US-12626815-B2 - Methods and apparatus for troubleshooting instrument malfunctions

US12626815B2US 12626815 B2US12626815 B2US 12626815B2US-12626815-B2

Abstract

Methods of troubleshooting non-event malfunctions include providing a database including pre-populated non-event issues and associated corrective actions, receiving search criteria regarding a particular non-event issue via entry of a search string at a user interface, parsing and normalizing the search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string, searching the database with the normalized search string to generate a listing of one or more particular corrective actions, and receiving the listing of one or more particular corrective actions that are associated with the normalized search string. Apparatus configured to carry out the methods are provided, as are other aspects.

Inventors

Arnold Rudorfer
Steven Magowan
Joel Cambron

Assignees

SIEMENS HEALTHCARE DIAGNOSTICS INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230726

Claims (19)

1 . A method of troubleshooting a malfunction of an instrument for analyzing biological fluids, the instrument comprising a processor, software executable on the processor, and a memory, the method comprising: providing a database stored in the memory, the database including a plurality of pre-populated non-event issues and associated corrective actions for which error codes are not issued; displaying on a display via a user interface of the instrument a search screen comprising a search box, a decision tree selection menu, or both; receiving, via the user interface, search criteria regarding a particular non-event issue of the instrument, via either an entry of a search string in the search box or a selection from the decision tree selection menu, the particular non-event issue correlating to one of clinical chemistry, colorimetric, turbidimetric, enzymatic, immunoassay, or drug testing: in response to a received entry in the search box, parsing and normalizing via the processor the search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string, or in response to the particular non-event issue being a populated item in the decision tree selection menu, receiving a selection of the populated item; searching, via the processor, the database with the normalized search string or the selected populated item to generate a listing of one or more particular corrective actions; outputting, via the user interface, the listing of one or more particular corrective actions; requesting feedback via the user interface as to whether any of the one or more particular corrective actions was successful; in response to receiving feedback, transmitting, via the processor and a communication interface, received feedback and the search string and/or the selection from the decision tree selection menu to a remote server; determining, via the remote server, whether to revise the decision tree selection menu, search criteria, and correlations to controlled vocabulary based on the feedback and whether to update metadata schema based on the search string; and receiving from the remote server software updates to the decision tree selection menu and/or the searchable data on the non-event malfunction issues and associated corrective actions based on the received feedback, the software updates including revised search criteria and correlations to controlled vocabulary, updated metadata schema, or both; and updating the instrument, via the processor, including the executable software and the database with the software updates, the executable software including a preprocessing application configured to parse and normalize a search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string, the normalized search string correlated with one or more corrective actions stored in the database, the software updates including updates to the metadata schema and the one or more corrective actions correlated with the normalized search string.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising implementing one or more of the one or more particular corrective actions in the listing.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the decision tree selection menu comprises a drop-down menu.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the decision tree selection menu comprises a selectable list of at least some of the plurality of pre-populated non-event issues.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein in response to receiving a selection of the populated item from the selectable list of the decision tree selection menu, the outputting comprises displaying at the user interface a screen of one or more potential corrective actions.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the parsing and normalizing the search string comprises parsing and normalizing the search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string that includes one or more synonyms of one or more terms in the search string.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the searching the database comprises searching the database with the normalized search string to generate a listing of one or more particular corrective actions in response to correlating the normalized search string with a pre-populated non-event issue.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the feedback, via the user interface, after implementation of the one or more particular corrective actions regarding whether the one or more particular corrective actions were successful.
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising communicating at least the search string, the normalized search string, and the feedback to the remote server, the remote server configured to communicate with the instrument and multiple other instruments to update respective executable software and databases of the instrument and the multiple other instruments.
10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising providing, from the remote server, software updates to the respective executable software and databases based on the feedback and including revised search criteria and correlations to controlled vocabulary and updated meta-data schema based on communicated search strings, the remote server comprising a master repository that includes raw search terms used, associated synonyms, normalized search strings, and associated non-event issues and corrective actions.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more search criteria comprises one of: a test result that was not generated; a calibration that is out of specification; and a control that is out of specification.
12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising saving the normalized search string in a meta-data repository.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the meta-data repository is located in a local database of the instrument.
14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising retrieving a listing of one or more particular corrective actions from the meta-data repository using a meta-data query engine.
15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising communicating the normalized search string to a remote database.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of pre-populated non-event issues comprises one selected from a group of: an issue with a specimen; an issue with a calibrator; an issue with a control; and an issue with a test result.
17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the executable software further comprises a system instrument manager stored in the memory, the system instrument manager operable via execution by the processor to perform the transmitting received feedback to the remote server.
18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the parsing comprises reducing the search string by removing non-essential terms to form a parsed search string.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the normalizing comprises comparing the parsed search string to pre-populated search terms stored in the database.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/316,202, filed Jan. 8, 2019, which is a 371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/US2017/043434, filed Jul. 24, 2017, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/366,343, filed Jul. 25, 2016, and titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR TROUBLESHOOTING INSTRUMENT MALFUNCTIONS,” the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties herein. FIELD This disclosure relates to methods and apparatus that rapidly resolve instrument malfunctions, and in particular malfunctions in automated biological liquid testing and processing instruments. BACKGROUND In biological liquid testing and processing, automated apparatus including the use of robotics may be used to process biological liquids (otherwise referred to herein as “specimens”). Such automated apparatus are complex and may from time-to-time experience various malfunctions. Certain types of recurring malfunctions are relatively easy to diagnose as the apparatus themselves may generate an “error code,” which leads the user to a set of instructions that provides a detailed solution to aid in rectifying the particular error-code-based malfunction. Other highly-complex malfunctions, which do not have an associated error code (hereinafter non-event malfunctions), may be multifactorial and much more difficult to diagnose and to resolve. Accordingly, methods and apparatus that may improve the speed and/or quality of non-event-based malfunction diagnosis and solution in biological fluid testing and processing apparatus are sought. SUMMARY In one method embodiment, a method of troubleshooting malfunctions of an instrument is provided. The method includes providing a database including a plurality of pre-populated non-event issues and associated corrective actions, inputting, via a user interface of the instrument, one or more search criteria regarding a particular non-event issue of the instrument, via entry of a search string at the user interface, parsing and normalizing the search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string; searching the database with the normalized search string to generate a listing of one or more particular corrective actions, and receiving at the user interface, the listing of one or more particular corrective actions that are associated with the normalized search string. In an apparatus embodiment, an instrument malfunction troubleshooting apparatus is provided. The instrument malfunction troubleshooting apparatus includes a local instrument database stored on a local memory containing searchable data on non-event malfunction issues and associated corrective actions, an instrument user interface operatively configured to allow input of a search string concerning a particular non-event malfunction issue and output a particular corrective action, and a preprocessing application stored in the local memory and configured and operable to preprocess the search string into a metadata schema to produce a normalized search string. In another method embodiment, a method of troubleshooting a malfunction of an instrument is provided. The method includes providing a database including a plurality of pre-populated non-event issues and associated corrective actions, receiving, via a user interface of the instrument, search criteria regarding a particular non-event issue of the instrument, via either an entry of a search string at a search box of an intelligent service assistant search screen or selection from a decision tree selection menu of the intelligent service assistant search screen which contains both the search box and selection menu: if an entry in the search box, parsing and normalizing the search string into a meta-data schema to produce a normalized search string, if the particular non-event issue is a populated item in the decision tree selection menu, selecting the populated item, and searching the database with the normalized search string or populated item to generate a listing of one or more particular corrective actions, and outputting at the user interface, the listing of one or more particular corrective actions. Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure may be readily apparent from the following detailed description illustrating a number of example embodiments. The present invention may also be capable of different embodiments, and its several details may be modified in various respects, all without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosure as defined in the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an instrument malfunction troubleshooting apparatus for non-event-based malfunction diagnosis according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 2 illustrates a functional diagram sho