GE Healthcare Device Accessory Measures Every Breath to Improve Patient Ventilator Monitoring

Abstract

When GE Healthcare set out to develop a medical device accessory to capture ventilator data from the Engström Carestation®, they knew they needed innovative embedded technology. GE Healthcare chose Eurotech TurboXb embedded computer for the Engstrom EView data capture device accessory, which is designed to provide clinicians and researchers with a tool with broad capabilities to capture detailed patient ventilator data.

Introduction

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Their broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement help customers deliver better care to more people around the world. GE Healthcare aims to reduce costs, increase access and improve the quality and efficiency of medical device accessories. 

The challenge

Too often, some of the most important indicators of a change in a patient’s status can occur quickly, and then be lost forever. Obtaining and filtering patient data, which adequately reflects a ventilated patient’s status, can be challenging. Historical methods have focused on snapshots of patient health, performing ventilator checks, taking notes on how the patient is doing, and checking vital signs at one particular instance versus over time. 

The ability to capture patient data has become an expectation in the monitoring of a patient’s heart rate and other patient vital signs, and GE Healthcare believed ventilators should be able to provide the same level of detailed patient data. 

Paul Hunsicker, Global Product Manager for GE Healthcare explains, “Patient data is the most valuable when a critical event happens, but former data capture methods only offered a snapshot in time. At GE Healthcare we wanted to develop the capability to capture ventilator data breath by breath, to help clinicians capture the details of what happened before a critical patient event.” 

In order to gather more meaningful data from Engström ventilators, GE Healthcare began to develop a portable data capture device accessory. The solution would need to be designed for ease of installation, and most importantly, it needed to capture the output data of the ventilator reliably and continuously. 

GE Healthcare had two audiences in mind for the ventilator data capture device accessory that would attach to the Engström – researchers who want a more complete picture of patient health, and clinicians who need to customize data and analyze bits and pieces as they see fit.

In general, researchers previously studied case histories with a limited amount of patient data gathered at specific points in time. In some cases, if a patient passed away, researchers could only study random data points due to technical limits on data capture devices, and the most important piece of the puzzle that led to a patient’s deteriorating health was often missing. 

Previous data capture methods also left some clinicians wanting more information and flexibility for patients. When a patient ventilator alarm went off, it generally showed what happened to the patient at that moment, but not in the moments leading up to the problem. Some data capture solutions also required patients be tethered to a machine, so if they moved for a test or appointment, the data would not be captured. GE Healthcare wanted to develop a data capture device accessory that would allow clinicians to record patient health moment-by-moment. They wanted to allow clinicians to gather near-constant data, with customizable settings to meet a broad range of patient needs. 

To satisfy both audiences, GE Healthcare had to develop a modular, wireless device accessory that could move with the patient for broad data capture. The platform needed to function independently from the Engström so as not to impact its ventilation operation in any way.

The solution: capturing every breath

To accomplish their goal of broad ventilator data capture, GE Healthcare knew they needed to take advantage of innovative technology to create a modular data capture device accessory they would call EView. 

The main goal was to develop an embedded data capture device accessory that would be reliable and consistent in its collection and transmission of data. GE Healthcare wanted a device accessory with the ability to store data, retrieve data, and maintain data when the product shut down. 

First, GE Healthcare chose the Windows embedded operating system for the EView. Since the Engström Carestation and many other GE Healthcare offerings also use Windows, it was a clear choice for the new device accessory. 

Next, GE Healthcare chose to work with Eurotech for the embedded computing platform. 

“We chose Eurotech for the EView embedded platform to get to market faster and allow our internal engineers to continue to develop our core product offerings,” said Hunsicker. “Eurotech had prior experience with our design requirements.” 

GE Healthcare’s data capture device accessory was based on the Eurotech TurboXb computer on module, and as follows typical Eurotech engagements, Eurotech was also responsible for the board support package for the Windows embedded operating system.

The result: EView from GE Healthcare

The project was completed and the EView received FDA clearance in the United States in May of 2010.