Medical Alarm Data Decoding for Cross-Device Situational Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
The lack of communication between medical devices leads to issues such as lack of context and situational awareness, alarm fatigue, inefficient prioritization and response, and increased risk of missed or delayed alarms, compromising patient safety and adding complexity to healthcare provider workflows.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that receives, identifies, and decodes data from various formats, converting it into a common format for integrated management and prioritization of alarms across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple medical devices operate independently without communication, then each device can function autonomously with its own alarm system, but alarm coordination and situational awareness deteriorate leading to alarm fatigue and missed critical alerts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines alarm functions from multiple independent medical devices into a centralized communication system. The system receives alarm data from various devices (ventilators, infusion pumps, monitors), decodes different data formats using appropriate ciphers, and presents unified alarm information to healthcare providers, improving situational awareness while maintaining device autonomy
Solution Approach 2:
The communication system acts as an intermediary between independent medical devices and healthcare providers. It receives encoded alarm data from devices, decodes it using device-specific ciphers, standardizes the format, and relays the information to providers, enabling coordination without requiring direct device-to-device communication
2Adaptability or versatility
If devices use different data formats and encoding schemes, then each device can maintain its own proprietary communication protocol, but system integration and data interoperability worsen requiring complex decoding and conversion processes
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically changes processing parameters based on the incoming data format. It identifies the device-specific cipher being used and applies the appropriate decoding algorithm, then converts the decoded data into a standardized format. This parameter adaptation enables interoperability while managing complexity through automated format detection and conversion
3Productivity
If alarms from different devices are not synchronized, then each device can trigger alarms independently based on its own monitoring parameters, but response time and prioritization efficiency deteriorate requiring manual assessment of each alarm
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing communication channels and decoding protocols for multiple device types. When alarms are generated, the system is already prepared with the necessary ciphers and conversion routines, enabling immediate decoding and standardization without delay. This preliminary preparation reduces response time while maintaining independent device operation
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method, computer program product and computing system for: receiving first data in a first format; identifying a cipher capable of processing the first data in the first format, thus defining an identified cipher; decoding the first data in the first format using the identified cipher to generate first decoded data in the first format; and converting the first decoded data from the first format to a common format, thus defining common format first data.