The present invention relates to a biological information monitoring system, a biological information monitoring method, and a biological information monitoring program. More specifically, the present invention relates to a biological information monitoring system including a plurality of measuring devices attached to a plurality of subjects for measuring the biological information of the subjects; and a portable information processing terminal for an observer for displaying the biological information of the subjects measured by the measuring devices, a biological information monitoring method performed in the monitoring system, and a biological information monitoring program for embodying the monitoring system.
Conventionally, a central monitor installed at a nurse station in a medical institution has been known as a biological information monitoring apparatus for monitoring states of a plurality of patients. For example, as shown in Patent Document 1, the central monitor is configured to receive biological information (for example, electrocardiogram, blood pressure, and arterial oxygen saturation) of each patient from a bedside monitor installed on the bedside of each patient in an intensive care unit or a sickroom, and display it on the screen. In the same manner, Patent Document 2 discloses an invention for suppressing a decrease in utilization efficiency of a basic screen of the central monitor.
Further, in relation to the bedside monitor, Patent Document 3 discloses a technique for a nurse to check the biological information of the patients on a display screen of a portable information processing terminal.
Specifically, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 discloses a technique in which an ID tag such as a wristband is attached to the patient as a means for identifying the patient, and the nurse stands near the subject patient lying on the bed, and acquires identification information directly from the ID tag of the target patient.
[Patent documents 1]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-124903A
[Patent documents 2]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2015-000177A
[Patent documents 3]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-123573A
However, when a plurality of subjects from which biometric information is to be acquired are present, collection of the biometric information by the conventional method is considerably complicated. In addition, when a plurality of measuring devices is attached to each of a plurality of subjects, it is expected that the complexity of collecting the biological information is further increased.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a biological information monitoring system, a biological information monitoring method, and a biological information monitoring program for collecting and monitoring biological information of a plurality of subjects by a simple method.
A biological information monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of measuring devices attached to a plurality of subjects for measuring biological information of the subjects, and a portable information processing terminal for an observer for displaying the biological information of the subjects measured by the measuring devices. Each measuring device includes: a measuring unit, a device storage, an identification information generator, and a device communication unit. The measuring unit is configured to be managed in advance as a set together with other measuring devices that are attached to one subject, and measure biological information of the subject. The device storage is configured to store the identification information given for each set of the measuring devices, and the biological information measured by the measuring unit. The identification information generator is configured to issue additional information in response to a request, generate identification information including the additional information and the identification information as identification information of one subject to which the measuring devices included in one set are attached, and allow the device storage to store the identification information. The device communication unit is configured to transmit the identification information of the subject stored by the device storage to the information processing terminal. The information processing terminal includes: a terminal communication unit, a processing unit, and a selection receiving unit. The terminal communication unit is configured to receive a plurality of pieces of the identification information of the subjects transmitted from the device communication unit of each of the measuring devices attached to the subjects. The processing unit is configured to generate display information for displaying the pieces of identification information of the subjects to allow the observer to select them. The selection receiving unit is configured to receive a selection of one piece of identification information of one subject from the pieces of identification information of the subjects by the observer. The terminal communication unit transmits a command to each device communication unit for allowing the device communication unit to transmit biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices storing the one piece of identification information of the one subject received by the selection receiving unit are attached. The device communication unit transmits, to the terminal communication unit, the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices storing the one piece of identification information of the one subject are attached in response to the transmission command transmitted from the terminal communication unit. The processing unit generates display information for displaying the biological information received by the terminal communication unit on a display screen of the information processing terminal.
The biological information monitoring system, biological information monitoring method, and biological information monitoring program of the present invention allow biological information of a plurality of subjects to be monitored by a simple method.
Features, advantages, and technical and industrial significance of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals denote like elements, and wherein:
The biological information monitoring system, biological information monitoring method, and biological information monitoring program according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same components are described using the same reference numerals.
<Biological Information Monitoring System>
Although
<<Measuring Devices>>
As shown in
The measuring unit 110 measures biological information of a subject.
The biological information here is directed to vital signs of the subject, and includes information measured by the measuring devices 100 such as an intracerebral oxygen saturation monitor, an electrocardiograph, a sphygmomanometer, a pulse oximeter, and an echo, for example.
The device storage 120 stores identification information for identifying the subject and the biological information measured by the measuring unit 110.
The identification information here includes information for identifying the subject, and the identification of the subject may be performed directly or indirectly. The method for identification above will be described below.
Further, the identification information can be specifically an identification number indicated by a numeral or alphabet, for example. Moreover, it is preferable that the identification information be provided so that a plurality of measuring devices 100 attached to one subject is identified as one set.
The identification information registration unit 130 issues additional information in response to the registration request. Moreover, the identification information generator 130 generates identification information including the additional information and the identification information as identification information of one subject to which the measuring devices 100 included in one set are attached. Furthermore, the identification information generator 130 causes the device storage 120 to store the generated identification information of the one subject.
The registration request used to issue the additional information is generated, for example, when each measuring device 100 is attached to the subject or when each measuring device 100 is operated after the measuring device 100 is attached to the subject. The additional information is directed to information that specifies the situation, such as time information and position information. Although a description is given below assuming that the additional information is directed to the time information, it may be directed to, in place of the time information, the position information, date/time information including the date/time in the time, or a combination of the time information and the position information. This additional information is included in the registration request by the information processing terminal 200, for example.
The identification information registration unit 130 may delete the identification information of one subject stored in the device storage 120 in response to the termination request. In addition, the identification information registration unit 130 issues new additional information again in response to a new registration request, and newly generates the identification information of the subject using the new additional information. The identification information registration unit 130 then causes the device storage 120 to store the newly generated identification information of the subject. At this time, if the identification information of the previous subject is stored in the device storage 120, the information is updated to the newly generated identification information of the subject.
The device communication unit 140 transmits the identification information stored in the device storage 120 to the information processing terminal 200.
This transmission can be performed using wireless communication, for example, and a specific example of the communication means will be described later.
<<Information Processing Terminal>>
The information processing terminal 200 includes a terminal communication unit 210, a processing unit 220, and a selection receiving unit 230. The information processing terminal 200 is directed to a portable terminal, and includes, for example, a touch panel having an input function and an output function (not shown). In addition, the information processing terminal may include a camera or microphone serving as an input function and a speaker serving as an output function.
The terminal communication unit 210 receives a plurality of pieces of identification information transmitted from the device communication units 130 of the measuring devices 100 attached to the subjects.
The processing unit 220 generates display information for displaying a plurality of pieces of identification information to allow the observer to select them.
The selection receiving unit 230 receives selection of one piece of a plurality of pieces of identification information by the observer.
The terminal communication unit 210 then transmits a command to the device communication unit 130 for causing the device communication unit 130 to transmit the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices 100 storing one piece of the identification information received by the selection receiving unit 230 are attached.
The device communication unit 130 transmits, to the terminal communication unit 210, the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices storing the one piece of identification information are attached in response to the transmission command transmitted from the terminal communication unit 210.
The processing unit 220 generates display information for displaying the biological information received by the terminal communication unit 210 on the display screen of the information processing terminal 200.
According to the configuration above, only a simple operation in which the observer selects the one piece of identification information from a plurality of pieces of identification information displayed on the display screen of the portable information processing device allows the observer to collect the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices storing the one piece of identification information are attached and monitor it on the display screen.
The identification information stored in the measuring devices attached to the one subject can be directed to identification information that identifies that the measuring devices are attached to the one subject. Details of the identification information are as described above.
Information exchange between the measuring devices and the information processing terminal can be performed using Bluetooth (registered trademark) low energy BLE wireless communication technology.
The BLE wireless communication technology is directed to wireless communication using Bluetooth (registered trademark) low energy BLE. The use of the communication technology, for example, allows about 256 measuring devices to be connected in an identifiable range of about 10 m. The maximum number of simultaneous connections depends on the performance of the BLE device, and thus the number is not limited to them.
The processing unit 220 generates display information for displaying the biological information associated with the one piece of identification information selected by the observer within one display screen.
The processing unit 220 displays a plurality of pieces of identification information to allow the observer to select them, and also displays information about the measuring devices 100 associated with the pieces of identification information in a selectable manner.
The information about the measuring devices can be directed to information indicating that the information on the devices is received. At this time, the selection of this icon allows the screen to display only the biometric information from this device so that it can be checked.
As shown in
<Modification 1>
As shown in
The server device 300 includes a server storage 310. The configuration of the server 300 is not especially limited. The server 300 may implement communication with the information processing terminal 200 using any communication protocol.
The server storage 310 associates and stores the identification information with the subject to which the measuring devices 100 storing the identification information are attached, and the processing unit 220 generates display information for displaying the subjects associated with a plurality of corresponding pieces of identification information received by the terminal communication unit 210 to allow the observer to select the subjects in place of the identification information.
The measuring devices 100 may be two or more measuring devices selected from a brain oxygen saturation monitor, an electrocardiograph, a blood pressure monitor, a pulse oximeter, and an echo.
Even when a new device is added to a set of measuring devices prepared in advance, the new device must have identification information corresponding to the set so that the observation is allowed without requiring any new settings.
<Modification 2>
As illustrated in
The subject information receiving unit 240 receives subject information of the subject acquired from the subject by the observer.
Although the subject information may include at least one of name information, fingerprint information, vein information, face information, and/or iris information, the information is not limited thereto. The information may be directed to any information that can identify a subject.
In addition, the subject information received by the subject information receiving unit 240 is not limited to one, and a plurality of pieces of subject information may be received. This increases the precision that identifies the subject.
The subject identifying unit 250 specifies one subject having subject information corresponding to the subject information received by the subject information receiving unit 240 from the subject information database stored in advance in a predetermined storage.
The predetermined storage may be included in the information processing terminal 200, or may be included in an external device that can be connected to the information processing terminal by wire/wireless.
The subject information database stores the subject information above in advance. Specifically, when the measuring devices 100 are attached to the subject, it is preferable that the name information, fingerprint information, vein information, face information, and/or iris information of the subject, for example, be acquired and stored in the storage as the subject information database, The subject information can be acquired by using a dedicated device, or using a camera included in the information processing terminal 200, for example. The name information can also be acquired by input using a touch panel provided in the information processing terminal 200 or by voice recognition technology.
The terminal communication unit 210 then transmits a command to the device communication unit 130 for causing the device communication unit 130 to transmit the biological information of one subject to which a plurality of measuring devices storing one piece of identification information received by the selection receiving unit 230 is attached, or biological information of one subject identified by the subject identifying unit 250.
The configuration allows the observer to automatically identify the subject by using the information processing terminal 200 as long as the subject information of the subject is acquired without needing to identify the identification information of the subject by the observer himself/herself.
The subject information may include at least one piece of the name information, fingerprint information, vein information, face information, and/or iris information. The subject information can be acquired by using a dedicated device, or using a camera included in the information processing terminal 200, for example. The name information can also be acquired by input using a touch panel provided in the information processing terminal 200 or by voice recognition technology.
In addition, the biological information monitoring system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention further includes an information processing device 400 for remotely monitoring the biological information.
The information processing device 400 is directed to a device for monitoring the biological information of the subject remotely from a medical institution such as a hospital, and the device 400 is not especially limited to this as long as it can access a web page via the Internet.
The information processing terminal 200 and the information processing device 400 can be connected to the first server device 500 via a network.
The first server device 500 is directed to a server device 500 having a server storage 510 and a server processing unit 520, and preferably an HTTP server using an HTTP protocol, for example.
The server storage 510 receives and stores the biological information transmitted from the information processing terminal 200. The server processing unit generates display information for displaying the biological information on the display screen of the information processing device 400.
This allows a medical worker such as a doctor in a medical institution to check the biological information of the subject by accessing the web page provided by the first server by using the information processing device 400 at hand without requiring to be near the subject.
The biological information displayed on the web page is updated in real time, and in particular, waveform data obtained from an electrocardiograph, for example, is displayed to be continuously checked. However, the deviation of the update in units of several seconds is allowed.
In addition, the information processing terminal 200 can be further connected to the first server device via a second server device (not shown).
The second server device is preferably directed to a message queue telemetrytransport MQTT server using a MQTT technology.
The technology allows the data of the biological information to be transmitted and received at a higher speed with a smaller amount and improves a real-time performance.
<Application Example 1>
In addition, the present invention has more advantageous effects when used in an emergency, for example, at a disaster site with many subjects.
Next, a biological information monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
As shown in
The measuring step S101 measures the biological information of the subject. The measuring step S101 can be performed by the measuring units 110 described above.
The device storing step S102 stores the identification information for identifying the subject and the biological information measured in the measuring step S101. The device storing step S102 can be performed by the device storage 120 described above.
In the device communicating step S103, the identification information stored in the device storing step S102 is transmitted to the information processing terminal 200. The device communicating step S103 can be performed by the device communication unit 130 described above.
The terminal communicating step S104 receives a plurality of pieces of identification information transmitted from the device communication units 130 of the measuring devices 100 attached to a plurality of subjects. The terminal communicating step S104 can be performed by the terminal communication unit 210 described above.
The processing step S105 generates display information for displaying a plurality of pieces of identification information to allow the observer to select them. The processing step S106 can be performed by the processing unit 220 described above.
The selection receiving step S106 receives selection of one piece of identification information from among a plurality of pieces of identification information by the observer. The selection receiving step S106 can be performed by the selection receiving unit 230 described above.
The information processing terminal 200 transmits, to the measuring devices 100, a command for allowing the measuring devices 100 to transmit the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices 100 storing the one piece of identification information received in the selection receiving step S106 are attached (step S107).
The measuring devices 100 transmit, to the information processing terminal 200, the biological information of the one subject to which the measuring devices 100 storing the one piece of identification information are attached in response to the transmission command transmitted from the information processing terminal 200 (step S108).
The information processing terminal 200 generates display information for displaying the biological information transmitted from the measuring devices 100 and received by the information processing terminal 200 on the display screen of the information processing terminal 200 (step S109).
The above configuration allows the biological information of a plurality of subjects to be collected and monitored by a simple method.
Finally, a biological information monitoring program according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
As shown in
The terminal communicating function receives a plurality of pieces of identification information transmitted from a plurality of measuring devices attached to a plurality of subjects. The terminal communicating function can be embodied by a terminal communication circuit 210.
The processing function generates display information for displaying a plurality of pieces of identification information to allow the observer to select them. The processing function can be embodied by a processing circuit 220.
The selection receiving function receives selection of one piece of identification information from among a plurality of pieces of identification information by the observer. The selection receiving function can be embodied by a selection receiving circuit 230.
The terminal communicating function transmits, to the measuring devices, a command for causing the measuring devices to transmit the biological information of one subject to which the measuring devices storing one piece of identification information received by the selection receiving function are attached.
The processing function generates display information for displaying the biological information transmitted from the measuring devices and received by the terminal communication unit on the display screen of the information processing terminal.
The above configuration allows the biological information of a plurality of subjects to be collected and monitored by a simple method.
The above-described computer program according to the embodiments of the present invention may be stored in a processor-readable recording medium, and as the recording medium, a “non-temporary tangible medium” such as a tape, a disk, a card, a semiconductor memory, and a programmable logic circuit may be used, for example.
The computer program can be implemented using, for example, a script language such as ActionScript and JavaScript (registered trademark), an object-oriented programming language such as Objective-C and Java (registered trademark), or a markup language such as HTML5.
1000 . . . biological information monitoring system
100 . . . measuring device
110 . . . measuring unit
120 . . . device storage
130 . . . device communication unit
200 . . . information processing terminal
210 . . . terminal communication unit
220 . . . processing unit
230 . . . selection receiving unit
240 . . . display screen
250 . . . display screen
300 . . . server device
310 . . . server storage
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-142727 | Jul 2017 | JP | national |
| 2018-120942 | Jun 2018 | JP | national |
This application is a continuation of PCT International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2018/027569, filed Jul. 23, 2018, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2018-120942 filed Jun. 26, 2018 and 2017-142727 filed Jul. 24, 2017, the content of each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/JP2018/027569 | Jul 2018 | US |
| Child | 16737157 | US |