Medical Instrument GUI for Real-Time Tissue Motion Tracking

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Solution Overview

Problem

Medical instruments, such as linear accelerators and high-intensity focused ultrasound transducers, face challenges in maintaining treatment accuracy due to tissue movement caused by respiratory or peristaltic motion, leading to inefficiencies in therapy delivery.

Innovation Solution

A medical instrument and computer program product that includes a graphical user interface for displaying medical images, allowing for real-time registration and rendering of anatomical references and cumulative dosage data, enabling operators to easily pause or halt treatments by providing a template display tool for selecting display plane positions and interpolating medical image data to reduce cognitive burden.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If automated motion correction is implemented using external sensors or imaging modalities, then treatment accuracy is improved, but device complexity and cognitive burden on operators increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetreatment accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple motion correction approaches (external sensors, imaging modalities, and image-based tracking) into a unified graphical user interface that integrates all correction data and presents a single comprehensive view to the operator, reducing perceived complexity while maintaining high treatment accuracy

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The graphical user interface acts as an intermediary layer that processes and synthesizes complex motion correction data from multiple sources, presenting simplified visual information to operators while coordinating the underlying complex correction mechanisms

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If real-time image processing and registration are performed to track tissue movement, then treatment effectiveness is improved, but processing time and computational load increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetreatment effectivenessVSAvoidprocessing time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary registration of anatomical references and treatment targets before treatment begins, and maintains these registrations throughout the procedure, allowing for rapid updates without requiring full re-processing of images during active treatment

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The graphical user interface continuously displays updated anatomical references and dosage information without interruption to the treatment process, maintaining constant monitoring while avoiding disruptive processing pauses

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

3Loss of information

If multiple anatomical references and dosage data are displayed simultaneously, then operator awareness is improved, but cognitive burden increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveoperator awarenessVSAvoidcognitive burden

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The graphical user interface segments information into distinct visual zones: anatomical references are displayed in one area, cumulative dosage data in another, and treatment targets in a third, allowing operators to process information in manageable sections rather than as an overwhelming whole

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different visual styles and levels of detail are applied to different parts of the display based on their importance and the need for operator attention, with critical safety information highlighted differently from routine monitoring data

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

4Measurement precision

If the graphical user interface maintains predetermined positioning of anatomical references during tissue movement, then treatment accuracy is improved, but the complexity of real-time registration increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetreatment accuracyVSAvoidregistration complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of moving the display to follow the tissue, the system inverts the approach by maintaining fixed display positions and dynamically updating the registration data to match the predetermined display locations, simplifying the interface while maintaining accuracy

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Data Source

PatentEP2864803B1Graphical user interface for medical instruments

Publication Date: 2021.10.13 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV

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AI summary

The invention provides for medical instrument (200, 300) comprising a medical imaging system (202, 302) for acquiring medical image data (236) from an imaging zone (204) and a treatment system (206, 322) for depositing energy into a treatment zone (208). A processor executing instructions receives (100) a selection of a reference location and one or more anatomical references. The instructions cause the processor to repeatedly: deposit energy into the subject using a treatment system;acquire medical imaging data with the medical imaging system;determine a cumulative dosage data from the medical image data;determine (112) a first registration (242) for the reference location;determine (114) a second registration (244) for the one or more anatomical references;render (116) the medical image, the one or more anatomical references, and the cumulative dosage data (270) in the graphical user interface; and halt the deposition of energy into the subject if a halt command is received from the graphical user interface.