Remote Endoscopic Annotation Network for Collaborative Diagnosis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Physicians lack an effective instrumented computer system that enables remote collaboration during medical procedures, limiting the ability for multiple peers to participate in diagnosing patient maladies in a procedure environment.
Innovation Solution
A network-connected endoscope image capturing and annotation system that includes an endoscope with a light source, a digital camera, and a computer system with processors, input devices, and display devices, allowing multiple physicians to remotely access and annotate visual data in real-time through a network, enabling collaborative diagnosis and procedure documentation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a network-connected endoscope system with multiple remote access points is implemented, then remote collaboration and diagnostic accuracy are improved, but device complexity and network infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the endoscopic procedure into separable functional components: the endoscope captures visual data, the network transmits data to multiple remote locations, and individual physicians access and annotate independently. This segmentation allows multiple physicians to collaborate remotely without requiring physical presence in the same room, thereby improving diagnostic accuracy while managing system complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The network-connected computer system acts as an intermediary between the endoscope and multiple remote physicians. It receives visual data from the endoscope, distributes it to multiple remote locations, collects annotations from different physicians, and integrates their inputs. This intermediary role enables collaborative diagnosis without requiring direct peer-to-peer connections between physicians and the endoscope.
2Productivity
If real-time remote annotation and collaboration features are added, then procedural efficiency and knowledge sharing are improved, but data transmission requirements and processing loads increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing and transmitting visual data in real-time during the procedure, allowing physicians to annotate and provide feedback immediately rather than waiting for post-procedure review. This real-time approach improves procedural efficiency by enabling immediate collaborative decision-making, though it requires continuous data transmission and processing capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transmits and processes more visual data than strictly necessary for a single physician's needs, distributing it to multiple remote locations simultaneously. This excessive action ensures that all participating physicians have access to complete visual information for annotation, improving collaborative efficiency despite increased data transmission requirements.
3Reliability
If multiple physicians can simultaneously access and annotate the same procedure data, then collaborative diagnosis quality is improved, but coordination complexity and annotation management increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges annotations from multiple different physicians into a single integrated view associated with the procedure data. Each physician can independently annotate visual data from their remote location, and the system combines these annotations, preserving attribution to individual physicians while creating a unified collaborative record. This merging approach improves diagnostic quality by incorporating multiple expert perspectives while managing coordination through automated integration.
Data Source
AI summary
A system comprising a network of computers programmed to receive and process visual data transmitted from an endoscopic instrument, display the processed visual data as a live stream and as a set of discrete media objects to be annotated by users of multiple computers accessing the media objects remotely. The endoscopic instrument may feature several buttons arranged for capturing, freezing, and annotating the live stream. The media objects, annotations, and metadata associating the users with the annotations will be embedded by the system into a report using image and text matching algorithms, the report exportably stored and accessed in a patient-physician schedule and database environment.