (72) comprises: identifying a type of the analysis device status data associated with the message priority indication; and inserting or updating a record in a data structure defining the message filter configuration, wherein a value in the record stores a priority assigned to the identified type of analytic device status data; and adjusting a value stored in the record based on the message priority indication corresponding to the type of identified message to provide the message filter configuration; as well as The message filter configuration (72) or a portion thereof is transmitted (136) to a second analyzer network (10B) comprising a second analyzing device (P1B).

2. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: At the data processing agent (23), a plurality of message priority indications are received from one or more further analyser networks, and wherein the message filter configuration (72) is generated based on the plurality of message priority indications.

3. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining network configuration data at least partially characterizing a network configuration of the analysis device in the first analyzer network (10A), the message priority indication originating from the first analyzer network; The message filter configuration is generated or updated based at least in part on the network configuration data of the first analyzer network (10A).

4. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, using a context identification engine (78), one or more contexts of the first analyzer network (10A) and / or the first analyzer management system (12A) and / or at least one analyzing device (P1A) from which the message priority indication originated; and Based on the identified context, the message filter configuration is provided or updated (72).

5. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 4, The one or more contexts are determined based on one or more of the following: network configuration data, the network configuration data at least partially characterizing a configuration of devices of the first analyzer network (10A); internal configuration data or internal sensor data of at least one analytical device (P1A-P7A) which sends messages which are subsequently assigned said message priority indication; battery life data of the at least one analyzing device (P1A-P7A), the at least one analyzing device transmitting messages which are subsequently assigned the message priority indication; quality control data generated by said at least one analytical device (P1A-P7A) which sends messages which are subsequently assigned said message priority indication; the type of assay performed on the at least one analysis device (P1A-P7A) of the associated medical sample at or near the time at which the message priority indication was generated; the time at which the message priority indication and / or the message is generated; location data of the at least one analytical device (P1A-P7A) and / or the first analytical device management system (12A); operator data and / or authentication data of the at least one analytical device and / or the first analytical device management system; The content of the analysis device status data; a count of the number of analysis device status data items received from the at least one analysis device; log data defining a previous configuration of the first analyzer network (10A) and / or the first analysis device management system (12A); as well as Metadata obtained from another information source, optionally from a user login server or an authentication server.

6. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 4 or 5, Wherein, for at least one type of message, the message filter configuration includes a plurality of records corresponding to message priorities assigned to the first analyzer network (10A) and / or the first analysis device management system (12A) and / or the message priority indicating different identified contexts from which the at least one analysis device (P1A) originates.

7. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the data processing agent (23), a request to send the at least one message filter configuration (72) to a second analysis device management system (12B) in a second analyzer network (10B) and / or a second analysis device (P1B) of a medical sample in the second analyzer network; receiving, at the data processing agent (23), information defining the geographic location and / or context of the second analytical device management system (12B) and / or the second analytical device (P1B); obtaining at least one message filter configuration (72) based on said information defining said geographic location and / or context of said second analysis device management system (12B) and / or said second analysis device (P1B); and The at least one message filter configuration obtained is sent to the second analysis device management system (12B) and / or the second analysis device (P1B).

8. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: comparing the message filter configuration to a reference message filter configuration; identifying a deviation between the message filter configuration and the reference message filter configuration; as well as The message filter configuration is updated to reduce or eliminate a deviation between the message filter configuration and the reference message filter configuration.

9. The computer-implemented method (130) of claim 1, further comprising: displaying the analysis device status data generated by the first analysis device via the first analysis device management system (12A) or a user interface (24A) of the first analysis device (P1A) in the first analyzer network (10A); Receiving the message priority indication via the first analytical device management system (12A) or the user interface (24A) of the first analytical device (P1A); and The message priority indication is transmitted to the data processing agent (23).

10. An apparatus (40) configured to host a data processing agent (23) for processing data from an analytical device, the apparatus comprising: Communication interface (54); Data storage (44); as well as a processor (47) coupled to the communication interface and the data storage; wherein the communication interface (54) is configured to receive one or more data items, the one or more data items comprising a message priority indication transmitted from a first analytical device management system (POC DMS1) to the data processing agent (23) via a communication network; The processor (47) is configured to receive a message priority indication indicating a priority assigned to an analysis device status data item from the communication interface (54), and based on the message priority indication, generate or update a message filter configuration stored in the data storage (44), wherein the message filter configuration is configured as follows: identifying a type of the analysis device status data associated with the message priority indication; and inserting or updating a record in a data structure defining the message filter configuration, wherein a value in the record stores a priority assigned to the identified type of analytic device status data; as well as adjusting a value stored in the record based on the message priority indication corresponding to the type of identified message to provide the message filter configuration; and The communication interface (54) is further configured to transmit the message filter configuration or a portion thereof to a second analyzer network (10B) comprising a second analyzing device (P1B).

11. An apparatus configured to host an analytical device management system for processing data from one or more analytical devices, the apparatus comprising: Communication interface; Data storage; Display interface; as well as a processor coupled to the communication interface and the data storage; wherein the communication interface is configured to receive a plurality of analysis device state data items from at least one analysis device in a second analyzer network, and obtain a message filter configuration via the communication network, the message filter configuration being configured to filter at least one message of a plurality of messages received from the second analyzer network, wherein the message filter configuration is configured as follows: identifying a type of the analysis device status data associated with the message priority indication; and inserting or updating a record in a data structure defining the message filter configuration, wherein a value in the record stores a priority assigned to the identified type of analytic device status data; as well as adjusting a value stored in the record based on the message priority indication corresponding to the type of identified message to provide the message filter configuration; wherein the communication interface is configured to receive the message filter configuration from the apparatus according to the second aspect via the communication network and store the message filter configuration in the data storage; wherein the processor is configured to filter at least one of the plurality of analysis device state data items according to the message filter configuration stored in the data storage to generate a plurality of filtered analysis device state data; and The display interface is configured to display the filtered plurality of analysis device status data.

12. A networked system (10A, 10B) for analyzing device management (10), the networked system comprising: a first set of one or more analytical devices (P1A-P7A) configured to analyze a patient medical sample and generate analytical device status data; a first analytical device management system (12A) configured to receive analytical device status data from one or more analytical devices included in the first set of one or more analytical devices (P1A-P7A); an instrument (40) configured to host a data processing agent (23) for processing data received from the first analytical device management system (12A) and / or the first set of one or more analytical devices (P1A-P7A); as well as a second set of one or more analytical devices (P1B-P7B) configured to analyze a patient medical sample; a second analytical device management system (12B) configured to receive analytical device status data from one or more analytical devices included in the second set of one or more analytical devices (P1B-P7B); as well as a communication network (21) configured to communicatively connect the first analysis equipment management system (12A), the instrument (40) configured to host the data processing agent (23), and a second analysis equipment management system (12B); wherein the instrument (40) is configured to receive a message priority indication (72) generated by the first analytical device management system (12A) and / or at least one of the analytical devices (P1A-P7A) in the first analyzer network (10A), wherein the message priority indication indicates a priority assigned to the analytical device status data; The apparatus (40) is configured to generate or update a message filter configuration based on a message priority indication associated with the first device message, wherein the message filter configuration is configured as follows: identifying a type of the analysis device status data associated with the message priority indication; and inserting or updating a record in a data structure defining the message filter configuration, wherein a value in the record stores a priority assigned to the identified type of analytic device status data; as well as adjusting a value stored in the record based on the message priority indication corresponding to the type of identified message to provide the message filter configuration; wherein the instrument (40) is configured to transmit the message filter configuration or a portion thereof to the second analytical device management system (12B) and / or the second group of one or more analytical devices (P1B-P7B); and Wherein the second analysis device management system (12B) and / or at least one analysis device in the second group of one or more analysis devices (P1B-P7B) is configured to receive additional analysis device status data items from the second analyzer network (10B) and display the additional analysis device status data items according to the priority assigned in the received message filter configuration (72).

13. A computer program element comprising computer readable instructions for controlling an apparatus according to claim 11, said computer readable instructions being adapted to perform the steps of a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 when executed by a processing unit of said apparatus.

14. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program element according to claim 13.

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