A knowledge-based design for a computerized compact clinic for a family physician

Abstract

Biomedical equipment can be designed in many ways. By using advanced programming techniques, it is possible to design a new piece of medical equipment and to integrate it with other equipment designed in a similar fashion. Family physician practices require many individual pieces of basic equipment such as EKG recorders, and pain-relieving nerve stimulators for their day-to-day applications. Each is purchased and subsequently maintained separately. At the same time, most physician's offices have ready access to a personal computer, that is primarily used for scheduling appointments, accounting, and storage of patient records. In this paper a design is presented for combining that PC, along with advance programming techniques, and basic medical equipment requirements to create a simplified, integrated piece of biomedical equipment. The proposed computerized compact clinic will have software and associated hardware components that can be used in both outpatient and inpatient applications in a small clinic. Knowledge-based techniques will enhance the accuracy of the measured parameters and reduce the manual setup time. The ultimate goal is to create an integrated system that can measure and monitor a patient's condition, and/or be used in therapeutic applications. The complete model has four components. First, a signal generator was built to design the signals that are used in the biomedical applications. Second, a patient EKG simulator was designed and built. This is necessary for testing new equipment modules. Third, an EKG monitor was built to collect data from the patient. Fourth, an electric nerve stimulator was built to communicate with the patient by transmitting signal pulses. This paper explains the rationale and the methodology used in the design of this equipment. A frequency spectrum analyzer, a necessary part of the design was built and is used to analyze the magnitude response of the EKG signal. Finally, a simple schematic for a possible computer interface is discussed.

Computer based biomedical equipment design: an EKG recorder, monitor and simulator

“…The remaining instrumentation needs to be a sensor and a signal conditioner (amplifier, filter, etc.,). Let us assume that this instrumentation part is a "black box" [3]. The black box's output is an EKG signal.…”