System and method for monitoring clinical activities
Inventors
Ranasinghe, Nadeesha O. • Al-Ali, Ammar • Kiani, Massi Joe E. • Usman, Mohammad • Zhao, Bowen • de Malliard, Pierre • Min, Peter Sunghwan
Assignees
Publication Number
US-12322185-B2
Publication Date
2025-06-03
Expiration Date
2041-02-12
Interested in licensing this patent?
MTEC can help explore whether this patent might be available for licensing for your application.
Abstract
A monitoring system can be configured to monitor activities or actions occurring in clinical settings, such as hospitals. The monitoring system can improve patient safety. The system can use visual and/or other tracking methods. The system can detect and/or identify people in a clinical setting. The system can also track activities of the people, for example, to improve adherence to hygiene protocols.
Core Innovation
The invention provides a monitoring system for clinical environments, particularly to enhance patient safety by tracking people’s movements and monitoring adherence to hygiene protocols such as hand washing. The system employs cameras and hardware processors distributed within the clinical space. Cameras capture image data from designated viewpoints, and processors detect and track individuals by assigning boundary boxes in image frames and following their movement across frames.
A core feature is the monitoring of hand hygiene compliance by detecting whether a person has performed the necessary hand hygiene activity before entering a patient zone. The system incorporates configuration information, including camera, entrance, bed, hand hygiene station, and display locations, received from a central server during initiation. Based on real-time detection and activity analysis, the system outputs an alert to the display device in closest proximity when a person enters the patient zone without having complied with the hand hygiene protocol.
This approach addresses the problem of ensuring patient safety by providing reliable, real-time monitoring of compliance with hygiene standards in clinical settings such as hospitals. Monitoring people and objects, and providing alerts for non-compliance, helps reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections and supports better clinical practice adherence.
Claims Coverage
The patent contains two independent claims, each defining distinct inventive features for clinical activity monitoring systems.
Distributed camera and processor system for hand hygiene compliance monitoring
The system includes: - A first camera and first hardware processor to detect persons in clinical rooms, assign boundary boxes, and track movement. - A second camera and second hardware processor to detect hand hygiene activity. - Plurality of display devices, with processors able to determine proximity to a person. - Processors receive configuration information (display, camera, entrance, hand hygiene station, and bed locations) from a server upon system initiation. - Processors communicate, identify if hand hygiene activity hasn’t been performed, locate the nearest display device to the person entering the patient zone, and output an alert to that display. These features enable room configuration awareness, real-time tracking, and targeted alerting based on compliance.
Multi-sensor, camera-based clinical activity monitoring with tracking and server-driven alerts
This system comprises: - Multiple sensors, including at least a first and second high-resolution camera positioned at fixed relative positions and angles facing clinical objects such as a hospital bed. - At least one camera processor processes images from these cameras, creates boundary boxes for individuals, and tracks their movement across frames. - The processor is linked to a server to which processed tracking and identification data is sent. - The server detects hand hygiene non-compliance by determining if a person assigned to a boundary box has not performed hand hygiene, assigns a contaminated status, and outputs an alarm to the display device nearest the person/hospital bed upon their presence within a predetermined distance. This inventive feature integrates local sensing, central server logic, and targeted alerting for compliance issues in clinical activity.
Together, these inventive features establish a clinical activity monitoring system integrating distributed sensing, activity detection, location-aware alerting, and comprehensive configuration for real-time, privacy-conscious hand hygiene and motion compliance within patient care environments.
Stated Advantages
The system improves patient safety by monitoring hand hygiene compliance and movements of people in clinical settings.
It enables real-time monitoring and prompt alerts, allowing immediate feedback and potential prevention of non-compliant clinical behavior.
Privacy is enhanced by processing raw image data locally on camera processors and not transmitting image data to central servers or display devices.
The distributed nature of processing avoids single points of failure, increasing system resilience in clinical environments.
Efficient use of bandwidth is achieved since only non-image data is transmitted, reducing network load and improving security.
The configuration information enables flexible deployment across various clinical layouts by incorporating specific room parameters such as camera and display locations.
Documented Applications
Monitoring hand hygiene compliance in hospital clinical rooms to ensure adherence to hygiene protocols.
Improving patient safety by detecting and alerting non-compliance with clinical protocols such as hand washing and proximity to patient zones.
Tracking and identifying people and objects in clinical environments to support infection control and staff activity monitoring.
Providing access control and monitoring motion-based activities in hospitals via combined video and identification tag tracking.
Detecting and alerting medical staff, patients, or visitors who have not performed hand hygiene before entering sensitive areas.
Monitoring home settings for hand hygiene and safety-related activities, including detection of non-compliance, intruders, and hazardous conditions.
Interested in licensing this patent?