TRANSFER OF BREATHING ASSISTANCE APPARATUS DATA

Abstract

A medical apparatus is adapted to facilitate a transfer of data to a computer system using a mobile device. The apparatus has a store of data, a display and a controller that generates a barcode encoding an access address for the computer system and the data, and displaying the barcode on the display.

Claims

1.-31. (canceled)

32. A breathing assistance apparatus comprising: a controller; a display; a memory accessible by the controller; at least one sensor configured to provide medical data to the controller, the controller being configured to store the medical data in the memory, wherein the controller generates a scannable image at a time after the medical data has been stored in the memory, wherein the scannable image generated by the controller encodes the medical data and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the URL comprising an access address of a computer system, and wherein controller displays on the display the scannable image to be captured by a mobile telecommunications device with a camera and a barcode reader application for processing and telecommunications functions in conjunction with hardware of the mobile telecommunications device to access and transfer the medical data to the computer system.

33. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the medical data is encoded into a byte array that is subsequently base 64 encoded into a text string, the text string being appended to the access address as a sub path.

34. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the medical data comprises patient data.

35. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 34, wherein the patient data comprises at least one of the following: runtime; usage time; AHI; leak; compliance data; usage data; and efficacy data.

36. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 34, wherein the patient data comprises at least one of the following: runtime in hours from 0.0 to 10.0; usage time in hours from 0.0 to 10.0; AHI in index up to 255; and leak in litres per minute up to 120.

37. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the medical data comprises medical apparatus data or diagnostic data.

38. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the breathing assistance apparatus comprises a PAP apparatus, a flow therapy apparatus, or an oxygen apparatus.

39. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the breathing assistance apparatus comprises a CPAP apparatus comprising a housing with an internal blower for providing pressurised air to a patient.

40. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 39, wherein the pressurised air is humidifiable by a chamber that is internal, external, or separate to the CPAP apparatus.

41. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 39, wherein the CPAP apparatus comprises a user interface comprising the display and a user input interface comprising one or more buttons, switches, or dials.

42. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 39, wherein the CPAP apparatus comprises one or more sensors including flow, pressure, temperature, humidity, and other sensors internal to or otherwise forming part of the CPAP apparatus.

43. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 39, wherein the CPAP apparatus comprises or is configured to be connected to one or more external sensors that measure one or more physiological parameters of a patient, the physiological parameters comprising heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, humidity, pressure, or flow.

44. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the controller is configured to record, process, and collate the medical data.

45. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, further comprising a housing with an internal blower and an internal chamber to humidify air.

46. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the medical data is patient-specific data from the breathing assistance apparatus, the medical data being appended to the access address as a sub path, the sub path updated based on the use of the breathing assistance apparatus by the patient over a period of time.

47. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the mobile telecommunications device extracts the URL from the scannable image, wherein the mobile telecommunications device sends a request for access to the computer system, the request comprising the URL.

48. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the computer system is configured to extract a sub path from the URL, extract the medical data from the sub path, and store the extracted medical data on a database of the computer system.

49. The breathing assistance apparatus of claim 32, wherein the mobile telecommunications receives a dynamically composed web page from the computer system based on the medical data.

50. A scannable image for display on a display of a breathing assistance apparatus, the scannable image comprising: an image generated and displayed by a controller of the breathing assistance apparatus, the image comprising an encoded a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the URL comprising an access address of a computer system and medical data, the medical data being appended to the access address as the sub path, the image configured to be scanned when displayed on the display of the breathing assistance apparatus.

51. The scannable image of claim 50, wherein the medical data is encoded into a byte array that is subsequently base 64 encoded into a text string, the text string being appended to the access address as the sub path.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0039] Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the following figures, of which:

[0040] FIG. 1 shows medical apparatus displaying a two-dimensional barcode that encodes data from a medical apparatus.

[0041] FIG. 1A shows two examples of possible two-dimensional codes that might be displayed on the medical apparatus.

[0042] FIG. 2 shows a mobile device executing software for reading and transferring data in accordance with the two-dimensional barcode displayed on the medical apparatus.

[0043] FIG. 3 shows a system for transferring data to a computer system for subsequent storage, processing and/or review.

[0044] FIGS. 4A and 4B show display of data received from a computer system displayed on an application or browser on a mobile device, computer or similar.

[0045] FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of use and operation of the invention.

[0046] FIG. 6 shows a two-dimensional barcode in accordance with one example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0047] FIG. 1 shows in schematic form a breathing assistance apparatus 10, such as a CPAP apparatus, configured to display a two-dimensional barcode 19 encoding data (medical data) collected by the apparatus 10 in accordance with the present invention for subsequent transfer, storage and/or review. It will be appreciated that while the present invention is described in relation to a CPAP apparatus, this should not be considered limiting and the invention can be utilised in relation to any medical apparatus that captures data relating to a patient and/or operation of the apparatus, such as apparatus use, apparatus operating parameters and diagnostics, patient physiological or health parameters or the like. All such information (including patient and apparatus information) can be generally termed “medical data”.

[0048] The CPAP apparatus 10 can be known to those skilled in the art and comprises a housing 11 with an internal blower 12 (shown in dotted schematic form) for providing pressurised air to a patient 15 via a conduit 13 and a patient interface 14. An internal/external or separate interconnectable chamber 16 (shown dotted as internal chamber in FIG. 1) can be used to humidify the pressurised air. The CPAP apparatus 10 comprises a user interface 17, 18, which itself comprises a display 17 and other output interface as required, and also user input interface with devices such as buttons, switches, dials 18 and the like. The CPAP apparatus 10 also comprises a number of sensors 20, 21, including flow, pressure, temperature, humidity and other sensors internal to or otherwise forming part of the medical apparatus (see generally 20) and possibly comprises or can be connected to external sensors (see, e.g. 21) that measure physiological parameters of the patient, such as heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, humidity, pressure, flow and the like.

[0049] The apparatus can be controlled by a controller 22, such as a microprocessor, microcontroller or similar, that receives input via the user input interface 18, operates the apparatus and is configured to provide output on the user output 17, including the display. The controller can have internal memory and/or also access external memory. The controller can also receive input from the sensors 20, 21 and record, process, store and collate the information for transfer, storing, reporting and review purposes by a physician, patient, medical device dealer, insurance company, manufacturer or other interested party. Among other things, the controller 22 is configured via a program or otherwise to take the captured information and encode it into the two-dimensional barcode 19 for display on the medical apparatus display 17. The two-dimensional (2D) barcode 17 encodes a) the access address of a computer system (such as the IP address/URL/website address of a website running on a webserver) to which the data is to be transferred, and b) appended data that represents the (medical) data captured by the controller from the medical apparatus. The two dimensional barcode 19 is used to assist transfer of the medical data on the apparatus 10 to a computer system 30 (see FIG. 3) for storage, processing and distribution for review/display.

[0050] Two-dimensional barcodes and their generation are known to those skilled in the art and any suitable process could be used for encoding of the data into a two-dimensional barcode. The two-dimensional barcode can take any form known to those skilled in the art and can be generated using any suitable algorithm or other process. One such example of a two-dimensional barcode is a QR code, but this is not the only option. Generic examples of two-dimensional barcodes 100, 101 are shown in FIG. 1A. Also, the invention could utilise instead of a two-dimensional barcode, any other type of ID or scannable image with encoded data and access address. For example, a 1D barcode could be used. The present description refers to a two-dimensional barcode but this should not be considered limiting and any reference/description to a two-dimensional barcode could also be applied to a one-dimensional (1D) barcode instead. The use and encoding of one-dimensional barcodes is know those skilled in the art and upon regadin this specification any application to two-dimensional barcodes of the invention could be readily adapted to one-dimensional barcodes by those skilled in the art.

[0051] Referring to FIG. 2, to transfer the medical data from the medical apparatus to the computer system 30, a mobile device 24 is used (such as a PDA or mobile telecommunications device such as a smartphone). It comprises a camera 25 and also executes suitable barcode reader software/application 26 (known to those skilled in the art) which is used to capture an image 19a of the two-dimensional barcode 19 on the display of the medical apparatus 10, and process the barcode 19 for subsequent transfer of the encoded medical data to a computer system with the encoded access address. To achieve this, the camera 25 of the mobile device 24 is held close to the display 17 of the medical apparatus to take a photograph of the two-dimensional barcode 19, and the reader application facilitates the required processing and telecommunications functions (in conjunction with mobile device hardware) to access and transfer data to the computer system 30. Mobile devices 24, their hardware and functionality, and reader applications will be known to those skilled in the art.

[0052] FIG. 3 shows a typical system 33 that enables capture, transfer, storage and review/display of medical data from a medical apparatus utilising a two-dimensional barcode. The system comprises the medical apparatus 10 of FIG. 1 and the mobile device 24 of FIG. 2. The mobile device 24, once it has captured the two-dimensional barcode, uses the information encoded therein to access the computer system 30/database 30a and transfer the medical apparatus data. Typically, the mobile device 24 accesses the computer system via the internet or other wide-area network 31, using an IP address or URL (comprising a website address) or other suitable network address (access address) encoded in the two-dimensional barcode. It accesses the wide area network through a GPRS or GSM network or via any other suitable mode (either directly or indirectly, wired or wireless).

[0053] Typically, the computer system 30 will be or run a web server, and the access address will be a website address of a website running on that that web server. Typically the barcode will encode a URL, which itself comprises the website address, plus has the medical apparatus data appended to the website address as a sub path. Once the web server has been accessed, the medical apparatus data appended to the computer system address is transferred to the computer system. Typically, where a URL is utilised, the entire URL will be submitted and the webserver will extract from it the medical apparatus data in the appended sub path. The invention is not just restricted to barcodes encoding URLs, web addresses and webservers, and this example should be seen as illustrative only. Once extracted, the medical data is processed, stored (in database 30a), collated and then sent back via the wide area network 31 to the mobile device 24 for review on an app, browser or similar software viewer. Alternatively, the information could be sent back and accessed by a mobile device of another interested party, or the personal computer 32 of an interested via a browser or similar. The information can be viewed via such modes by any interested party.

[0054] FIG. 4A shows (generic) data from a medical apparatus received from the computer system 30 being displayed on an application (e.g. app) 40 running on the mobile device 24 or personal computer 32 or other computing device. FIG. 4B shows display of the same information, but in a browser either running on a mobile device or a personal computer or other computing device. The access address and medical apparatus data encoded in the two-dimensional barcode (in this case in the form of a URL) is also displayed.

[0055] General operation of the invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 5. A CPAP apparatus or other medical apparatus 10 is operated in the usual manner, collecting data from its sensors 20, 21 and other internal inputs on the operation of the apparatus and also physiological parameters of the patient, step 50. These are stored in memory (for example in internal or external memory access by the controller 12) in the medical apparatus in the usual manner. As and when required, the controller 12 is manually prompted or automatically triggered to generate a two-dimensional barcode 19 that encodes the access address of the computer system 30 that is to process and distribute the information for review, and encodes the medical data. The two-dimensional barcode 19 is then displayed on the display 17 of the medical apparatus 10 by the controller 12, step 51. This again could be triggered automatically, or by a user operating the user interface 18 of the apparatus 10. The patient or other user then operates their mobile device 24 to capture an image 19a of the two-dimensional barcode 19, step 52, and uses it to access and transfer the medical data to a computer system 30, step 53. They do this by activating a reader application on the mobile device 24, using the application to take a picture 19a of the two-dimensional barcode 19 displayed on the medical apparatus by holding the camera 35 up to the medical apparatus display 17. The user then operates the reader application to access the computer system 30 from their mobile device 24 over the wide area network 31, step 53. The reader application decodes the barcode to extract the URL comprising the access address and sub path with medical data. The read application then contacts the webserver identified by the URL in the usual way—e.g. by contacting ISPs/DNSs to resolve the IP address of the webserver linked to the access address in the URL. The reader then sends an HTTP get request to the webserver associated with the URL. The webserver receives the URL and passes the encoded medical data (in the sub path of the URL) to a service that dynamically generates HTML (from the encoded medical data) for rendering a webpage that displays the medical data in a suitable format on a reader app/browser. The computer system 30 then stores the data in the database 30a, step 54, processes the data where necessary and transfers the HTML page (comprising a summary of the patient data) back to the mobile device or other computing device where it is rendered for display by an application/browser on the device for review, step 55. Alternatively, it could be reviewed in another application, browser or similar either on the mobile device or on another computing device such as a personal computer that can access the computer system via the access address. Alternatively, other type of data could be transferred back to the mobile device or other computing device, such as XML or raw data. Alternatively, the computer system 30 does not transfer data back to the mobile device or other computer device, but rather simply stores, processes and/or uses the data.

[0056] The operation of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to a particular example. This example should not be considered limiting, and is provided for illustrative purposes only.

[0057] A CPAP apparatus 10 has the serial number 123456123456. A computer system 30 for transferring the captured data to has the URL (access address) http://fp.data/

[0058] During operation of a CPAP apparatus 10 over a period of 14 days, some or more of the following medical data (in this case patient data) is recorded by the controller 12 from the sensors 20, 21 and internal inputs: device serial number (12 digits); 14 days of the following: runtime (in hours from 0.0 to 10.0); usage time (in hours from 0.0 to 10.0); AHI (in index up to 255); and leak (in litres per minute up to 120).

[0059] The data is stored in any suitable medium (such as memory internal or external to the controller 12) using any suitable format. An example of patient data that could be recorded and stored in the apparatus 10 is represented below in a table format.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 14 days of CPAP compliance data Day Run Time Usage Time AHI Leak 1 3 3 5 20 2 4 3 5 20 3 5 4 5 20 4 3 3 5 20 5 4 4 6 20 6 5 4 6 20 7 3 3 6 20 8 4 4 6 20 9 5 4 5 20 10 3 3 5 20 11 4 4 5 20 12 5 4 5 20 13 3 3 6 20 14 4 3 6 20

[0060] Next, the controller 12 generates the two-dimensional barcode 19 for this data. The controller does this at any suitable time, generally after data has been recorded for the required period of time and transfer is desired. The information is encoded into a barcode using any suitable process. In this case, a URL containing the upload web (access) address and the medical data is generated and encoded into the barcode. To do this, the medical apparatus data is encoded into a byte array in the format:

[0061] 6 bytes [serial number]|2 bytes [Period Start]|(day 1 data) 1 byte [Runtime×10], 1 byte [Usage×10], 1 byte [AHI], 1 byte [leak]|(day 2 data) . . .

[0062] So that:

[0063] Serial Number (6 Bytes BCD): 0x12, 0x23, 0x56, 0x12, 0x34, 0x56

[0064] Period Start Date (MSDOS Date Format): 0x01, 0x41

[0065] resulting in the encoded data shown in the table below:

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Encoded Data Day Run Time Usage Time AHI Leak 1 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 05 0 × 14 2 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 05 0 × 14 3 0 × 01 0 × F4 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 05 0 × 14 4 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 05 0 × 14 5 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 06 0 × 14 6 0 × 01 0 × F4 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 06 0 × 14 7 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 06 0 × 14 8 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 06 0 × 14 9 0 × 01 0 × F4 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 05 0 × 14 10 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 05 0 × 14 11 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 05 0 × 14 12 0 × 01 0 × F4 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 05 0 × 14 13 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 06 0 × 14 14 0 × 01 0 × 90 0 × 01 0 × 2C 0 × 06 0 × 14

[0066] Resulting in a binary blob representing this data of: 0x12, 0x23, 0x56, 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, 0x01, 0x41, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x90, 0x01 0x2C, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0xF4, 0x01, 0x90, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x01k 0x2C, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x90, 0x01, 0x90, 0x06, 0x14, 0x01, 0xF4, 0x01, 0x90, 0x06, 0x14, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x06, 0x14, 0x01, 0x90, 0x01, 0x90, 0x06, 0x14, 0x01, 0xF4, 0x01, 0x90, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x90, 0x01, 0x90, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0xF4, 0x01, 0x90, 0x05, 0x14, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x06, 0x14, 0x01, 0x90, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x06, 0x14

[0067] The binary array then base 64 encoded to get a text (e.g. ascii) representation as following: EiNWEjRWAUEBLAEsBRQBkAEsBRQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBRQBkAGQBhQB9AGQBhQBLAEsBh QBkAGQBhQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBRQBkAGQBRQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBhQBkAEsBhQ=

[0068] This encoded string is appended to the website (access) address http:fp.data/to create a URL as follows with the above string as an appended sub path: http://fp.data/EiNWEjRWAUEBLAEsBRQBkAEsBRQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBRQBkAGQBhQB9AG QBhQBLAEsBhQBkAGQBhQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBRQBkAGQBRQB9AGQBRQBLAEsBhQBkAEs BhQ=

[0069] By using the standard QR code encoding of a URL, the QR code (shown in FIG. 6) is obtained which embodies the URL.

[0070] A URL is a standard piece of data supported by the QR specification. When a QR reader scans a QR code containing a URL by definition the reader application will attempt to access the URL (which comprises the access address and the data) as encoded in the QR code. The URL is accessed with a standard HTTP request, where the first part of the URL (before the “/”) is used to locate the destination server and the content after the “I” is submitted to the remote server and generally used to reference a path on the remote server containing content to return to the client. This implementation overrides how this content after the “I” is processed by the server in that rather than using it to reference a path containing content, the server contains a pre-processor that intercepts the request and extracts the data. Extracting the data involves performing the steps required to encode the data in reverse order. The information is then stored in a database indexed by device serial number. Once the data has been stored the pre-processor dynamically composes an HTML web page consisting of the device identifier and line graphs showing the trends of each of the data fields (runtime, usage time, AHI, Leak) over the 14 days of data submitted. This HTML content is then returned to the client as if it was a static page that had been referenced by the URL path. As far as the client is concerned it has accessed a static HTML page. Alternatively, other types of data could be transferred back to the mobile device or other computing device, such as XML or raw data. Alternatively, the computer system 30 does not transfer data back to the mobile device or other computer device, but rather simply stores, processes and/or uses the data.

[0071] In an alternative embodiment, the barcode or other type of ID or scannable image is encoded data. As previously described with reference to FIG. 2, the image can be scanned/captured by the camera 25 of a mobile device 24 using suitable reader software. However, rather than extracting an access address, the mobile device software decodes the data and displays it on the screen of the mobile device for review by the user.

[0072] The invention could be embodied in the medical apparatus itself, or the method by which it operates, the computer system or the method by which it operates, the software run on the mobile device or the manner in which it operates or the method of transferring data using the apparatus described or any other combinations thereof.