Improved image acquisition for medical dose preparation system

Related application This application claims the priority of US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 719,235, entitled "IMAGE ACQUISITION FOR MEDICAL DOSE PREPARATION SYSTEM" filed on October 26, 2012. , By reference in its entirety is incorporated herein.

Many care providers have pharmacies that prepare medical doses for administration to patients treated by the care providers. In this regard, pharmacies may use prescriptions to prepare drugs to fulfill medical dose instructions ordered by care providers (eg, physicians) for administration to patients. Some medical doses to be prepared can be prepared in a specially constructed and controlled environment within the pharmacy (eg, "Room IV"), a compounded sterile product (CSP). product) may be included. The process of preparing medical doses may be carried out in accordance with local care provider policies, government regulations, industry associations (eg, US Pharmacopeia Chapter 797), or other appropriate policies. For example, drug preparation is generally performed in a laminar flow hood, isolator, or in a biologically safe cabinet by an operator (typically a pharmacy technician) who is tasked with preparing the medical dose. May be struck. Once a medical dose has been prepared, it may need to be confirmed by a pharmacist before being dispensed by a pharmacy for administration to a patient.

In conventional pharmacy management methods, medical dose instructions may be provided to a printer that prints a label indicating the medical dose instructions to be affixed to the finished dose once the dose has been prepared. Pharmacy technicians may be required to remove labels from label printers and use those labels as work order travelers in the process of preparing each dose. Once the dose is prepared, the technician can label the dose. The completed and labeled dose is taken by the pharmacist to identify the drug container and / or other material used during preparation of the dose, for example, along with the source ingredient. It may be placed. In this regard, to confirm the dose, the pharmacist may be required to enter the clean room where the dose is prepared and physically observe the material associated with the dose instruction. Therefore, confirmation of the prepared dose requires the pharmacist to wear protective clothing or equipment, which can be time consuming and resource intensive.

Moreover, the only motivation that pharmacies may receive to prepare medical dose instructions is printed labels. In this regard, if the label is lost or damaged, the dose may not be prepared. In addition, the label stack in a label printer can be the only evidence of what dose was ordered, prepared, and / or dispensed, making the task of prioritizing difficult. Therefore, tracking doses based solely on physical labels can result in unprepared, lost, or duplicate doses. In some cases, pharmacies may, of course, duplicate labels, so pharmacies are required to check and prepare each label against other labels that have already been received. Determine if the label represents a new dose instruction. This practice can result in increased management overhead in pharmacies, increasing operating costs and reducing pharmacy efficiency.

Moreover, instructions for drug preparation may be recorded in official FDA-approved drug documentation, but pharmacy technicians should ensure that the documentation is examined when preparing doses. Will not always be. Rather, pharmacy technicians remember the steps required for the most common drugs, and then transfer those steps to other drugs to be prepared without checking the protocol associated with the particular drug. It will be generalized together. In this regard, if the dose order contains certain instructions that the pharmacy technician does not recognize, references for appropriate techniques may not be available or searched. Therefore, dose instructions, including special instructions, often have to be prepared by a more skilled technician or under the guidance of a more skilled technician. In both respects, the protocol used to prepare the dose may not conform to the FDA approval document for the drug being prepared.

In addition, in traditional pharmacy management methods, pharmacy technicians may be responsible for creating prepared doses and maintenance records for the products in the prescriptions used to make the doses. For example, pharmacy technicians may be tasked with posting information such as lot numbers, expiration dates, and serial numbers. Manual record making requires labor-intensive practices that can lead to pharmacy inefficiencies, leading to the possibility of record errors and making paper records almost unsearchable.

In this regard, the present disclosure relates to embodiments of a medical dose preparation and control system. This medical dose preparation management system can receive a dose command, generate a digital dose command from the received dose command, and make it possible to manage this digital dose command. For example, a medical dose preparation management system may be capable of operating to produce and store information related to medical dose preparation. Such information is confirmed by the pharmacist on the medical dose order, tracked by the pharmacy or care provider, and retained in connection with the digital dose order record for accounting audit, compliance, or quality assurance purposes. It may be used to be used, or it may be used in the management of dose instructions before or after administration to a patient. In other words, the medical dose preparation management system can provide an improved system that allows the pharmacy or care provider to track medical dose instructions in an automatic fashion. The medical dose preparation and control system may be provided in an automatic manner in which the medical dose is retained in connection with the digital dose instruction record for auditing, compliance, or quality assurance purposes, or administered to the patient. It may be used in the management of dose instructions before or after. Therefore, medical dose preparation and control systems, among other things, have improved humans and machines that meet high levels of compliance requirements in the manufacture and sale of drugs, with little or no personnel intervention required. Provides the interaction of. An example of information that can be created and stored in connection with a medical dose instruction is one or more medical dose preparation images. For example, a workstation in which a dose instruction is prepared can include an imaging device (eg, a digital camera) capable of capturing images associated with the preparation of a medical dose. In one embodiment, the medical dose preparation image is, for example, a source container. May include drug containers used in dose preparation, including receptacles), transport containers, and / or dosing containers. Therefore, medical dose preparation images may be used to document or provide evidence of the preparation of medical dose instructions. Thus, the system provides improved human-machine dialogue, as it still allows accurate and reliable documentation, even when the need for human dialogue is reduced or eliminated.

Reducing the size of the medical dose-prepared images in memory can be advantageous given the potential for capturing and storing a large number of medical dose-prepared images. However, since such images can be used in a variety of contexts, including, for example, during confirmation of dose instructions by a pharmacist, image quality is generally of great concern and therefore stores medical dose preparation images. When it is preferable that the resolution is not reduced. In this regard, reducing the physical size of an image (ie, cropping an image to remove non-informational or useless parts of the image) is medical in-memory without reducing the resolution of the image. Dosage preparation May be used to effectively reduce the size of images.

However, manually cropping each medical dose preparation image can be cumbersome, increasing the cost and time required to prepare the dose. In this regard, the devices described herein can use an automatic cropping operation to automatically reduce the size of the medical dose-prepared image in memory. For example, the region of interest in the image can be determined. The region of interest in the image can be captured as a medical dose prepared image that excludes at least a portion of the image data that is not within the region of interest.

Thus, the amount of image data stored in memory can be reduced without a reduction in the resolution of the corresponding image and / or while maintaining or reducing the amount of corresponding image data stored in memory. The resolution of the captured image can be increased. For example, for a given image resolution, the amount of corresponding image data can be reduced by reducing the size of the image. Therefore, a large amount of data can be stored even when there are few hardware resources, for example, almost no memory capacity. Furthermore, image data can be processed even when there are few hardware resources, for example, little processing power.

As an addition or alternative, for a given amount of image data, a higher resolution image may be stored if the corresponding image data is only the image data of the clipped portion of the image. Therefore, if the amount of image data is reduced, the computational overhead required to process, store, or take action on the image may be reduced, and thus the work at the workstation. The flow can be done more quickly. As an addition or alternative, when the resolution of the image is increased, the image check is by allowing finer detail capture (for example, to allow the image being checked by a pharmacist or the like to be magnified). Can be improved.

In this regard, the first aspect described herein includes an apparatus for processing medical dose preparation image data in a medical dose preparation management system. The system includes an imaging device (eg, a digital camera) with an imaging field that includes a medical dose preparation staging area. The imaging device outputs digital image data of the imaging field, including the medical dose preparation staging area (eg, equivalent to still digital images, digital video data streams, and / or other forms of digital image data). It is possible to operate as it does. The system also includes a processor capable of communicating with the imaging device to receive digital image data in the imaging field. The system enables automation of medical dose instruction preparation and / or delivery documentation. In particular, the system can enable such automation and / or increase in image resolution at very high speeds that would otherwise not be possible by humans. In other words, the system advantageously combines digital image processing with medical dose instruction preparation and / or drug delivery that would otherwise not be done. The reason is that, according to the present application, data processing may be performed at high speed and / or with increased image resolution.

The system of the first aspect can include a display capable of communicating with a processor to receive digital image data of the imaging field and display a corresponding image perceptible by the user. The processor is capable of processing digital image data to identify at least one region of interest in the imaging field that corresponds to at least one drug container located within the medical dose preparation staging region. Thus, when the display is utilized as described above, the regions of interest can be visually distinguished by the processor on the display in a manner perceptible to the user. Therefore, it is desirable in medical dose preparation and / or delivery without the need for physical control of the imaging device by the system or the availability of one or more drug containers in the medical dose preparation staging area by humans. It is possible to enable a high level of document creation. In other words, the system is freed from the work of manual steps and / or assists the user in performing the work of manual steps to obtain detailed documentation (eg detailed image data). to enable. In addition, document creation is more reliable or reliable than human document creation, as document creation is machine-assisted or even performed entirely by a machine, the system described in this application. .. It may even be possible to guarantee such documentation, as the system strictly follows the rules of the machine without any deviations that could be human.

The system of the first aspect may also include a user control device capable of communicating with a processor to initiate the acquisition of medical dose preparation image data from digital image data. Other embodiments can include other mechanisms that initiate the capture of medical dose preparation images. In any respect, the medical dose-prepared image data can include image data corresponding to at least a portion of the region of interest and correspond to at least a portion of the imaging field (eg, a portion of the image data outside the region of interest). ) Can be excluded. The system can also include a memory capable of communicating with a processor to receive and store medical dose preparation image data. User-controlled devices provide improved human-machine interaction, for example, by relating to processors that automatically process images.

Improvements and additional features of some features are applicable to the first aspect. Improvements and additional features of these features may be used individually or in any combination. Therefore, each of the following features that will be described may be used in conjunction with any other feature or combination of features of the first aspect, but is not required to be used as such.

In one embodiment, the processor may be able to operate to analyze digital image data to identify areas of interest. For example, a processor may be able to operate to analyze a predetermined subset of digital image data (eg, a subset of pixels of digital image data) to identify a region of interest. This subset is placed on a given portion of the digital image data so that the analysis of the image data may be performed on a portion of the digital image data but not on the entire digital image data. It may correspond.

In one application, the analysis may include comparing digital image data with background images in the medical dose preparation staging area. In this regard, the background image may not include the drug container within the medical dose preparation staging area. That is, the background image may represent the appearance of the medical dose preparation staging area in the absence of an object (eg, drug container). Therefore, a given subset of digital image data may be compared to the corresponding subset of background images. For example, digital image data may be compared with the corresponding subset of the subset of pixels in the background image.

In one application, the plurality of pixels may extend substantially across the digital image data in at least a first direction (eg, the width of the image data). Further, the plurality of pixels may extend substantially all over the digital image data in a second direction (eg, the height of the image data) perpendicular to the first direction. Therefore, a plurality of pixels corresponding to a predetermined subset of image data can form a grid on the digital image data. The grid can include grid lines separated in relation to drug containers of known size. For example, grid lines intersect a medical container with at least two grid lines in at least two dimensions (eg, corresponding to both the width and length of the container), even for the smallest known drug container to be imaged. May be separated to do so.

In one embodiment, the region of interest may be defined by a boundary area defined by multiple edges. Each of the edges is this, at least partially based on the threshold difference between the digital image data and the background image at the identified location (eg, along at least a portion of the grid lines) of a given subset of the digital image data. May be placed in an identified location. In one example, the processor may be able to operate to calculate intensity data for each pixel of a given subset of digital image data and for each pixel of a corresponding given subset of background image. This intensity data may be filtered (eg, high path filtering and / or low path filtering). The threshold difference may correspond to a predetermined difference in intensity data between a predetermined subset of digital image data and a background image.

In various embodiments, the digital image data is not due to the presence of the drug container, but simply to slight variations in the position of the background image relative to the background of the digital image data, variations in lighting, or other minor differences. It may contain differences from the background image due to it. In this regard, each pixel in a given subset may be compared to a plurality of adjacent corresponding pixels from the background image. In this regard, minor variations related to the differences disclosed above may be ignored in the analysis.

In one application, the identified locations resulting from the comparison of intensity data between the digital image data and the background image are the minimum threshold difference and / or maximum along the grid lines in the first and / or second direction. It may correspond to one of the threshold differences. That is, the difference between the two thresholds may be identified in one or both of the first and / or second directions corresponding to the range of the drug container in the width and / or height dimensions. In yet another application, the identified location is selected to correspond to the second most remote grid line in the grid, outside the threshold difference, in the first and second directions along the grid lines. May be done. Therefore, if a portion of the drug container extends beyond the grid line where the threshold difference is identified, then if the identified location is selected as the next remote grid line, then the entire portion of the container remains the area of interest. May be included in. To summarize the above, the system controls the imaging device, for example, freeing the user from manual and / or intellectual work and / or assisting the user in performing manual and / or intellectual work. Provide improved human-machine interaction by doing or manipulating one or more drug containers.

A second aspect, described herein, comprises a method for processing and capturing medical dose preparation image data. This method involves including a medical dose preparation staging area within the imaging field of the imaging device. The method further comprises acquiring digital image data of the imaging field. The method also involves identifying an area in the imaging field that corresponds to at least one drug container located within the medical dose preparation staging region with a processor capable of communicating with the imaging device. The method can also include displaying digital image data on a display. Areas of interest can be visibly distinguished by the processor on the display in a manner perceptible to the user.

The method of the second aspect can also include receiving input from a user control device and initiating the capture of medical dose preparation image data from digital image data. This medical dose-prepared image data includes image data corresponding to at least a portion of the area. The method further comprises storing medical dose preparation image data in memory. In various method embodiments, the method can use a system with any of the system features described herein.

According to yet another aspect, a computer program product that can be stored on a computer-readable medium and / or can be implemented as a computer-processable data stream is provided, and the computer program product provides computer-processable instructions. Including, when this instruction is loaded into the computer's memory and executed by the computer, it causes the computer to perform the methods generally described above and in the more specific examples below.

Improvements and additional features of some features are applicable to the second aspect. Improvements and additional features of these features may be used individually or in any combination. Therefore, each of the following features that will be described may be used in conjunction with any other feature or a combination of features of the second aspect, but is not required to be used as such.

For example, the speed at which the discriminating action takes place can be important for the method of the second aspect. As can be understood, the amount of dose instructions prepared in pharmacies and the like can be relatively large. Therefore, efficient preparation of medical dose instructions can be very important. In this regard, it may be desirable to generate an automatic cropping operation relatively quickly to prevent preparation delays when preparing medical dose instructions.

Therefore, in one embodiment, the digital image data may include video stream data. In this embodiment, the identification can be done faster than the refresh rate of the video data stream. Therefore, each successive frame of the video data stream can undergo an automatic cropping operation without slowing down the capture or display of the video data stream.

A number of additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the description of embodiments provided herein.

<figref num="1">It is a schematic flow chart which shows one Embodiment of the medical dose preparation management system and one Embodiment of its operation.</figref><figref num="2">FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of a workstation for use in a medical dose preparation and management system.</figref><figref num="3">It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the background image for use in one Embodiment of an automatic cropping operation.</figref><figref num="4">It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the video data stream which may be the target of the automatic cropping operation.</figref><figref num="5">FIG. 5 shows a video data stream of FIG. 4 with a subset of images identified.</figref><figref num="6">FIG. 5 shows a background image of FIG. 3 in which a subset of background images corresponds to the identified subset of FIG.</figref><figref num="7">FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of an image obtained from a video data stream.</figref><figref num="8">It is a plot which shows the mathematical transformation of the data acquired from the image of FIG.</figref><figref num="9">It is a plot showing the raw pixel intensity data obtained from the image of FIG.</figref><figref num="10">It is a plot which shows the processed pixel intensity data from the image of FIG.</figref><figref num="11">FIG. 5 shows a video data stream of FIG. 4, highlighting specific features applicable to automatic cropping operations.</figref><figref num="12">It is a diagram showing a user-perceptible display output corresponding to the video data stream of FIG. 4 once an automatic cropping operation is performed on it.</figref><figref num="13">It is an example of a medical dose preparation image taken from the video data stream of FIG. 4 resulting from the automatic cropping operation performed on it.</figref><figref num="14">It is an example of a medical dose preparation image taken from the video data stream of FIG. 4 resulting from the automatic cropping operation performed on it.</figref>

Although there is room for various modifications and alternatives to the present invention, specific embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings as examples and will be described in detail herein. However, the present specification is not intended to limit the invention to any particular form, rather the invention is an equivalent of all modifications within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims. , And can include alternative forms.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a system 10 that can be used in a care provider pharmacy 12 to aid in the preparation and / or management of medical doses. System 10 can include dose instruction input 20 to receive medical dose instructions. The dose command input 20 can be used by a caregiver (eg, a doctor, a nurse, etc.) to command a medical dose.

The medical dose command received at dose command input 20 may be patient-specific or may be a patient-independent command at the time of command. In this regard, the medical dose instruction may correspond to a contained medication unit, which is a drug unit. -Patient-specific units, with drug units designated for administration to specific patients, A non-patient-specific unit with a drug unit that should later be designated for administration to a particular patient, or Drug component source unit to be used in the preparation of patient-specific or non-patient-specific units (eg, designated for administration to a particular patient after preparation) May have one of them. Examples of contained drug units that may correspond to drug dose instructions include Mixed sterilized products, Injectable drug, Chemotherapy drug preparation or Dietary supplements that require administration by a patient care provider (eg, sterile, injectable dietary supplements) There is.

In the latter respect, dietary supplements may contain components of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or TPN. Moreover, dietary supplements may include partial dietary supplements. The dietary supplement may contain premixed bags, bases, and additional ingredients individually or in combination, or may contain other forms of the dietary supplement or ingredients thereof. The dietary supplement may be for administration via intravenous injection, in the form of food, or for use with a feeding tube or the like.

In any respect, the medical dose may contain one or more pieces of information that may be used to aid in the preparation of the drug dose and may be relevant to the administration of dose instructions to the patient. Yes, or may be related to dose instructions. For example, the dose instruction Drug identifier, Drug amount, Drug concentration, Information related to the patient receiving the drug unit related to the drug dose command, Scheduling information for the drug unit associated with the drug dose instruction (eg, dosing time), or Other relevant information about drug units related to drug dose instructions May contain information equivalent to.

In any respect, medical dose instructions may be communicated to the medical dose preparation and control system 30. The medical dose preparation management system 30 may be capable of operating 50 to obtain dose command data from the dose command information received from the command processor 20. The medical dose preparation management system 30 may also preprocess dose instruction data52. Pretreatment 52 may include, for example, generating a digital dose instruction record maintained by the medical dose preparation management system 30. The digital dose instruction record may be automatically populated with data that can be obtained from the instruction, for example any of the information described above regarding medical dose instructions. In this regard, the information may be analyzed, deleted, or obtained from the drug dose command received at command input 20. Specifically, in one embodiment, the medical dose preparation management system 30 deletes data destined for a human readable output (eg, a printer) from the instruction input 20 into a medical dose instruction record, medically. It may be operational to set the data corresponding to the dose instruction.

In one embodiment, the medical dose preparation management system 30 may operably communicate with the drug dose instruction database 32. In this regard, the drug dose instruction database 32 may be in the care provider facility (ie, may be onsite for the care provider hospital 12). The medical dose preparation management system 30 may, in addition or as an alternative, be able to operate to communicate with a distant drug dose instruction database 34. In this regard, the medical dose preparation management system 30 may communicate with a remote drug dose instruction database 34, such as through a network. In any respect, the drug dose instruction database 32 or 34 may be operational to store the drug dose instruction records in the drug dose instruction database 32 and / or 34. In addition, the drug dose instruction database 32 or 34 may store dose instruction metadata as a corresponding relationship to each instruction of the stored drug dose instructions. The drug dose instruction database 32 or 34 is an active dose instruction (eg, corresponding to a dose instruction that has been generated but not yet administered to the patient) or an archived dose instruction (eg, a dose instruction administered to the patient). (Equivalent to) can be stored. Redundant data may be stored in the onsite medical dose instruction database 32 and the offsite medical dose instruction database 34. For example, the offsite medical dose instruction database 34 may be a backup version of the onsite medical dose instruction database 32.

In any respect, the medical dose instruction metadata may be stored in a corresponding relationship to the drug dose instruction. Medical dose instruction metadata may include, for example, the following types of data: Drug source data showing at least one of the following: --Manufacturer of the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Lot number of the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Expiration date of the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Serial number of the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Drug code indicating the identifier of the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command A set of stored data showing at least one of the following: --A list of the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction or the entity that owns the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --- A list of users who have taken action on the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction. This list of users correlates with the particular actions taken by each user. Or --Follow-up information corresponding to the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the physical movement of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command · Performance data showing at least one of the following --Components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or image data corresponding to the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, --Scanned data obtained from the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Analytical data on the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, --Pharmacist check data, which corresponds to at least one pharmacist check of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command. --- Compliance data corresponding to the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction or the best practices associated with the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Asepticity evaluation data corresponding to the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, --A list of components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or actions corresponding to the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, --Timestamp data corresponding to the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the behavior corresponding to the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, --A list of life cycle events performed on the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose instruction, --Components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or weight data corresponding to the measured weight and / or expected weight of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, or -Environmental data showing at least one of the following --- The temperature at which the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command is exposed, --The temperature at which the component of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command is exposed and the corresponding time period, --Whether the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command are cooled. --Whether the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command are frozen. --The components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the temperature profile experienced by the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command, or --Accelerometer data corresponding to the components of the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command or the force experienced by the contained drug unit corresponding to the drug dose command.

As can be inferred from the above description of the medical dose instruction metadata, the medical dose instruction may inherit the metadata from the components used in the preparation of the medical dose instruction. In a simple example, a medical dose instruction may include a first component (eg, a drug) that should be mixed with a second component (eg, a diluent). This first component may have one or more parts of the metadata described above associated with the first component. In addition, the second component may have one or more parts of the metadata described above associated with the second component. Therefore, medical dose instructions prepared using the first and second components may inherit metadata from each of the first and second components. In this regard, multiple generations of metadata can be edited and derived for a given medical dose instruction. In one embodiment, metadata for any component used to prepare a dose instruction can be edited and derived for a given medical dose instruction. Therefore, metadata information about a medical dose order may include metadata originating from a source component provided by the manufacturer of the dose order component.

The medical dose preparation management system 30 can also operate to organize dose instructions54. Organizing 54 may include prioritization, scheduling, or other work related to organizing or managing dose instructions. The medical dose preparation management system 30 can also operate to route dose instructions to the appropriate workstation 40 for use in the fulfillment of dose instructions56. In this regard, a plurality of workstations 40 may be provided to communicate with the medical dose preparation management system 30. Different workstations 40 of the plurality of workstations 40 may each be suitable for different movements associated with medical dose command management. Therefore, depending on the nature of the medical dose, a particular type of workstation 40 may be used to prepare the dose. The workstation 40 may be onsite or offsite for the care provider hospital 12 shown in FIG. In this regard, routing 56 may include communication to the remote workstation 40 over the network. Moreover, the system 10 can include a combination of on-site workstation 40 and off-site workstation 40 to which dose instructions can be routed 56.

In any respect, the medical dose preparation management system 30 may operably communicate with one or more workstations 40. Dose instruction routing 56 may be at least partially based on one or more factors associated with the dose instruction or preparation of the dose instruction. For example, as mentioned above, the nature of the drug-containing unit corresponding to the dose command (eg, the dose command is a chemotherapeutic drug dose command, a parenteral dose command, or another special dose command. Is there) may take into account the judgment regarding the routing 56 of the dose instruction as a factor. As an addition or alternative, various workstation 40 features regarding the mode in which the dose instructions should be prepared may be considered. For example, some instructions may require different levels of containment, hooding, or other precautions that may or may not be provided at each workstation 40. In one embodiment, other parameters such as technician schedule, workstation schedule, workstation location, drug dose instruction scheduling information, or other information route the dose instruction to a particular workstation 40. 56, which may be used alone or in combination.

At workstation 40, the workflow corresponding to the preparation of medical dose instructions may be displayed 58. In this regard, the workflow specific to the medical dose order currently being prepared at workstation 40 is presented to the technician at workstation 40 to assist or technician preparing the dose order. Can provide guidance to. Thus, the technician can follow a series of steps to prepare a medical dose based on the displayed 58 workflows associated with the dose instruction.

During and / or subsequent preparation of dose instructions, workstation 40 may be used to assist in obtaining dose instruction metadata related to medical dose instructions. For example, the workstation 40 may be associated with, for example, obtaining a barcode scan of a product, capturing a medical dose preparation image of a medical dose commanding vessel in use or thereafter in dose preparation, or preparing a dose. It is possible to record documents related to the preparation of medical doses, such as the acquisition of information on. In one embodiment, one or more of the types of data described above with respect to drug dose metadata may be acquired in connection with the preparation of medical dose instructions at workstation 40.

At least a portion of the 60-dose metadata obtained for the drug dose may be stored for viewing by the appropriate person (eg, pharmacist). In this regard, dose metadata can be used to confirm the dose prepared before the dose is administered from pharmacy 12. In one embodiment, the metadata collected at workstation 40 can be made available to pharmacists over the network. In this regard, the pharmacist, who was tasked with 62 tasks confirming the dose instructions, was remotely (eg, via a network, in the hospital but outside Room IV, or completely away from the hospital premises. May have access to information and / or data (at location). With the ability to access metadata remotely, pharmacists avoid having to enter room IV to confirm dose instructions62 (ie, therefore generally associated with entering a controlled environment in room IV). It can be possible to avoid potentially cumbersome changing procedures). 62 to confirm may be a pharmacist's review of medical dose preparation images, information obtained, or other data regarding medical dose instructions. For example, a pharmacist may ensure that the correct drug was prepared in the correct format and / or in the correct amount based on the metadata collected and stored during the preparation of the medical dose instruction. If the drug dose order is incorrect in any way, the pharmacist may require the drug dose order to be reprocessed or resumed.

Once the dose command is prepared and confirmed 62, the medical dose preparation management system 30 can dispense the dose command 64. When dispensing a dose order 64, the dose order may be sent from pharmacy 12 for administration to the patient by the caregiver. For example, the dose may be administered at the caregiver hospital 12 or at an offsite location under the guidance or supervision of the caregiver.

The medical dose preparation management system 30 also facilitates tracking of dose instructions 66 for administration to a patient. The pharmacy workflow manager 30 can also keep records associated with each dose that can be stored or archived. For example, records may be stored digitally in an electronically indexed and searchable form. The record can include at least a portion, preferably all of the metadata for each dose.

Further reference to FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of workstation 40. The workstation 40 may include a processor 70 capable of communicating with the imaging device 80. The image pickup device 80 may be a digital camera that can operate to output digital image data. Digital image data can include still images and / or digital video. In this regard, the imaging device 80 can output a video data stream 82 received by the processor 70. In this regard, the processor 70 can include a video data stream processing module 72 for processing the video data stream 82 received by the processor 70 from the imaging device 80. The various components shown in FIG. 2 that communicate directly are shown, but these various components may communicate operably through a network interface or the like.

The imaging device 80 can include an imaging field 84. Imaging field 84 can include a medical dose preparation staging area 86. The imaging device 80 may be supportably mounted on the base 90. For example, the support 92 can extend from the base 90 to the imaging device 80 to support the imaging device 80 with respect to the base 80. In this regard, in one embodiment, the medical dose preparation staging region 86 can include a support surface 94 of the base 90. The medical dose preparation staging region 86 can also include a space above the plane 94 (eg, extending from plane to plane and / or towards the imaging device 80). In any respect, the imaging field 84 of the imaging device 80 can include a medical dose preparation staging region 86 capable of supportively receiving the drug container 100. The imaging device 80, the support 92, and the base 90 can then collectively define the camera stand 190. Therefore, the camera stand 190 is a workstation to support the imaging device 80 against the base 90 for the purpose of acquiring medical dose preparation images and / or other metadata during the preparation of medical dose instructions. Can be used in 40.

The drug container 100, which can be supported by the base 90 within the medical dose preparation staging area 86, can include any material, container, device, or other object used in dose preparation. For example, the drug container 100 is a source container. It may be a receptacle), a transport container, or an administration container, and may include this. The source container can store the drug product stored in the pharmacy prior to formulation or dose preparation. In this regard, the source container may be a container packaged by the drug manufacturer and received from the drug manufacturer. Therefore, the source container can contain information about the drug on it. For example, product name, concentration, quantity, lot information, expiration date information, serial number, other manufacturing information, or other information may be associated with the drug and / or displayed on the source container. There is. The medical dose preparation management system 30 may be operational to store metadata about the source container, including any of the aforementioned portions of data that may be displayed on the source container. In this regard, the source container may be identifiable by workstation 40 (eg, via the use of a machine-readable mark (indicium) such as a bar code).

Moreover, the medical dose preparation management system 30 may be able to operate the metadata from the source container so that it belongs to the dose instruction in which the source container is used as described above. When the source container contains pre-prepared drug formulated in the pharmacy and placed in the source container for later use in dose preparation, the source container metadata is for medical dose instructions. May belong to or even be added to the metadata for. In this regard, the metadata for several generations of components used to prepare medical dose instructions (eg, from the original source component received from the manufacturer, such as the manufacturer's drug). ) May belong to the medical dose instruction. Thus, the medical dose instruction metadata may include information about all components used in the medical dose instruction, including inherited metadata. Metadata for the various components can be retrieved when identifying container 100 on workstation 40 (eg, by scanning a machine-readable seal). In various embodiments, the source container may be a vial, syringe, bottle, bag, or other suitable drug container known in the art.

The dosing container may be any container used during administration of the medical dose to the patient. The administration container may contain any drug, diluent, adjunct, or any other material to be administered to the patient. In various embodiments, the dosing container may be a syringe, IV bag, or other suitable drug container used in the administration of the substance to the patient. The dosing vessel may also contain the metadata contained in the metadata for the prepared medical dose instructions.

The transport container can be used to transport the substance from the source container to the dosing container. For example, the transport container may be any other suitable container known in the art capable of transporting the substance from the syringe or source container to the dosing container. The transport container may also contain the metadata contained in the metadata for the prepared medical dose instructions.

Returning to FIG. 2, the processor 70 can further communicate with the display 110. In this regard, the video data stream 82 received from the imaging device 80 may be displayed on the display 110 in a manner perceptible to the user. The video data stream 82 displayed on the display 110 may be processed by the video data stream processing module 72. For example, the video data stream processing module 72 may be operational to capture still images from the video data stream 82. The video data stream 82 can include a series of images displayed at a given frame rate. For example, the frame rate can be 5-10 frames / sec. In another embodiment, the imaging device 80 can provide a still image to the processor 70. In this regard, the instructions presented below relate to processing video data stream 82, but also to still digital images (eg, request in response to user commands). It will be appreciated that it can be done (on the image one at a time, for example, when it is done).

The video data stream processing module 72 of the processor 70 may be operational to capture medical dose-prepared images from the video data stream 82 received from the imaging device 80. The medical dose preparation image captured by the video data stream processing module 72 may be one or more drug containers 100 used during the preparation of the medical dose instruction. In this regard, the preparation of medical dose instructions can be documented by capturing images of the drug container 100 used to prepare the dose. Medical dose preparation images can be stored as metadata about medical dose instructions. The medical dose preparation image can be one or more drug containers at various stages during dose preparation. For example, the source container, transport container, or dosing container can be imaged before, during, or after dose preparation.

The medical dose preparation image captured by the video data stream processing module 72 may be stored in a memory 120 capable of communicating with the processor 70. In this regard, the medical dose preparation image may be stored locally in memory 120 at workstation 40. As an addition or alternative, the medical dose preparation image is located remotely by a network interface 140 capable of communicating with the processor 70 (eg, onsite drug dose instruction database 32 or offsite drug dose instruction database 34 shown in FIG. 1). Can be communicated to). In any respect, the medical dose preparation image allows the image to be checked later during confirmation of the medical dose instruction (eg, as described above with respect to FIG. 1, Confirm 62) and / Or generally accessible to maintain records for dose instructions prepared by workstation 40 and / or hospital pharmacy 12.

The processor 70 can also communicate with the user control device 130. The user control device 130 may be operational to receive input from the user (eg, a pharmacy technician preparing the dose). The user control device 130 may be, for example, a foot pedal, a button, a touch screen, a mouse, a keyboard, or other user input device known in the art. The user can utilize the user control device 130 to trigger the capture of medical dose preparation images from the video data stream 82. For example, the drug container 100 can be viewed by the user by observing the display 110 displaying the video data stream 82 captured by the imaging device 80 in the imaging field 86 containing the drug container 100. Once the image displayed on the display 110 is acceptable to the user, the user uses the user control device 130 to store it in memory 120 or in a remote database, as described above. Medical dose preparation image capture can be triggered.

The workstation 40 can also include a printer 150 capable of printing dose labels, ongoing doses, and / or completed doses associated with medical products. In this regard, the printer 150 may be a label printer capable of printing labels used in pharmacies 12 and / or hospitals in connection with metal dose and / or medical dose instructions.

It will be appreciated that during the preparation of medical dose instructions at Hospital 12, the number of medical dose preparation images captured in connection with the dose instructions can be very large. For example, multiple images may be captured in relation to each dose prepared. In most hospitals, the number of doses prepared daily can be in the hundreds or more. In this regard, the memory resources required to store the images captured in connection with the preparation of medical dose instructions are large, especially considering hospital practices for storing archived images for dose instructions. Sometimes.

Moreover, the medical dose preparation image may be used by the pharmacist to confirm the medical dose order before formulating the order from the pharmacy, to facilitate an accurate check of the image by the pharmacist. , The image resolution may be abnormally high. Therefore, there is an increased need for a large amount of dedicated memory resources to store medical dose preparation images. Therefore, any reduction in image size (eg, represented by the size of the image in memory) can be used to reduce the memory resources required to store the image and / or to store the medical dose-prepared image. It may be advantageous to enable more efficient use of available memory resources.

Therefore, capturing medical dose-prepared images that include the entire imaging field 86 may be an inefficient use of memory resources. Cutting an image and holding and storing the relevant part of the imaging field 86 (ie, the portion containing the drug container 100) is more efficient in memory resources than storing an image of the entire imaging field 86. Usage may be. For example, for a given resolution, the overall size of the image may be reduced in order to reduce the size of the image in memory. As an addition or alternative, for images with reduced overall dimensions, the resolution of the image is increased without increasing the size of the image in memory compared to the image of the entire imaging field 84 at the reduced resolution. I can let you.

However, requiring the operator to manually crop each image in the imaging field 86 may increase the time required to prepare the medical dose instruction. This can result in increased costs associated with disease preparation, or is undesirable based on the scheduling requirements of the dose, especially the "stat" dose, which may be critical to the patient's life. There is. In this regard, the video data stream processing module 72 identifies relevant parts of the video data stream 82 for storage purposes and does not affect the speed of preparation of medical dose instructions. It may be possible to operate to perform an automatic cropping operation on the video data stream 82 collected by the imaging device 80 so as to reduce the memory resources required to store the prepared images.

In one embodiment, the automatic cropping operation comprises comparing the video data stream 82 with a background image to identify the region of interest corresponding to an object located in the imaging field within the video data stream 82. Sometimes. Further referring to FIG. 3, an example of a still image showing one temporal example of the video data stream 82 collected by the imaging device 80 in the medical dose preparation staging region 86 is shown. The medical dose preparation staging area 86 is adapted to engage the groove 88, channel 89, or drug container 100 to hold the drug container 100 stationary within the medical dose preparation staging area 86. A drug container engaging mechanism such as a mechanism can be included. In FIG. 3, drug container 100 is not shown and therefore there is no object in the medical dose preparation staging area 86. This image can be captured as a background image 200 showing the appearance of the medical dose preparation region 86 within the video data stream 82 in which the drug container 100 is absent. Notably, the base 90 may extend over the imaging field 84 and occupy almost all of the background within the imaging field 84. The background image 200 may be compared to the video data stream 82 from the imaging device 80 during the automatic cropping operation. The background image may be stored remotely or locally (eg, in the background image store 124 in memory 120 of the workstation).

In one embodiment, multiple background images 200 may be acquired such that different background images out of the plurality of background images 200 are used in the automatic cropping operation depending on the location and / or orientation of the imaging device 80. .. For example, the imaging device 80 may be positioned at multiple locations. Therefore, the background image 200 may differ depending on the position of the image pickup device 80. In this regard, the sensor is used to determine the position where the imaging device 80 is located so that the appropriate corresponding background image of the plurality of background images can be used based on the identified position of the imaging device 80. May be provided.

In any respect, after background image 200 has been achieved, one or more drug containers 100 may be placed within the medical dose preparation staging area 86 as shown in FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, syringe 100a and vial 100b are located within the medical dose preparation staging area 86. As can be understood, the drug container engagement mechanism (88, 89) can at least generally correspond to the drug container 100 located within the medical dose preparation staging area 86. In either respect, the video data stream 82 obtained from the imaging device 80 can now include drug containers 100a and 100b, as shown in FIG. The automatic cropping operation generally provides a background image 200 of the acquired medical dose preparation staging area 86, where the drug container 100 is not placed, in the drug container 86. Includes determining the area of interest corresponding to the drug container 100 as compared to the video data stream 82 containing 100.

In this regard, when analyzing the difference between the background image 200 and the video data stream 82, it is possible to determine multiple locations representing the difference between the video data stream 82 and the background image 200, which correspond to the drug container 100. There is, therefore, an area of interest that includes the drug container 100 can be determined. The captured medical dose preparation image may then contain image data corresponding only to the identified region of interest, including the drug container 100, excluding some or all of the imaging field 86 outside the region of interest. I have something to do.

In one embodiment, a subset of the video data stream 82 (eg, a predetermined subset) is compared to the corresponding subset of the background image 200 with the video data stream 82 and background corresponding to the presence of the drug container 100. May identify differences in image 200. Comparing only a subset of the video data stream 82 to the corresponding subset of the background image 200 may reduce the amount of data to be processed, thus making the automatic cropping operation faster. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the preparation of the medical dose from being delayed.

In this regard, the automatic cropping operation described herein can be much faster than the method by which every pixel of the image is analyzed to determine the difference between the video data stream 82 and the background image 200. Therefore, the automatic cutting operation described herein can provide an accurate automatic cutting operation with a very fast execution time. For example, the automatic cropping operation described herein may be performed on a given frame of the video data stream 82 before retrieving the next frame in the video data stream 82. For example, in an embodiment in which the imaging device 80 collects video at 5-10 frames per second, the automatic cropping operation is at least 100 milliseconds for the frame rate of the imaging device 80 (ie, 10 frames per second). May be completed faster than (within). That is, the automatic cropping algorithm may run in less time than the refresh rate of the video data stream. In this regard, the automatic cropping operation can identify the region of interest for each image in the video data stream 82 before retrieving the next image in the video data stream 82.

With reference to FIG. 5, an embodiment of a potential subset of video data stream 82 that may correspond to selected pixels of video data stream 82 is shown. For example, a pixel containing a subset of the video data stream 82 may be obtained along the plurality of horizontal grid lines 210 and the plurality of vertical grid lines 212 shown in FIG. Therefore, the horizontal grid lines 210 can extend in the first direction corresponding to the width of the medical dose preparation staging area 86. For example, horizontal grid lines 210 may extend substantially across the width of the medical dose preparation staging region 86 and / or substantially across the width of the imaging area 86. The vertical grid lines 212 can extend in a second direction corresponding to the length of the medical dose preparation staging area 86. For example, the vertical grid lines 212 may extend substantially across the length of the medical dose preparation staging region 86 and / or substantially across the length of the imaging area 86.

The grid lines 210 and 212 can extend in at least two directions across the imaging field, so the length and width of the region of interest can be determined relative to the grid lines 210 and 212. Further referring to FIG. 6, the corresponding predetermined subset of pixels obtained along the grid lines 210'and 212' in the background image 200 corresponding to the grid lines 210 and 212 shown in FIG. 5 are used in the comparison. There are times.

The grid spacing for a given portion of the video data stream 82 and the background image 200 may be selected based on the smallest object expected to be imaged. For example, the spacing between grid lines 210, 212 may be chosen so that the smallest two grid lines 210, 212 intersect any drug container 100 that can be placed within the medical dose preparation staging area 86, therefore. , The range of the boundary area can be accurately determined for each 100 drug containers.

Further referring to FIGS. 7-10, the data compared during the automatic cropping operation may correspond to the data extracted from each pixel along each grid line of the video data stream and background image. For example, FIG. 7 shows a drug container 100 located in imaging field 86. For illustration purposes, a single horizontal line 300 intersecting the outer edges 102 and 104 of the drug container 100 is shown.

The video data stream processing module 72 can extract color bitmap data along the horizon 300. The video data stream processing module 72 can convert the data of each pixel obtained along the horizon 300 into an array of grayscale data corresponding to the intensity data of each pixel. In one embodiment, the video data stream processing module 72 can convert the grayscale data for each pixel into a quantitative value that represents the relative color of the grayscale data for each pixel between white and black. .. For example, an 8-bit value can be established on a scale from 0 to 255, where zero represents black and 255 represents white for pixels. Thus, the intensity data for each pixel can correspond to a value representing the pixel location on a grayscale between white and black.

Various processing techniques can be applied to the pixel intensity data obtained along the horizon. For example, a transformation of data into the frequency domain using a mathematical transform (eg, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)) can be applied to intensity data. FIG. 8 shows an example result of the FFT of the data obtained from FIG. 7 along the horizon 300. The first line 310 corresponds to the data from the video data stream 82 shown in FIG. 7, which includes the drug container 100, and the second line 312 corresponds to the background of the imaging field of FIG. 7 without the drug container 100. Corresponds to the data from the corresponding horizon in the image.

As can be seen from FIG. 8, there are significantly lower frequency components up to about 5% of the total frequency. The deviation of the first line 310 from the second line 312 at higher frequencies can result from the effects of the FFT process and may not be true. Therefore, high pass cutoff frequencies may be established to effectively eliminate changes in low frequency intensity. The threshold for the high-pass filter may be chosen taking into account that if the high-pass filter threshold is too low, the FFT plot may lose robustness to changes in lighting that appear primarily as low-frequency data. is there.

Further referring to FIG. 9, the raw intensity data for the pixels obtained along the horizon 300 of the video data stream shown in FIG. 7 is plotted using plot line 320 and on the corresponding horizon of the background image. The raw intensity data for the pixels obtained along is plotted using plot line 322. The vertical axis of the plot in FIG. 9 represents intensity data (eg, quantified grayscale data as described above) and the horizontal axis represents pixel locations along the horizontal line in FIG. 7. The vertical lines 324 and 326 of FIG. 9 represent the locations of the outer edges 102 and 104 of the drug container 100 shown in FIG. 7 in the plot of FIG. 9, respectively. As can be understood, the deviation between the video data stream plot line 320 and the background image plot line 322 may not include sharp edges, so the locations of edges 102, 104 of the drug container 100 are raw. It can be difficult to detect using intensity data.

However, FIG. 10 (the axis of this figure also represents the intensity deviation along the vertical axis and the pixel location on the horizontal axis) shows a similar plot that has undergone high-pass filtering. As can be understood, the deviations at the left edge 102 (represented by the vertical line 324) and the right edge 104 (represented by the vertical line 326) of the drug container 100 are such that the edges 102, 104 of the drug container 100 are detected. As you get, it's more prominent. Note that this is exactly the case on the left outer edge 102 of the drug container 100, where the label is not present at the edge 102 in the video data image of FIG. In this regard, the left edge 102 represents a "soft edge". The term "soft edge" is intended to indicate a situation in which the label portion present on the edge is not on the edge of the drug container 100, as shown on the left side 102 of the drug container 100 in FIG. That is, the soft edge may correspond to the fully translucent or transparent edge of the drug container 100. Such soft edges are too much between the data video data streams in the background image data, as can be understood when comparing the deviations on the left side (324) and right side (326) of the plot in Figure 10. It will be appreciated that it may show inconspicuous differences. However, when examining the filter data of FIG. 10, the edges of the drug container 100 are clearly visible and can be identified.

Moreover, processing may be performed on the intensity data for each pixel to help improve the accuracy of the automatic cropping operation. For example, intensity data may be filtered using any number of additional or alternative filtering techniques known in the art.

In addition, the rate of change in intensity along each grid line 210, 212, rather than the raw intensity data for each pixel, provides a more accurate measure of the presence or absence of the drug container 100 located within the medical dose preparation staging area 86. I have something to do. In this regard, the derivative of the raw intensity data 320 was along each grid line 210, 212 to help determine the location of the edges of the drug container 100 placed within the medical dose preparation staging area 86. It can be calculated to reflect the rate of change in intensity.

Moreover, while correlating a subset of the video data stream 82 with the background image 200, each pixel of the video data stream 82 may be compared to the directly corresponding pixel in the background image 200, or the video data. Each pixel in stream 82 may be compared to a plurality of pixels within a particular predetermined distance along the corresponding grid lines in the background image 200 of the directly corresponding pixel. For example, any given pixel for the video data stream 82 can be compared to pixels within approximately +/- 10 pixels of the directly corresponding pixels in the background image 200. Therefore, slight variations between the positions of the background image 200 relative to the video data stream 82 and / or slight illumination variations with respect to the video data stream 82, which may otherwise be due to the identified edges of the drug container 100, can be addressed. .. For example, the video data stream 82 corresponding to the background image 200 may be subject to slightly moving and / or slightly different illumination, and thus may experience minor variations. However, minor variations can be explained by comparing a given pixel in the video data stream 82 with a range of pixels in the corresponding background image 200.

Based on the analysis of the video data stream 82 for the background image 200, the edges of a given drug container 100 can be determined along the grid lines 210, 212, respectively. For example, the differences identified along grid lines 210, 212 that exceed a predetermined rate of change may be due to location 370 at the edge of the drug container 100. Boundary area 360 (eg, shown in FIG. 11) based on location 370 at each grid line 210, 212 corresponding to the determined edge of the drug container 100. The boundary area 360 may consist of an edge 362 that may be located corresponding to the identified location 370 of the edge of the drug container 100 in the video data stream 82. For example, the maximum and minimum locations 370, which are determined along each of the hits of the horizontal grid line 210, may be used to determine the horizontal position of the edge 362 of the boundary area 360. In one implementation, the maximum and minimum locations 370, which are determined along each of the vertical grid lines 212, may be used to determine the vertical position of the edge 362 of the boundary area 362. Moreover, in one embodiment, the edge 362 of the boundary area 360 extends beyond the minimum and maximum locations 370 in both the vertical and horizontal directions and beyond the minimum and maximum locations 370 to the next grid line. There is. For example, drug container 100 may extend beyond grid lines 210 or 212 so that location 370 can be identified. The drug container 100 may extend beyond the grid lines 210 or 212, but the container 100 may not extend beyond the next adjacent grid line. Therefore, if boundary area 360 is established at location 370, part of the drug container 100 may not be included within boundary area 360. Therefore, the boundary area 360 automatically includes an area beyond the identified minimum and maximum locations 370 for a given drug container 100 to the next adjacent grid line in both horizontal and vertical directions. May be extended to.

Further referring to FIG. 11, of the background image 200 and the video data stream by comparing the background image 200 with the video data stream 82 along a predetermined subset of the video data stream 82 and the background image 200. The location 370 corresponding to the difference may be located in the manner described above. Next, the location 370 along the grid lines 210 and 212 corresponds to the minimum and maximum location of the difference between the video data stream 82 and the background image 200 along both the horizontal grid lines 210 and the vertical grid lines 212. , May be identified as shown in FIG. Based on these locations 370, the edge 362 of the boundary area 360 can be established around each drug container 100.

As can be further understood in FIG. 11, the plurality of drug containers 100 may always be located in the imaging field 86. The video stream data processing module 72 may be capable of operating to identify multiple drug containers 100 separately so that separate boundary areas 360 are established individually for each drug container 100. .. Two drug containers 100 are shown in FIG. 11, but additional or fewer drug containers 100 have additional or fewer corresponding boundary areas 360 by processor 70 video data stream processing module 72. It will be understood that it can be identified so that it can be established.

In this regard, the automatic cropping operation can include logic to individually identify different drug containers 100 located within the imaging field 86. For example, if there is no difference compared to the background image 200 at a specific predetermined distance along the grid lines 210, 212, then location 370 in the extension beyond the predetermined distance is considered to belong to the separate drug container 100. Obtaining logic may be used. As an addition or alternative, an analysis may be performed to identify the perimeter of the drug container 100, thus individual medical containers 100 may be identified based on the identification of a single closed perimeter. For example, for a given closed perimeter, the automatic cropping action could determine that a single drug container 100 exists and dedicate a single bounding box to the identified medical container 100. is there.

Further referring to FIG. 12, an example of the output of the display 110 is shown. It will be appreciated that the grid lines 210 and 212 corresponding to a subset of the video data streams 82 analyzed to determine the boundary area 360 may not be shown on the display 110. However, the boundary area 360 may be represented on the display 110, and therefore the area of interest identified by the video data stream processing module 72 may be perceptible to the user viewing the display 110. In this regard, once the boundary area 360 has been established for each of the drug containers 100, the display 110 may be configured to display the boundary area 360 for the video data stream 82 on the display 110. Thus, the user can ensure that the boundary area 360 includes all relevant parts of the drug container 100 within the boundary area 360.

The user may have the opportunity to expand or contract the displayed boundary area 360 to increase or decrease the size of the area of interest surrounding the drug container 100 within the video data stream 82. In one embodiment, if the bounding box 320 is improperly determined by an automatic cropping operation, the user can use a marker or other object placed within the medical dose preparation staging area 86 to provide a high contrast to the background 200. Can be used to establish an edge location 370 for the boundary area 360. For example, the object may be placed adjacent to the drug container 100 to ensure that the edge 362 of the boundary area 360 is established beyond the range of the drug container 100. The object may be a separate object, such as a marker placed in the imaging field 86, or the user may place his or her finger in the imaging field 86 to ensure that location 370 is established. Alternatively, another pointing device may be used.

Once the region of interest has been established by the user, the user utilizes the user control device 130 to prepare the medical dose for the portion of the video data stream 82 (ie, the region of interest) contained in the bounding box 320. Image capture can be started. For example, FIGS. 13 and 14 are shown in FIG. 12, which can be captured when the user initiates the capture of an image using the user control device 130 when the boundary area 360 is established as shown in FIG. The medical dose preparation images corresponding to the two drug containers 100a and 100b contained in the video data stream 82 shown on the display 110 are shown.

In one embodiment, the boundary area 360 may represent a box overlaid on top of the video data stream 82 in a manner perceptible to the user. As an addition or alternative, the area outside the boundary area 360 that should not be included in the medical dose preparation image may be displayed in a different fashion than the area within the boundary area 360 that should be included in the medical dose preparation image. is there. For example, the area of imaging field 86 outside the boundary area 360 is as a dimmed or shaded image that allows the user to clearly identify that the area outside the boundary area 360 is not included in the medical dose preparation image. May be displayed.

Although the present invention has been shown in the drawings and described in detail in the above description, such illustration and description should be considered as exemplary and not limiting its properties. For example, the particular embodiment described above can be combined with other embodiments described above and / or arranged in other ways (eg, process elements may be executed in other order). Therefore, it should be understood that only preferred embodiments and variants thereof have been illustrated and described, and that any modifications and modifications contained in the spirit of the present invention should be protected.

The aforementioned description of the present invention is presented for illustration and explanation. Moreover, the description is not intended to limit the invention to the forms disclosed herein. Therefore, modified and modified forms corresponding to the above teachings, as well as techniques and knowledge of related techniques are included within the scope of the present invention. The embodiments described above further describe known modes of carrying out the invention and are required by one of ordinary skill in the art in such embodiments or other embodiments by a particular application or usage of the invention. It is intended to make it possible to utilize the present invention with various modifications. The appended claims are intended to be construed as including alternative embodiments to the extent permitted by the prior art.