Virtual Device Recreation for Medical Interoperability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Heterogeneous medical devices in operating rooms and interventional suites often lack interoperability, leading to underutilization of data sharing and coordination, due to differences in data formats, tasks, and vendor-specific solutions that are time-consuming, expensive, and limited in scope.
Innovation Solution
A logging and replay system with a server that provides shared services, including a replay service, processor, and shared interface, enabling heterogeneous devices to select logs for playback, emulate playback devices, extract log entries, recreate service requests, and initiate them, thereby facilitating data exchange and interoperability among diverse medical devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If joint development efforts between vendors are undertaken to support data exchange between heterogeneous devices, then interoperability between specific devices is improved, but development time and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies (digital twins) of physical medical devices that replicate their behavior, data formats, and communication protocols. These virtual devices serve as intermediaries, allowing heterogeneous devices to interoperate without direct vendor-specific integration. The virtual copy receives data from the physical device in its native format and transforms it into standardized formats consumable by other devices, eliminating the need for time-consuming custom integration development.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a message broker or intermediary system that sits between heterogeneous medical devices. This intermediary receives messages from devices in various proprietary formats, standardizes them according to common protocols (such as HL7, FHIR, or DICOM), and routes them to appropriate target devices. This mediator approach enables broad interoperability across multiple device vendors without requiring pairwise integration development.
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom hardware and software development is performed for each device pair, then data exchange capability is improved, but complexity and maintenance burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal communication layer that can handle multiple device types, protocols, and data formats through a single standardized interface. The message broker and virtual device architecture provide multi-functional capabilities, supporting data exchange across heterogeneous devices from different vendors without requiring separate custom solutions for each device pair. This universal approach reduces system complexity by consolidating multiple specialized integration components into a single platform.
3Reliability
If devices operate independently without data sharing, then device reliability is maintained, but overall system productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual representations of physical devices that can operate independently while still enabling coordinated system-wide functionality. These virtual copies allow data to be shared and processed across the system without requiring direct coupling between physical devices, maintaining individual device reliability while achieving system-level productivity through coordinated operation via the virtual model layer.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for virtually recreating devices include a replay service configured to access a log associated with a first device, extract a first log entry from the log, recreate a first recreated service request for the one or more shared services based on information associated with the first log entry, and send the first recreated service request to a shared service to recreate an event associated with the first log entry; one or more shared services configured to receive and respond to a second service request from a second device coupled to the logging and replay device; and a recreation engine configured to receive the first recreated service request, a response to the first recreated service request, the second service request, and a response to the second service request and create a virtual recreation of the first device.