Segmented Patient Status Icons for Rapid Multi-Patient Monitoring

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing patient monitoring systems in critical care units struggle to provide visually strong representations of patient status, especially when displaying multiple patients, and often compromise patient privacy and efficiency due to the complexity and volume of data, leading to potential delays and errors in clinical decision-making.

Innovation Solution

A patient status icon is designed with a strong visual representation that maps to the human body's coronal plane, emphasizing critical systems, includes graphical therapies, and uses color coding to indicate normal, abnormal, and critical states, with selectable features for detailed information, suitable for use on whiteboards and monitoring stations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If detailed patient data is displayed to provide comprehensive information, then information completeness is improved, but visual clarity and rapid comprehension deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidvisual clarity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The patient status display is segmented into distinct body system icons (cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, etc.), each representing a specific physiological system. This segmentation allows clinicians to quickly identify which systems are affected without being overwhelmed by comprehensive raw data, resolving the contradiction between information completeness and visual clarity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses color coding to indicate patient status levels (e.g., green for stable, yellow for unstable, red for critical). This color change system enables rapid visual assessment of patient condition while maintaining comprehensive monitoring of all vital signs and body systems, thus improving visual clarity without losing information completeness.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #32Color changes

2Productivity

If multiple patients are monitored simultaneously on a single display, then monitoring efficiency is improved, but individual patient status visibility deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemonitoring efficiencyVSAvoidindividual patient status visibility
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

Multiple patient dashboards are merged into a single unified display screen, with each patient represented by a compact dashboard containing segmented body system icons. This merging allows efficient monitoring of multiple patients simultaneously while maintaining visibility of individual patient status through the use of standardized, space-efficient icon representations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system transitions from detailed numerical data representation to a two-dimensional icon-based visual representation. By mapping body systems to spatial locations on an icon (e.g., heart in center for cardiovascular, lungs at top for respiratory), the system enables rapid visual comparison across multiple patients without sacrificing individual patient status visibility.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Reliability

If comprehensive patient data is processed manually by clinicians, then decision accuracy is improved, but time consumption and cognitive load increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedecision accuracyVSAvoidtime consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary processing of comprehensive patient data by automatically generating body system icons and color-coded status indicators before the clinician views the information. This preliminary action consolidates raw data into meaningful visual patterns, maintaining decision accuracy while significantly reducing the time and cognitive load required for clinical assessment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3593356B1Patient status monitor with visually strong patient status display
Publication Date: 2025.09.17 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV
  • EP3593356B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3593356B1 patent drawingFigure 2A~2B
  • EP3593356B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by at least one electronic processor (56) operatively connected with a display device (60) to perform a patient status monitoring method (100) comprising: retrieving, from at least one database (52), medical information of a patient; computing a state for each of a plurality of body systems or physiologies including at least a neurological body system, a cardiovascular body system, and a respiratory body system by applying clinical decision support (CDS) processing (54) to the retrieved medical information; and displaying, on the display device, a patient status icon (10) with a plurality of icon sections (12, 14 16, 18, 20, 22, 24) corresponding to the plurality of body systems or physiologies, each icon section being displayed with graphical coding that represents the computed state of the corresponding body system or physiology of the patient.