Automatic Medical Device Disassociation System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Medical devices used to treat patients are often not adequately or timely linked to the patient's electronic medical record, leading to inaccuracies and inconsistencies in treatment due to the lack of proper disassociation from previous patients.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for automatically disassociating medical devices from patients by identifying disruptions such as loss of wireless connection, scheduled downtime, or powering off, and automatically disassociating the device after a predetermined period of time, with the option to retroactively re-associate if necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual disassociation process is used, then device can be disassociated from patient, but the process is often overlooked or forgotten leading to data inaccuracies
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects when a medical device has gone offline and performs disassociation without requiring manual intervention. The device itself triggers the disassociation process by its own offline status, making the system self-servicing rather than relying on manual operator action.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the online status of medical devices and uses this feedback to automatically trigger disassociation when devices go offline. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures that disassociation occurs reliably without manual intervention.
2Loss of information
If device remains associated with previous patient, then association is maintained, but data from new patient becomes attributed to wrong patient
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs disassociation automatically as a preliminary action when the device goes offline, preventing any potential data attribution errors before they can occur. By acting automatically at the moment of offline status, the system eliminates the time delay and human error associated with manual disassociation.
3Reliability
If automatic disassociation is implemented, then data accuracy is improved, but false disassociation may occur requiring retroactive re-association
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary re-association automatically when the device comes back online, reversing any false disassociation before data collection resumes. This preliminary corrective action prevents data loss and eliminates the need for manual intervention to restore associations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the device's online status to automatically trigger both disassociation and re-association processes. When the device goes offline, disassociation is triggered; when it comes back online, re-association is triggered, creating a self-correcting feedback loop.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, computer storage media, and user interfaces are provided for automatically disassociating medical devices from patients. An indication that a medical device is associated with a patient and is online is received. A disruption in the communication with the medical device that has not been disassociated with the patient is identified. In embodiments, the disruption indicates the medical device has lost a wireless connection, is associated with a scheduled downtime, has been powered off, or is offline. Once it is determined that a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the disruption, the medical device is automatically disassociated from the patient. In embodiments, the medical device is retroactively re-associated to the patient if it is determined the medical device should not have been automatically disassociated from the patient.