Dynamically adjustable frame rate from medical device controller
A medical device monitoring system and method extract information from screen images from medical device controllers, and intelligently vary rates at which the screen images are fetched from the respective medical device controllers, so as to reduce computer network load, timely report high-priority information, such as alarms, and provide information at intervals requested by users. The rates at which the screen images are fetched are automatically varied based on information available to a server, such as available network bandwidth, level of network congestion, number of medical device controllers co-located at a single medical institution or on a given local area network (LAN), alarm status of a medical device controller and/or historical timing information regarding use of medical devices connected to the medical device controllers.
1. A medical device monitoring system comprising:
a server having one or more processors configured to:
receive, via a computer network, from at least one medical device controller of a plurality of medical device controllers, at least one image of contents displayed on a screen of the at least one medical device controller;
send a request to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine to extract textual information from at least a portion of the at least one image;
receive, from the OCR engine, extracted textual information; and
send, in response to at least two trigger conditions of a plurality of trigger conditions being met, a request to the at least one medical device controller to change a first rate at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to the server to a second rate, the first and second rates being non-zero,
wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises:
a first condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises alarm text;
a second condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises an indication that a medical device is connected to the at least one medical device controller; or
a third condition based on the results of a validation test performed on the extracted textual information,
wherein each one of the plurality of trigger conditions is specific to at least one of a plurality of predetermined rates at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to the server,
wherein two or more of the plurality of trigger conditions are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates, and
wherein the second rate is selected by the one or more processors in response to a determination that the second rate is the fastest or the slowest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions.
2. A method comprising:
receiving, via a computer network, from at least one medical device controller of a plurality of medical device controllers, at least one image of contents displayed on a screen of the at least one medical device controller;
sending a request to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine to extract textual information from at least a portion of the at least one image;
receiving, from the OCR engine, extracted textual information; and
sending, in response to at least two trigger conditions of a plurality of trigger conditions being met, a request to the at least one medical device controller to change a first rate at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to a server to a second rate, the first and second rates being non-zero,
wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises:
a first condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises alarm text;
a second condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises an indication that a medical device is connected to the at least one medical device controller; or
a third condition based on the results of a validation test performed on the extracted textual information,
wherein each one of the plurality of trigger conditions is specific to at least one of a plurality of predetermined rates at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to the server,
wherein two or more of the plurality of trigger conditions are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates, and
wherein the second rate is selected in response to a determination that the second rate is the fastest or the slowest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions.
3. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, via a computer network, from at least one medical device controller of a plurality of medical device controllers, at least one image of contents displayed on a screen of the at least one medical device controller;
sending a request to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine to extract textual information from at least a portion of the at least one image;
receiving, from the OCR engine, extracted textual information; and
sending, in response to at least two trigger conditions of a plurality of trigger conditions being met, a request to the at least one medical device controller to change a first rate at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to a server to a second rate, the first and second rates being non-zero,
wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises:
a first condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises alarm text;
a second condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises an indication that a medical device is connected to the at least one medical device controller; or
a third condition based on the results of a validation test performed on the extracted textual information,
wherein each one of the plurality of trigger conditions is specific to at least one of a plurality of predetermined rates at which the at least one medical device controller sends images to the server,
wherein two or more of the plurality of trigger conditions are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates, and
wherein the second rate is selected in response to a determination that the second rate is the fastest or the slowest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions.
4. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition, and wherein the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates.
5. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two trigger conditions comprise the first condition.
6. The medical device monitoring system of claim 5 , wherein the first condition is a determination that the extracted textual information comprises alarm text, and wherein the second rate is faster than the first rate.
7. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two trigger conditions comprise the second condition.
8. The medical device monitoring system of claim 7 , wherein the second condition is a determination that the extracted textual information comprises an indication that a medical device is not connected to the at least one medical device controller, and wherein the second rate is slower than the first rate.
9. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two trigger conditions comprise the third condition.
10. The medical device monitoring system of claim 9 , wherein the third condition is a determination that the validation test failed, and wherein the second rate is faster than the first rate.
11. The medical device monitoring system of claim 10 , wherein the validation test checks that the extracted textual information consists of numeric characters or decimal points.
12. The medical device monitoring system of claim 10 , wherein the validation test checks that a numeric field is within a predetermined range.
13. The medical device monitoring system of claim 12 further comprising the plurality of medical device controllers, wherein each one of the plurality of medical device controllers is configured to connect to a heart pump.
14. The medical device monitoring system of claim 13 , wherein the numeric field is a placement signal value.
15. The medical device monitoring system of claim 13 , wherein the numeric field is a motor current value.
16. The medical device monitoring system of claim 13 , wherein the numeric field is a blood flow rate.
17. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising the plurality of medical device controllers, wherein each one of the plurality of medical device controllers is configured to connect to a heart pump, and wherein the plurality of trigger conditions further comprises:
a fourth condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises a placement signal value within a first predetermined range;
a fifth condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises a motor current value within a second predetermined range; or
a sixth condition based on whether the extracted textual information comprises a blood flow rate within a third predetermined range.
18. The medical device monitoring system of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises the first condition, the second condition, the third condition, the fourth condition, the fifth condition, and the sixth condition.
19. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the second rate is the fastest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions, and wherein each one of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions is faster than the first rate.
20. The medical device monitoring system of claim 19 , wherein the fastest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions is specific to two or more of the at least two trigger conditions.
21. The medical device monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the second rate is the slowest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions, and wherein each one of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions is slower than the first rate.
22. The medical device monitoring system of claim 8 , wherein the second rate is the slowest of the predetermined rates specific to one or more of the at least two trigger conditions.
23. The medical device monitoring system of claim 22 , wherein each one of the plurality of trigger conditions is specific to at least one of a plurality of predetermined priority values, and wherein the second condition is specific to a higher predetermined priority value than another one of the at least two trigger conditions.
24. The medical device monitoring system of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises the fourth condition, the fifth condition, and the sixth condition, and wherein the fourth condition, the fifth condition, and the sixth condition are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates.
25. The medical device monitoring system of claim 24 , wherein the plurality of trigger conditions comprises the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition, and wherein the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition are specific to different ones of the plurality of predetermined rates.