Inspection support device, inspection support system, inspection support method and program

Abstract

The objective of this disclosure is to streamline inspection operations more effectively. [Solution] The examination support device 1 comprises: an acquisition unit (control unit 11) that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information; an extraction unit (control unit 11) that extracts one or more of the following based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit: patient location information, patient attribute information, and medical personnel location information; a determination unit (control unit 11) that determines one or more of the following support information based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit: patient examination order, examination room, and medical personnel's assigned duties; and a notification control unit (control unit 11) that notifies the notification unit of the support information determined by the determination unit.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an examination work support apparatus, an examination work support system, an examination work support method, and a program.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, there has been a demand for improving the efficiency of examination operations in hospitals. For example, along with the increase in elderly patients, radiological examination operations are facing an increase in the number of examinations and higher complexity of examinations. However, the number of radiological technologists is considered to be linked to the trends in the working population, making it difficult to secure resources, coupled with factors such as a gradual decrease in workforce and improvements to the working environment brought about by work style reforms. Therefore, there is a demand for improving the efficiency of radiological examination operations.

[0003] Patent Document 1 describes displaying a congestion status based on patient position information. Patent Document 2 describes acquiring patient position information, associating a medical care process with each patient, and displaying the progress of the medical care process for each patient.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 only display the congestion status and progress status, and do not necessarily improve the efficiency of examination operations.

[0006] Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to more effectively improve the efficiency of examination operations. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] To solve the aforementioned problems, the inspection work support device is: An acquisition unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information, Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, an extraction unit extracts one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a decision unit determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel. A notification control unit that causes the decision unit to notify the notification unit of the support information it has determined, It is equipped with.

[0008] Furthermore, the inspection support system related to this disclosure is An acquisition unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information, Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, an extraction unit extracts one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a decision unit determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel. A notification control unit that causes the decision unit to notify the notification unit of the support information it has determined, It is equipped with.

[0009] Furthermore, the inspection support method related to this disclosure is: The computer of the inspection support system, Acquisition steps for acquiring medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information. Based on the information acquired in the acquisition step, an extraction step is performed to extract one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. a determination step of determining one or more pieces of support information from among a patient's examination order, an examination room, and assigned tasks of medical personnel, based on the information acquired by the acquisition step and the information extracted by the extraction step, a notification control step of causing a notification unit to notify the support information determined in the determination step, including:

[0010] Further, the program according to the present disclosure causes a computer of an examination work support apparatus to function as: an acquisition unit that acquires medical examination information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and advance information, an extraction unit that extracts one or more pieces of information from among patient position information, patient attribute information, and medical personnel position information, based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, a determination unit that determines one or more pieces of support information from among a patient's examination order, an examination room, and assigned tasks of medical personnel, based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a notification control unit that causes a notification unit to notify the support information determined by the determination unit, to function as the above units. Effects of the Invention

[0011] According to the present disclosure, examination work efficiency can be improved more effectively. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0012] [Figure 1] It is a block diagram showing the configuration of the examination work support system. [Figure 2] It is an illustrative diagram of a radiology department. [Figure 3] It is a flowchart of support processing. [Figure 4] This is an example of advance information. [Figure 5] This is an example of a patient arrangement result. [Figure 6] It is an illustrative diagram of a support screen. [Figure 7] It is a flowchart of support processing. Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0013] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to those described in the following embodiments and drawings.

[0014] <Examination Work Support System 100> First, the configuration of the examination work support system 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the examination work support system 100 is configured such that an examination work support apparatus 1 and an RIS (Radiology Information System) 2 are connected via a communication network 1000 such as a LAN (Local Area Network).

[0015] The examination work support apparatus 1 is an apparatus for supporting the examination work of medical personnel. The examination work support apparatus 1 includes a sensor unit 16 to be described later, and supports the examination work of medical personnel using real-time information (sensor information) transmitted from the sensor unit 16. In the following description, the medical personnel are described as radiology technologists, but the present disclosure is not limited to this example, and may be technologists in ophthalmology, otolaryngology, or the like.

[0016] The RIS 2 is an apparatus for managing medical information related to patients. The medical information includes examination information such as examination names and examination contents. Note that although the medical information is described as information stored in the radiology work management system (RIS 2), the present disclosure is not limited to this example, and the medical information may be stored in various information processing apparatuses.

[0017] <Radiology Department> Here, an schematic diagram of the radiology department will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The radiology department includes rooms such as a reception area, a waiting room, an examination room, and an operation room. Note that the operation room is a room where technologists operate the radiography apparatus in the examination room. As shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that a plurality of sensor units 16 (16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E) are arranged in each room in the radiology department. Furthermore, there may be multiple reception areas, waiting rooms, examination rooms, and control rooms. Also, each sensor unit 16 (16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E) may consist of multiple sensors.

[0018] <Inspection support device 1> Next, the configuration of the inspection support device 1 will be explained using Figure 1. As shown in Figure 1, the inspection support device 1 comprises a control unit 11, an operation unit 12, a communication unit 13, a storage unit 14, a display unit 15, and a sensor unit.

[0019] The control unit 11 is composed of a CPU (Ce1000Ral Processing Unit), RAM (Random Access Memory), etc. The CPU of the control unit 11 reads various programs stored in the memory unit 14, loads them into the RAM, executes various processes according to the loaded programs, and controls the operation of each part of the inspection work support device 1.

[0020] The control unit 11 functions as an acquisition unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information. Here, medical information includes patient information such as the patient's name and age, and examination information (modality, site). Sensor information is used to detect patients and technicians, and includes, for example, image data. Prior information refers to various types of information concerning healthcare professionals. For example, the pre-information includes attribute information, examination information, and standard examination time information for each healthcare professional, as described later. However, if attribute information is extracted by the control unit 11, as described later, the pre-information does not need to include attribute information. Furthermore, for example, the preliminary information includes information on the tests that can be performed for each laboratory and healthcare worker.

[0021] The control unit 11 functions as an extraction unit that extracts one or more of the following based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit: patient location information, patient attribute information, and medical professional location information. Here, attribute information refers to information indicating the patient's attributes. For example, attribute information may include information such as whether the patient requires a wheelchair or cane, or whether the patient is elderly. Various methods, such as those described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2024-078008, can be used for extracting attribute information.

[0022] The control unit 11 functions as a decision unit that determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel, based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit. For example, the control unit 11, as a decision unit as described later, determines support information based on the viewpoint of minimizing the patient's waiting time and / or maximizing the number of examinations per unit time.

[0023] The control unit 11 functions as a notification control unit that notifies the notification unit of the support information determined by the decision unit.

[0024] The control unit 11 functions as a determination unit that determines the degree of congestion in the waiting room based on sensor information. Furthermore, the control unit 11 may switch whether or not to perform processing as a decision unit, and the level of processing as a decision unit, based on the degree of congestion. For example, if the degree of congestion is greater than a predetermined value, the control unit 11 may perform processing as a decision unit or increase the level of processing as a decision unit. Here, the level of processing refers to "the degree to which patient waiting time is minimized and / or the number of examinations per unit time is maximized." When it is crowded, the control unit 11 lowers the degree of waiting time minimization to give the technician discretion, and when it is crowded, it increases the degree of waiting time minimization.

[0025] The operation unit 12 includes a keyboard equipped with cursor keys, number input keys, various function keys, a pointing device such as a mouse, and a touch panel laminated on the surface of the display unit 15. The operation unit 12 is configured to be operable by the operator. The operation unit 12 also outputs various signals to the control unit 11 based on the operations performed by the operator.

[0026] The communication unit 13 is capable of sending and receiving various signals and data with other devices connected via the communication network 1000.

[0027] The memory unit 14 is composed of non-volatile semiconductor memory or a hard disk, and stores various programs executed by the control unit 11, parameters necessary for program execution, and various data. For example, the memory unit 14 stores prior information, etc.

[0028] The display unit 15 is comprised of a monitor such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and displays various screens, etc., according to the instructions of the display signals input from the control unit 11. The display unit 15 may also be equipped with a speaker that emits sound, a flashing lamp, etc. The display unit 15 functions as a notification unit.

[0029] The sensor unit 16 is a sensor that acquires various information about the patient and the technician. For example, the sensor unit 16 is an optical camera that acquires a visible image (optical camera image) as sensor information. The visible image may be a still image or a moving image.

[0030] <Support Processing Case 1> Next, we will explain the support processing in the inspection support device 1 using Figure 3.

[0031] (At patient registration) First, the control unit 11 acquires medical information from the RIS2 via the communication unit 13 (step S1; acquisition step). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires medical information such as name, age, and examination information (modality, body part).

[0032] Next, the control unit 11 acquires sensor information from the sensor unit 16 (step S2; acquisition step). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires an optical camera image of the patient at the time of check-in from the sensor unit 16A located at the reception desk.

[0033] Next, the control unit 11 links the medical information and sensor information (step S3). Specifically, the control unit 11 links the optical camera image taken at the time of patient registration to the medical information of the patient registered at the same time.

[0034] (While waiting for patients) Next, the control unit 11 acquires sensor information from the sensor unit 16 (step S4; acquisition step) and identifies the patient. Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires an optical camera image of the patient while they are waiting from the sensor unit 16B located in the waiting room and identifies the patient.

[0035] Next, the control unit 11 extracts patient attribute information from the sensor information (step S5; extraction step). Specifically, the control unit 11 extracts information such as whether the patient requires a wheelchair or cane, or whether the patient is elderly.

[0036] Next, the control unit 11 extracts the patient's location information from the sensor information (step S6; extraction step). Specifically, the control unit 11 determines the patient's location from the sensor unit 16B located in the waiting room and acquires the location information. For example, if there are multiple waiting rooms, the control unit 11 can determine which waiting room and at what location the patient is.

[0037] Next, the control unit 11 acquires prior information from the storage unit 14 (step S7; acquisition step). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires prior information as shown in Figure 4. Here, we will explain the preliminary information shown in Figure 4. Laboratory / technician information refers to the information about the tests that can be performed by the combination of laboratory / technician. Technician information (Technician A, Technician B) refers to the information about the time that each technician spends on the test.

[0038] Next, the control unit 11 determines the order of examinations and the examination rooms for each patient as support information (step S8; decision step). Specifically, the control unit 11 determines the order of examinations and the examination rooms by determining the patient's placement as shown in Figure 5. Here, we will explain the patient placement results shown in Figure 5. If patients are placed as shown in Figure 5, the total examination time in examination room 1 will be 6 minutes, and the total examination time in examination room 2 will also be 6 minutes, resulting in the earliest possible completion time for examinations. As a prerequisite, for example, patients using wheelchairs (attribute) must be placed in examination rooms where wheelchair-accessible examinations are possible. In the case of healthy individuals (attribute), the patient may be placed in the nearest examination room based on their location information. Furthermore, for elderly patients (attribute), the time required for changing clothes, etc., should also be taken into consideration. The decision method can be determined by trying out all possible arrangements, or by pre-training the best combination and performing inference using machine learning. Furthermore, if the examination registration times for patients 1-6 differ, the patient's waiting time is defined as the difference between the examination completion time and the examination registration time, and patients are arranged so that the sum of these waiting times is minimized.

[0039] Next, the control unit 11 notifies the display unit 15 of the inspection order and inspection room (step S9; notification control step), and terminates the support process. Specifically, the control unit 11 displays the support screen D1 shown in Figure 6 on the display unit 15. Now, let's explain the support screen D1 shown in Figure 6. The support screen D1 shown in Figure 6 displays the patient's name, extracted attribute information, and the laboratory (and the technician in that laboratory) in the order of the examinations.

[0040] This approach allows for more effective and efficient streamlining of inspection operations. Specifically, optimizing patient placement allows for the selection of efficient combinations of examinations and patients by selecting the appropriate laboratory / technician combination. Furthermore, since placement is determined by considering attribute information, it prevents a decrease in laboratory utilization due to preparation for imaging, patient arrival, changing clothes, etc., thereby improving examination efficiency.

[0041] <Support Processing Case 2> Next, the support processing in the inspection work support device 1 will be explained using Figure 7. In Case 2, we assist in determining the tasks assigned to the engineers.

[0042] (Preparation) First, the control unit 11 acquires sensor information from the sensor unit 16 (step S11). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires an optical camera image of the technician inside the examination room from the sensor unit 16.

[0043] Next, the control unit 11 links the prior information with the sensor information (step S12). Specifically, the control unit 11 links the optical camera image of the technician with the prior information about that technician.

[0044] (At patient registration) Steps S13-S15 are the same as steps S1-S3, so their explanation will be omitted.

[0045] (While waiting for patients) Next, the control unit 11 acquires sensor information from the sensor unit 16 (step S16; acquisition step) and identifies the patient. Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires an optical camera image of the patient while they are waiting from the sensor unit 16B located in the waiting room and identifies the patient.

[0046] Next, the control unit 11 counts the number of people identified as patients in the sensor information and determines the degree of congestion (step S17). Specifically, the control unit 11 counts the number of people identified as patients captured in the optical camera image, and if the number is greater than a predetermined value, it determines that the congestion level is high. If the waiting room corresponds to an examination, this leads to the determination of the congestion level of that examination. Furthermore, even if the waiting room does not correspond to an examination, the control unit 11 can also determine which examination is congested by referring to the patient's medical information.

[0047] Next, the control unit 11 extracts the technician's location information from the sensor information (step S18; extraction step). In step S18, the technician's working status can be obtained from the technician's location information. Specifically, the control unit 11 determines the technician's location from the sensor units 16 placed in each room such as the reception area, waiting room, examination room, and operation room, and obtains the location information.

[0048] Next, the control unit 11 acquires prior information from the storage unit 14 (step S19; acquisition step). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires prior information including the inspection information that each technician can perform.

[0049] Next, the control unit 11 determines the engineer's assigned tasks as support information (step S20). Specifically, if the congestion level is low for general radiography and high for CT (computed tomography), the control unit 11 will assign the task to a general radiography technician who is capable of performing CT examinations. The technician's availability may also be taken into consideration at this time. The decision method can be determined by trying out all possible arrangements, or by pre-training the best combination and performing inference using machine learning. Furthermore, if, in step S19, information indicating which examinations are possible in the examination room as prior information, and information on the time required for each examination as examination information, then a technician who is in charge of general radiography but is also capable of performing CT examinations may be assigned to a CT examination room where only examinations that do not take much time and that the technician can perform are conducted. Alternatively, as in Case 1, the placement of technicians may be determined to minimize the time required to complete the examination.

[0050] Next, the control unit 11 notifies the display unit 15 of the engineer's assigned tasks (step S21; notification control step), and terminates the support process.

[0051] This approach allows for more effective and efficient streamlining of inspection operations. Specifically, optimizing the allocation of technicians prevents delays in examinations due to a shortage of technicians during peak hours or when patients require assistance, thereby improving examination efficiency.

[0052] <Support Processing Case 3> Cases 1 and 2 described above may be combined. In this case, the support process determines the placement of patients and technicians based on information about available tests in the laboratory / technician, the time required for each test, the patient's location and attributes, and the congestion status (each waiting room, each test) to minimize the time it takes to complete the test. Similar to Case 1 and Case 2, the decision-making process may involve trying all possible combinations or employing machine learning.

[0053] <Other> The above example describes the use of optical camera images as sensor information, but the example is not limited to this. For example, RFID (radio frequency identification) can be used as sensor information.

[0054] <Effects> As described above, the examination support device 1 comprises an acquisition unit (control unit 11) that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information; an extraction unit (control unit 11) that extracts one or more of the patient's location information, patient attribute information, and medical personnel's location information based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit; a determination unit (control unit 11) that determines one or more of the patient's examination order, examination room, and medical personnel's assigned tasks based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit; and a notification control unit (control unit 11) that notifies the notification unit of the support information determined by the determination unit. Therefore, inspection work can be streamlined more effectively.

[0055] Furthermore, the examination support system 100 includes an acquisition unit (control unit 11) that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information; an extraction unit (control unit 11) that extracts one or more of the patient's location information, patient attribute information, and medical personnel's location information based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit; a determination unit (control unit 11) that determines one or more of the patient's examination order, examination room, and medical personnel's assigned tasks based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit; and a notification control unit (control unit 11) that notifies the notification unit of the support information determined by the determination unit. Therefore, inspection work can be streamlined more effectively.

[0056] Furthermore, the examination support method includes an acquisition step (steps S1, S2, S4, S7, S11, S13, S14, S16, S19) in which the computer of the examination support device 1 acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information; an extraction step (steps S5, S6, S18) in which, based on the information acquired in the acquisition step, one or more of the patient's location information, patient's attribute information, and the location information of medical personnel are extracted; a decision step (steps S8, 20) in which, based on the information acquired in the acquisition step and the information extracted in the extraction step, one or more pieces of support information from the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel are determined; and a notification control step (steps S9, 21) in which the support information determined in the decision step is notified to the notification unit. Therefore, inspection work can be streamlined more effectively.

[0057] Furthermore, the program causes the computer of the examination support device 1 to function as an acquisition unit (control unit 11) that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be acquired in real time, and prior information; an extraction unit (control unit 11) that extracts one or more of the patient's location information, patient attribute information, and medical personnel's location information based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit; a decision unit (control unit 11) that determines one or more of the patient's examination order, examination room, and medical personnel's assigned tasks based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit; and a notification control unit (control unit 11) that notifies the notification unit of the support information determined by the decision unit. Therefore, inspection work can be streamlined more effectively.

[0058] Although the present disclosure has been described in detail based on embodiments, it goes without saying that the present disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments and can be modified as appropriate without departing from its essence. For example, the above description disclosed examples in which hard disks or semiconductor non-volatile memory were used as computer-readable media for the program relating to this disclosure, but the disclosure is not limited to these examples. Portable recording media such as CD-ROMs can also be used as other computer-readable media.

[0059] Furthermore, the detailed configuration and operation of each device can be modified as appropriate, without departing from the spirit of the invention. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0060] 100 Inspection Support System 1. Inspection support device 11 Control Unit (Acquisition Unit, Extraction Unit, Decision Unit, Notification Control Unit, Judgment Unit) 12 Control section 13 Communications Department 14 Storage section 15 Display section (notification section) 16 Sensor section 2 RIS

Claims

1. An acquisition unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information, Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, an extraction unit extracts one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a decision unit determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel. A notification control unit that causes the decision unit to notify the notification unit of the support information it has determined, An inspection support device equipped with the following features.

2. The examination support device according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines the support information based on the viewpoint of minimizing patient waiting time and / or maximizing the number of examinations per unit time.

3. The examination support device according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit acquires the patient's location information and / or the location information of a medical professional from the image which is the sensor information.

4. The examination support device according to claim 1, wherein the medical information is information stored in a radiology work management system (RIS).

5. The inspection work support device according to claim 1, wherein the prior information includes attribute information, inspection and standard inspection time information for each medical professional.

6. The inspection support device according to claim 1, wherein the prior information includes information on feasible inspections for each inspection room and medical professional.

7. The examination support device according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit that determines the degree of congestion in the waiting room based on the location information of the patient.

8. The inspection work support device according to claim 7, which switches whether or not processing by the determination unit is necessary, or the level of processing by the determination unit, based on the degree of congestion.

9. An acquisition unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information, Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, an extraction unit extracts one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a decision unit determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of medical personnel. A notification control unit that causes the decision unit to notify the notification unit of the support information it has determined, A system for supporting inspection operations that includes the following features.

10. The computer of the inspection support system, Acquisition steps for acquiring medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and prior information. Based on the information acquired in the acquisition step, an extraction step is performed to extract one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired in the acquisition step and the information extracted in the extraction step, a decision step is made to determine one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of the medical staff. A notification control step in which the support information determined in the decision step is notified to the notification unit, A method for supporting inspection work, including inspection procedures.

11. The computer for the inspection support system, A unit that acquires medical information, sensor information that can be obtained in real time, and pre-information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, an extraction unit extracts one or more of the following: patient location information, patient attribute information, and healthcare worker location information. Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit and the information extracted by the extraction unit, a decision unit determines one or more pieces of support information from among the patient's examination order, examination room, and the duties of the medical personnel. A notification control unit causes the notification unit to notify the notification unit of the support information determined by the determination unit. A program that makes it function as such.

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