EP-4736012-A1 - ADAPTIVE AND DYNAMIC HOSTING OF DATA-DRIVEN DIAGNOSTIC CONTENT BY CONTINUOUS MONITORING AND EVALUATION FOR PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE SERVICES

Abstract

A distributed computing network includes an edge computing device and a server computer. The edge computing device receives log data generated by the associated medical device, and is programmed to: perform monitoring of the medical device by analysis of the log data received by the edge computing device; and output alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the edge computing device. The server computer receives the log data from the edge computing device via the Internet, and is programmed to: perform the monitoring of the associated medical device by analysis of the log data received at the server computer; and output alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the server computer. The distributed computing network performs the monitoring of the medical device over time by, at a given time, selecting one of the edge computing device or the server computer to perform the monitoring of the medical device.

Inventors

• Bhattacharya, Sauvik
• DEMEWEZ, Tiblets Zeray
• BARBIERI, MAURO

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20240619

Claims (20)

1. 1. A system (10) for monitoring an associated medical device (12), the system comprising: a distributed computing network (14, 16) comprising an edge computing device (14) and a server computer (16), wherein: the edge computing device (14) is operatively connected to receive log data (20) generated by the associated medical device, and is programmed to: perform monitoring of the medical device by analysis of the log data received by the edge computing device; and output alerts (24) generated by the monitoring performed at the edge computing device; the server computer (16) is configured to receive the log data from the edge computing device via the Internet (13), and is programmed to: perform the monitoring of the associated medical device by analysis of the log data received at the server computer; and output alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the server computer; and the distributed computing network is configured to perform the monitoring of the medical device over time by, at a given time, selecting one of the edge computing device or the server computer to perform the monitoring of the medical device.
2. 2. The system (10) of claim 1, wherein the distributed computing network (14, 16) is configured to select the one of the edge computing device (14) or the server computer (16) to perform the monitoring of the associated medical device (12) at a given time based at least on a quality metric of Internet connectivity between the server computer and the edge computing device at the given time.
3. 3. The system (10) of claim 2, wherein the distributed computing network (14, 16) is configured to select the one of the edge computing device (14) or the server computer (16) to perform the monitoring of the associated medical device (12) at a given time further based on an indication generated by the edge computing device of whether the edge computing device is ready to perform the monitoring of the medical device.
4. 4. The system (10) of any one of claims 1-3, wherein the distributed computing network (14, 16) is configured to program the edge computing device (14) to perform the monitoring of the associated medical device (12) by: transferring software executable to perform the analysis of the log data (20) received by the edge computing device from the server computer (16) to the edge computing device.
5. 5. The system (10) of claim 4, wherein the transferring of the software from the server computer (16) to the edge computing device (14) includes: encrypting the software at the server computer wherein the encrypted software is transferred from the server computer to the edge computing device; and decrypting the encrypted software at the edge computing device.
6. 6. The system (10) of any one of claims 1-5, wherein: the server computer (16) is further programmed to output the alerts (24) generated by the monitoring performed at the server computer to an associated remote user interface (28v); and the edge computing device (14) is further programmed to output the alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the edge computing device to an associated local user interface (28c) different from the associated remote user device.
7. 7. The system (10) of claim 6, wherein the edge computing device (14) is further programmed to classify each alert (24) generated by the monitoring performed at the edge computing device as to whether the alert requires remote assistance and to additionally output alerts classified as requiring remote assistance to the associated remote user interface (28v).
8. 8. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) storing: one or more diagnostic models (22) configured to analyze log data generated by a medical device (12); instructions readable and executable by at least an edge computing device (14) to: monitor the medical device by applying the one or more diagnostic models to generate alerts (24) indicative of problems with the medical device; analyze a plurality of factors to determine whether the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from the edge computing device to a vendor server (16); and transfer the monitoring of the medical device from the edge computing device to the vendor server based on the analysis determining that the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server.
9. 9. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of claim 8, wherein the instructions further include transferring the monitoring of the medical device from the vendor server (16) back to the edge computing device (14) in response to the analysis no longer determining that the monitoring of the medical device (12) should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server.
10. 10. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of claim 9, wherein the instructions further include generating and transmitting a notification from the edge computing device (14) to the vendor server (16), the notification being indicative of a readiness of the edge computing device to resume the monitoring.
11. 11. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of any one of claims 8-10, wherein the edge computing device (14) is maintained by a customer of the medical device (12) and configured to store and implement the one or more diagnostic models (22) to analyze log data (20) generated by the medical device.
12. 12. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of any one of claims 8-11, wherein the vendor server (16) is maintained by a vendor of the medical device (12) and configured to store a copy of the one or more diagnostic models (22).
13. 13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of any one of claims 8-12, wherein the plurality of factors includes one or more of a status of connectivity of the edge computing device (14) to the medical device (12), a presence of infrastructure at a site of the vendor server (16), and a number of technicians at the site of the edge computing device.
14. 14. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of claim 13, wherein the plurality of factors further includes an availability of log data (20) generated by the medical device (12) and a presence of historical log data for the medical device.
15. 15. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of any one of claims 8-14, wherein the instructions further include: generating an alert (24) to be handled by a medical professional at a site of the edge computing device (14).
16. 16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium (14, 16) of claim 15, wherein the instructions further include determining an availability of medical professionals at the site of the edge computing device (14); and if no medical professional is available, transferring the alert to the vendor server (16).
17. 17. A distributed computing method (200), comprising: monitoring a medical device (12) by applying one or more diagnostic models (22) to generate alerts (24) indicative of problems with the medical device; analyzing a plurality of factors to determine whether the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from an edge computing device (14) to a vendor server (16); and generating an alert (24) indicating that the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server based on the analysis determining that the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server.
18. 18. The method (200) of claim 17, further comprising: transferring the monitoring of the medical device (12) from the edge computing device (14) to the vendor server (16) based on the analysis determining that the monitoring of the medical device should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server.
19. 19. The method (200) of claim 18, further comprising transferring the monitoring of the medical device from the vendor server (16) back to the edge computing device (14) based on the analysis no longer determining that the monitoring of the medical device (12) should be transferred from the edge computing device to the vendor server.
20. 20. The method (200) of claim 19, further comprising: generating and transmitting a notification from the edge computing device (14) to the vendor server (16), the notification being indicative of a readiness of the edge computing device to resume the monitoring.

Description

ADAPTIVE AND DYNAMIC HOSTING OF DATA-DRIVEN DIAGNOSTIC CONTENT BY CONTINUOUS MONITORING AND EVALUATION FOR PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE SERVICES FIELD OF THE INVENTION The following relates generally to the medical device maintenance arts, medical imaging device maintenance arts, medical device log file analysis arts, medical predictive maintenance arts, and related arts. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Multiple medical imaging systems are typically located at a hospital or site. These systems are communicatively connected to a common electronic network, such as a hospital data network. The medical imaging systems that are located at the same site share the communication bandwidth of a communication channel between the site and the central data processing and storage system. An edge device, comprising a computer servicing the hospital or a portion thereof, e.g., the hospital’s radiology department, may collect data from the medical imaging devices at that hospital and then forward the collected data to the central data processing and storage system. This conveniently provides uniformity as the edge devices servicing various hospitals can be standardized, for example provided by the medical imaging devices vendor, so that the central data processing and storage system does not need individualized interfaces for connecting with a wide range of different hospital data networks. A given edge device may be implemented as a physical server or as a virtual machine (VM) running on a server. Vendors of medical device systems can provide proactive and predictive maintenance services to their customers. More generally, such diagnostic models can generate alerts predicting likely failure events (optionally with a timeframe), and/or can generate alerts about existing problems detected by the models. These services rely on data that comes from medical systems on a regular basis. For this, connectivity of the medical systems is crucial. Moreover, a reliable analytics platform that collects, processes and stores data to build diagnostic models or applications is essential. Typically, these processes take place on the cloud or on-premises, i.e., at the location hosting the medical device. In atypical arrangement, log data automatically generated by medical imaging devices is uploaded to a server or cloud computing resource maintained by the vendor or other maintenance service provider, and the diagnostic models are also deployed at the server or cloud computing resource. This has advantages such as facilitating updating of the models at a central point, and facilitating communication of alerts to service engineers employed by the vendor or other service provider. However, server or cloudbased models rely heavily on the connectivity of the medical systems, availability, and correctness of the end-to-end data pipeline as well as model deployment infrastructure. Connectivity of medical systems can be hampered by incorrect registration of systems, network interruptions at a customer or vendor site, etc. Furthermore, data pipelines should be robust and reliable to ensure uninterrupted flow of data. Interruptions in data flow disable the proactive services fueled by them, leading possibly to system downtime. Such problems can be remediated to some extent by improving the utilized Internet infrastructure, but the quality of Internet connectivity may be outside the control of both the customer (e.g., hospital) and the vendor or other service provider. The following discloses certain improvements to overcome these problems and others. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect, a system is disclosed for monitoring a medical device. The system includes a distributed computing network comprising an edge computing device and a server computer. The edge computing device is operatively connected to receive log data generated by the associated medical device, and is programmed to: perform monitoring of the medical device by analysis of the log data received by the edge computing device; and output alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the edge computing device. The server computer is configured to receive the log data from the edge computing device via the Internet, and is programmed to: perform the monitoring of the associated medical device by analysis of the log data received at the server computer; and output alerts generated by the monitoring performed at the server computer. The distributed computing network is configured to perform the monitoring of the medical device over time by, at a given time, selecting one of the edge computing device or the server computer to perform the monitoring of the medical device. In another aspect, at least one non-transitory computer readable medium stores one or more diagnostic models configured to analyze log data generated by a medical device, and instructions readable and executable by at least an edge computing device. The instructions are executable to: monitor the medical device by applying the