# US 2022/0044798 A1 · Audio and video processing for safety alerts during an imaging examination

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- Number: US 2022/0044798 A1
- Document ID: US20220044798A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/392,692
- Filed: 2021-08-03
- Published: 2022-02-10
- Earliest claimed: 2020-08-06
- Assignees: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
- Applicants: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
- Inventors: Olga Starobinets; Ranjith Naveen Tellis; Sandeep Madhukar Dalal; Hareesh Chamarthi; Yuechen Madhukar Qian; Vijay Parthasarathy
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20220044798A1

## CPC

- G16H 40/63: for local operation
- G16H 40/67: for remote operation
- G16H 30/20: for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
- G16H 80/00: ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
- G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA

## Abstract

A non-transitory computer readable medium (26) stores instructions executable by at least one electronic processor (20) to perform a method (100) of providing assistance from a remote expert (RE) to a local operator (LO) of a medical imaging device (2) during a medical imaging examination. The method includes: providing a user interface (UI) (29), on a remote workstation (12) operable by the remote expert, displaying a feed (17, 18) of at least an imaging bay (3) where the medical imaging device is disposed; detecting, by analysis of the feed, an event occurring in the imaging bay; and outputting, via the remote workstation, an alert (30) indicating the detected event.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by at least one electronic processor to perform a method of providing assistance from a remote expert (RE) to a local operator (LO) of a medical imaging device during a medical imaging examination, the method comprising:
providing a user interface (UI), on a remote workstation operable by the remote expert, displaying a feed of at least an imaging bay where the medical imaging device is disposed;
detecting, by analysis of the feed, an event occurring in the imaging bay; and
outputting, via the remote workstation, an alert indicating the detected event.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the feed comprises a video feed of at the least the imaging bay.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein:
the detected event comprises a location or position of an individual in the video feed detected by analysis of the video feed; and
the alert indicates the location or position of the individual is incorrect.

### Claim 4 (depends on 2)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein:
the detected event comprises a misplacement of a hardware component of the imaging device detected by analysis of the video feed; and
the alert indicates the hardware component is misplaced.

### Claim 5 (depends on 2)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein:
the detected event comprises a movement of a patient during an imaging examination detected by analysis of the video feed; and
the alert indicates patient movement.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the feed comprises an audio feed of at the least the imaging bay.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein:
the detected event comprises a malfunction of a hardware component of the imaging device detected by analysis of the audio feed; and
the alert indicates the hardware component is malfunctioning.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:
to determine one or more baseline audio characteristics of the audio feed;
wherein the detected event comprises unusual audio in the audio feed detected by comparing the audio feed with the baseline audio characteristics; and
wherein the alert indicates unusual audio has been detected.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein:
the remote workstation includes a loudspeaker configured to output the audio feed and further has a mute input whereby the remote expert (RE) can select to mute the output of the audio feed; and
in the case of the audio feed being muted, the alert indicating unusual audio has been detected comprises turning off the mute whereby the loudspeaker outputs the audio feed.

### Claim 10 (depends on 6)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein:
the detected event comprises a verbal call for assistance detected by analysis of the audio feed; and
the alert indicates a request for assistance.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:
tracking a workflow of the imaging examination;
wherein the detecting of an event is based on analysis of the feed and the analysis of the workflow.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the tracking of the workflow includes:
analyzing the feed to track the events in the workflow.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the detecting of an event based on analysis of the feed and the analysis of the workflow includes:
analyzing timestamps of the tracked workflow.

### Claim 14 (depends on 11)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the detected event is a workflow event of the tracked workflow.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the feed comprises a plurality of feeds at a corresponding number of imaging bays.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the outputting includes:
outputting the alert to the local operator (LO).

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the outputting includes:
determining a significance of the alert.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the outputting includes:
correlating a response time to the alert.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the outputting includes:
transferring the alert to another remote expert (RE) when the remote expert who received the alert cannot resolve the alert before expiration of the response time.

### Claim 20

An apparatus for providing assistance from a remote expert (RE) to a local operator (LO) during a medical imaging examination performed using a medical imaging device, the apparatus comprising:
a workstation operable by the remote expert; and
at least one electronic processor programmed to:
provide a user interface (UI) on the workstation displaying a feed of at least an imaging bay where the medical imaging device is disposed;
track a workflow of the medical imaging examination;
detect, by analysis of the feed and analysis of the workflow, an event occurring in the imaging bay; and
output, via the remote workstation, an alert indicating the detected event.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the feed comprises one of a video feed or an audio feed of at the least the imaging bay.

### Claim 22 (depends on 20)

The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the at least one electronic processor is further programmed to:
output the alert to the local operator (LO).

### Claim 23

A method of providing assistance from a remote expert (RE) to a local operator (LO) during a medical imaging examination, the method comprising:
providing a user interface (UI), on a remote workstation operable by the remote expert, displaying a plurality of feeds of a corresponding number of imaging bays at a corresponding number of medical sites where a corresponding number of medical imaging devices is disposed;
detecting, from the plurality of feeds, an event occurring in at least one of the imaging bays; and
outputting, via the remote workstation, an alert indicating the detected event.