Compressing Medical Sensation Maps for Implantable Pulse Generators
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing neurostimulator devices face challenges in storing large pain and stimulation maps due to limited storage capacity, leading to inconvenient data management, potential errors in patient data association, and increased diagnostic costs.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for compressing pain and stimulation maps to reduce their data size, allowing them to be stored on implanted medical devices, using techniques like Connected Component Labeling and contour tracing, enabling efficient storage and transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If pain and stimulation maps are stored in their original format, then complete sensory information is preserved, but storage capacity is exceeded and device coordination becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential boundary and contour information from the full pain and stimulation maps, storing only the minimum data needed to reconstruct the maps. This removes redundant pixel data while preserving the critical sensory information boundaries, thereby reducing storage requirements and simplifying device coordination without losing meaningful data.
2Quantity of substance
If pain and stimulation maps are compressed to reduce data size, then storage capacity is sufficient and transmission time is reduced, but data processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the pain and stimulation maps into discrete contour lines and boundary definitions rather than storing continuous pixel data. By dividing the map data into structured geometric components (contours, vertices, edges), the data size is dramatically reduced while the processing complexity is managed through standardized geometric representations that are efficient to store and transmit.
3Measurement precision
If full-resolution sensation maps are transmitted to implanted devices, then diagnostic accuracy is maintained, but transmission time and storage costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a simplified geometric copy of the sensation maps that captures the essential diagnostic features (pain boundaries, stimulation contours, intensity gradients) without requiring full-resolution pixel data. This compressed geometric representation maintains diagnostic accuracy for clinical decision-making while reducing transmission time and storage requirements by orders of magnitude.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure involves a method of data-reducing and storing a sensation map. A sensation map associated with a patient is provided. The sensation map includes a graphical depiction of a sensation experienced by the patient. The sensation may be pain or paresthesia experienced by the patient in response to an electrical stimulation therapy. A data file is generated. The data file has a data size less than a data size of the sensation map. The data file contains digital information allowing a reconstruction of the sensation map. Electronic communication is then established with an implanted medical device located inside the patient's body. Thereafter, the data file is sent to the implanted medical device for storage. The stored data files are retrievable by another clinician programmer later to reconstruct the sensation map.