Patent Application
20230360753
An embodiment relates to a biological information input system and a biological information input method.
In the related art, in medical facilities such as hospitals, biological information such as vital signs of a patient has been measured on a daily basis and input to an electronic medical record. In recent years, it also has been proposed to measure biological information of a patient by a measurement instrument equipped with a near field communication (NFC) function, transfer the biological information to a terminal device disposed on a bedside of the patient by the NFC, and register the biological information in an electronic medical record. However, since only a medical professional registered in advance is allowed to operate the terminal device that registers the biological information, the medical professional needs to go to a place of the patient every time the biological information is measured and registered.
In recent years, shortage of medical professionals has become a serious social problem. When the patient has an infectious disease, it is preferable to reduce an opportunity of contact with the patient even for the medical professional. Therefore, when the medical professional goes to the place of the patient only for the measurement and registration of the biological information, there is a possibility that a load on the medical professional is increased or infection is spread.
One or more embodiments are now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various embodiments. It is evident, however, that the various embodiments can be practiced without these specific details (and without applying to any particular networked environment or standard).
As used in this disclosure, in some embodiments, the terms “component,” “system” and the like are intended to refer to, or comprise, a computer-related entity or an entity related to an operational apparatus with one or more specific functionalities, wherein the entity can be either hardware, or a combination of hardware and software in execution.
One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet with other systems via the signal). As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric or electronic circuitry, which is operated by a software application or firmware application executed by a processor, wherein the processor can be internal or external to the apparatus and executes at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts, the electronic components can comprise a processor therein to execute software stored on a non-transitory electronic memory or firmware that confers at least in part the functionality of the electronic components. While various components have been illustrated as separate components, it will be appreciated that multiple components can be implemented as a single component, or a single component can be implemented as multiple components, without departing from example embodiments. Further, the various embodiments can be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer-readable (or machine-readable) device or computer-readable (or machine-readable) storage/communications media having a computer program stored thereon. For example, computer readable storage media can comprise, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, key drive). Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications can be made to this configuration without departing from the scope or spirit of the various embodiments.
In addition, the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein to mean serving as an instance or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as “example” or “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the word example or exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.
Embodiments described herein can be exploited in substantially any wireless communication technology, comprising, but not limited to, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), global system for mobile communications (GSM), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), enhanced general packet radio service (enhanced GPRS), third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), third generation partnership project 2 (3GPP2) ultra mobile broadband (UMB), high speed packet access (HSPA), Z-Wave, Zigbee and other 802.XX wireless technologies and/or legacy telecommunication technologies.
In general, one aspect of the present application is a biological information input system including: a measurement instrument having a communication function and configured to measure biological information of a person under measurement; and a first terminal device having a communication function capable of communicating with the communication function of the measurement instrument, and configured to receive, via the communication function, the biological information associated with the person under measurement and measured by the measurement instrument. The biological information input system displays a screen with which a person having authority to approve the biological information approves first data including the biological information and information related to the person under measurement.
Another aspect of the present application is a biological information input method includes: measuring biological information of a person under measurement by a measurement instrument having a communication function; acquiring the biological information by the communication function and storing first data including the biological information and information related to the person under measurement; and displaying a screen with which a person having authority to approve the biological information approves the first data.
Hereinafter, one or more embodiments are described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in
In the present embodiment, the biological information input system 1 is constructed in a hospital. In the hospital, an electronic medical record 100 is constructed apart from the biological information input system 1. The electronic medical record 100 has authority to be operated only by a preregistered person, for example, a doctor and a nurse (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “medical professional”) who work in the hospital. The electronic medical record 100 is a type of electronic medical system. In the present specification, the “electronic medical system” refers to a system that is electronically constructed, manages medical information, and has authority to be operated only by the preregistered person. On the other hand, a person who inputs biological information to the biological information input system 1 is not limited, and for example, a person under measurement can input the biological information by himself/herself. Meanwhile, a person having authority to approve information input to the biological information input system 1 is limited to the preregistered person, for example, the medical professional who works in the hospital.
The measurement instrument 10 is an instrument that measures biological information of a human body. The biological information is, for example, a vital sign value, and includes at least one parameter of a body temperature, a pulse rate, and a blood pressure. In addition, the biological information may include at least one parameter among a respiratory rate, an arterial blood oxygen saturation (SPO2), and a blood glucose level. The biological information may include parameters other than those described above. The person under measurement can measure his/her own biological information by operating the measurement instrument 10. The person under measurement is, for example, an inpatient. The measurement instrument 10 has a communication function. The communication function is, for example, a short-distance communication function, for example, near field communication (NFC).
Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, the NFC will be described as an example of the communication function of the measurement instrument 10 and the bedside terminal 20. Since a communication distance of the NFC is about several mm to several cm, a transmission-side instrument and a reception-side instrument are preferably in contact with each other for the purpose of communication, but swiping may only be performed without the necessity of being in contact. In the present embodiment, a case of contact and a case of swiping are collectively referred to as “contact”. A case of using a communication function other than the NFC will be described later.
The body temperature can be measured by, for example, a thermometer. In this case, the measurement instrument 10 is a thermometer with the short-distance communication function. The pulse rate and the blood pressure can be measured by, for example, a sphygmomanometer. In this case, the measurement instrument 10 is a sphygmomanometer with the short-distance communication function. The arterial blood oxygen saturation (SPO2) can be measured by, for example, a pulse oximeter. In this case, the measurement instrument 10 is a pulse oximeter with the short-distance communication function. The blood glucose level can be measured by, for example, a blood glucose self-monitoring device. In this case, the measurement instrument 10 is a blood glucose self-monitoring device with the short-distance communication function.
The bedside terminal 20 is installed near a specific patient. For example, a certain patient occupies a specific bed 200, and the bedside terminal 20 is attached to the bed 200 or installed in the vicinity of the bed 200. The bedside terminal 20 is associated with the patient. For example, the bedside terminal 20 is associated with the patient using the number of an installation place of the bed 200. A method of associating the bedside terminal 20 with the patient is not limited to a method of using the number of the installation place of the bed 200, and may be, for example, a method of reading a barcode displayed on a wrist band of the patient with a bar code reader or a method of inputting an identity document (ID) of the patient.
The bedside terminal 20 includes, for example, a touch panel 21 and a communication unit 22. The touch panel 21 can display a screen for the patient and a screen for the medical professional, and receive information that are input via the respective screens. The communication unit 22 can electronically input the biological information measured by the measurement instrument 10 and a measurement time to the bedside terminal 20 by coming into contact with the measurement instrument 10. In addition, the communication unit 22 authenticates a medical professional by, for example, coming into contact with an ID card of the medical professional. The bedside terminal 20 may authenticate the medical professional by inputting the ID and password of the medical professional to the touch panel 21. In addition, a function of communicating with the measurement instrument 10 and a function of authenticating the medical professional in the communication unit 22 may be implemented by different hardware.
The station terminal 30 is installed at a location different from the bedside terminal 20, for example, a staff station of the hospital. The staff station is, for example, a nurse station. The station terminal 30 is not operated by the patient.
The station terminal 30 is provided with, for example, a display 31, a keyboard 32, a mouse 33, and an authentication unit 34. The authentication unit 34 authenticates a medical professional by, for example, coming into contact with an ID card of the medical professional. The station terminal 30 may authenticate the medical professional by inputting the ID and password of the medical professional by the keyboard 32.
The server 40 is connected to the bedside terminal 20 and the station terminal 30. The bedside terminal 20, the station terminal 30, and the server 40 frequently exchange data with each other. The server 40 is connectable to the electronic medical record 100.
When the biological information and the measurement time are input from the measurement instrument 10 via the bedside terminal 20, the biological information input system 1 generates first data by adding, to the biological information and the measurement time, information related to the patient and a time at which the biological information is transferred from the measurement instrument 10 to the bedside terminal 20. The first data is stored in, for example, the server 40.
The biological information input system 1 can display the first data on the bedside terminal 20 and the station terminal 30 in response to a request from a medical professional. The medical professional can approve the first data via the bedside terminal 20 and can also approve the first data via the station terminal 30.
Before a medical professional, that is, a person having authority to approve the first data, approves the first data, the biological information input system 1 identifies and holds the first data as a “temporary registration state”. When the medical professional approves the first data, the biological information input system 1 creates second data by adding information of the medical professional who approves the first data to the first data, and stores the second data in the server 40. In practice, the server 40 may identify the biological information or the like stored as the first data as a “formal registration state” and set the biological information or the like as a part of the second data. Then, the server 40 outputs the formally registered second data to the electronic medical record 100.
Next, operation of the above biological information input system, that is, a biological information input method according to the present embodiment will be described.
In
First, a situation as a premise of the biological information input method according to the present embodiment will be described.
A patient who is a person under measurement stays in a hospital and is present on the specific bed 200 installed in a specific ward. The bedside terminal 20 is disposed in the vicinity of the bed 200. The measurement instrument 10 is placed in the vicinity of the bed 200. The server 40 stores information of the patient and the medical professional. The server 40 associates the information of the patient with the bedside terminal 20. When the patient is not associated with the bedside terminal 20, a blank screen 51 as shown in
Next, a case where a medical professional is in a ward will be described.
As shown in step S11 of
As shown in step S31 of
The system 1 proceeds to step S13 through step S12 in
Next, the system 1 proceeds to step S14 and displays a screen 55 for registering biological information shown in
Next, the medical professional or the patient measures the biological information of the patient using the measurement instrument 10. Then, the medical professional or the patient brings the measurement instrument 10 into contact with the communication unit 22 of the bedside terminal 20. Accordingly, the measured biological information and the measurement time of the biological information are input from the measurement instrument 10 to the bedside terminal 20. The screen 54 may be switched to the screen 55 by bringing the measurement instrument 10 into contact with the communication unit 22 in a state where the screen 54 is displayed.
The system 1 proceeds from step S15 to step S16 in
As shown in step S32 of
The “time” included in the first data may include three types of times. The three types of time are the measurement time 306 of the biological information stored in the measurement instrument 10, a time when the medical professional presses the “registration” button 307, and an input time when the medical professional inputs a time after the “registration” button is pressed.
The system 1 proceeds from step S17 to step S18 in
Next, as shown in step S19 of
Next, a case where the medical professional is not in the ward will be described.
As shown in step S11 of
As shown in step S41 of
Next, as shown in step S42 of
At this time, since the bedside terminal 20 has not been subjected to the medical professional authentication, the system 1 proceeds from step S11 to step S21 through step S12. Then, since the measurement instrument 10 comes into contact with the communication unit 22 of the bedside terminal 20, the system 1 proceeds to step S22 and displays the measurement value of the biological information 305 on the touch panel 21. For example, the touch panel 21 displays a screen 57 (
As shown in step S43 of
As shown in step S23 of
Meanwhile, the station terminal 30 displays a screen 58 (
As shown in step S31 of
As shown in
At this time, when the first data is abnormal, the system 1 can display the abnormality on the station terminal 30. For example, when there is a certain time difference or more between a time when the measurement instrument 10 measures biological information and a time when data is transferred from the measurement instrument 10 to the bedside terminal 20, the system 1 may display a warning on the station terminal 30. In this case, the bedside terminal 20 does not display the warning.
As shown in step S32 of
When the “registration” button 313 is pressed, the system 1 proceeds from step S17 to step S18 in
Next, as shown in step S19 of
Operation of the medical professional shown in steps S31 to S33 of
Next, effects of the present embodiment will be described.
According to the present embodiment, the patient can measure the biological information by himself/herself. At this time, since information is transmitted from the measurement instrument 10 to the bedside terminal 20 by the communication function, it is possible to prevent erroneous input compared to a case where the patient manually inputs a value of the biological information. In addition, the medical professional confirms information such as temporarily registered biological information and then approves these information to thereby formally register these information, and the formally registered information is output to the electronic medical record 100. Therefore, reliability of the information input to the electronic medical record 100 can be ensured.
In addition, according to the present embodiment, timing at which the patient measures the biological information and timing at which the medical professional approves the measured biological information and performs the formal registration can be temporally independent. In addition, the medical professional can approve the biological information temporarily registered for a plurality of patients at the same timing via the station terminal 30. Accordingly, the medical professional is not constrained by the measurement time of the biological information, and a degree of freedom of the actions of the medical professional is improved. Accordingly, a load on the medical professional can be reduced.
Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, the medical professional doesn't need to visit the patient only for measuring the biological information. Accordingly, the load on the medical professional is reduced. In addition, when the patient has an infectious disease, a risk of infection can be reduced.
In the present embodiment, an example in which the communication function is the NFC is shown, but the present embodiment is not limited thereto. For example, the communication function may be wired communication. In this case, the measurement value or the like of the biological information can be transferred by connecting the measurement instrument 10 to the bedside terminal 20 by wire. In addition, the communication function may be wireless communication with a communication distance of about 10 m to 100 m, such as Bluetooth (registered trademark). In this case, the patient can measure the biological information while lying on the bed 200 and transfer a result to the bedside terminal 20 installed in the same ward. However, in this case, it is preferable that the measurement instrument 10 is associated with a patient one-to-one so as not to confuse the biological information with biological information of the other patients in the same ward or a close ward, and the measurement instrument 10 and the bedside terminal 20 are paired.
In the biological information input system according to the present embodiment, in addition to the bedside terminal 20 and the station terminal 30, or instead of the station terminal 30, a mobile terminal may be provided. The mobile terminal is possessed by the medical professional, the medical professional may use the mobile terminal to approve the temporarily registered biological information or the like. Accordingly, the medical professional can perform an approval process even if the medical professional is not at the staff station, and is further released from constraint of a location. In addition, the medical professional may approve the first data using the server 40.
The present embodiment shows an example in which the station terminal 30 and the server 40 are implemented by different hardware, but the station terminal 30 and the server 40 may be implemented by single hardware. For example, one of the plurality of station terminals 30 may have a server function. Alternatively, for example, in a small hospital, only one computer serving as a station terminal and a server may be provided. Alternatively, the bedside terminal 20, the station terminal 30, and the server 40 may be implemented by one computer.
The present embodiment shows an example in which a person under measurement related to biological information is an inpatient, but the present embodiment is not limited thereto. For example, the person under measurement may be an outpatient. In this case, the bedside terminal 20 may be installed in the patient's home, and may be connected to the server 40 installed in a hospital via a virtual private network (VPN) or the like.
In addition, the person under measurement may be a care receiver living in a care facility. In this case, the electronic medical system may be a care support system or a care record system constructed in the care facility. A person having authority to operate the electronic medical system is, for example, a caregiver who works in the care facility. In addition, a person having authority to approve biological information or the like in the system 1 is also, for example, a caregiver who works in the care facility.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-041077 | Mar 2021 | JP | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/JP2022/009731 | Mar 2022 | US |
| Child | 18223421 | US |
