Cloud Medical Network Service for Hospital IT Cost Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Smaller clinical facilities lack the financial capability to afford expensive information technology network infrastructure for patient monitoring and electronic medical records, leading to compromised security and reliability, which can impact patient safety.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based medical network service providing software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) technologies to replace or supplement internal IT networks, featuring a medical edge router for redundant communications and patient data transmission, and a system for configuring patient profiles with alarm settings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If smaller clinical facilities use internally staffed IT networks for patient monitoring, then they can maintain control over their data infrastructure, but the cost becomes prohibitively expensive and security/reliability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud-based medical network service as an intermediary between clinical facilities and the complex IT infrastructure. This service absorbs the technical complexity, security management, and reliability concerns, allowing smaller facilities to access robust patient monitoring capabilities without directly managing the underlying complex network infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical approach of locally hosting and managing IT network infrastructure with a cloud-based service model. This substitution eliminates the need for smaller facilities to physically maintain servers, networks, and security systems, while still providing equivalent or superior reliability and security through professionally managed cloud infrastructure
2Ease of manufacture
If cloud-based medical network service is implemented, then costs are reduced and security/reliability are increased, but dependency on external service provider increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud-based medical network service is designed to be universally applicable across different clinical facility sizes and types. The service provides multiple functions including patient monitoring, data storage, alarm management, and clinical decision support, making it adaptable to various healthcare settings while maintaining cost-effectiveness and reducing the need for facilities to independently manage complex IT systems
3Speed
If patient monitoring data is transmitted over network, then real-time monitoring capability is improved, but network failure can compromise patient safety
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements beforehand cushioning by incorporating redundant communication pathways and failover mechanisms. When the primary network connection fails, the system automatically switches to alternative transmission methods or local buffering, ensuring that real-time patient monitoring capability is maintained even during network disruptions, thus cushioning against the potential harm of network failure
Data Source
AI summary
A medical network service can replace or supplement some or all of an expensive internally staffed clinical facility network with a cloud-based networking service. The medical network service in certain embodiments can provide networking services via software as a service technologies, platform as a service technologies, and/or infrastructure as a service technologies. The medical network service can provide these services to large existing clinical facilities such as metropolitan hospitals as well as to smaller clinical facilities such as specialized surgical centers. The medical network service can replace and/or supplement existing IT networks in hospitals and other clinical facilities and can therefore reduce costs and increase security and reliability of those networks. In addition, the medical network service can provide synergistic benefits that can improve patient outcomes and patient care. In addition, a medical edge router can provide redundant communications features for transmitting patient data to the medical network service.