JP2008113863A - Medical equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide medical equipment capable of appropriately acquiring the operating condition of a device and precisely acquiring the cause of the abnormality of the device. <P>SOLUTION: This medical equipment is provided with a real-time clock and a storage means for storing the operation data of the medical device for every prescribed time along with time data; and the storage means stores the setting value of an upper limit and/or a lower limit of the operation data and, when the operation data exceed a range of the setting value, stores a group of abnormal operation data, generated time data, the time data stored in the storage means and the operation data in an abnormal operation information storage area of the storage means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medical device provided with storage means for monitoring and storing the operating status of the medical device.

  With the progress of home medical care in recent years, cases where medical devices that have been conventionally used in hospitals are brought home and used are increasing. For example, as a treatment method for chronic respiratory diseases such as emphysema, pulmonary tuberculosis sequelae, and chronic bronchitis, oxygen inhalation therapy for inhaling high concentration oxygen is performed. The oxygen inhalation therapy is a treatment method for inhaling oxygen gas or oxygen enriched gas to the diseased patient. Examples of the supply source of therapeutic oxygen gas or concentrated oxygen gas include the use of high-pressure oxygen cylinders, liquid oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, etc., but they can withstand long-term continuous use and are easy to use at home. There are an increasing number of cases where oxygen concentrators are used for reasons such as being good.

  The oxygen concentrator is an apparatus that can separate and concentrate oxygen in the air. As an apparatus for separating and concentrating oxygen, one or a plurality of adsorbent beds are packed with an adsorbent capable of selectively adsorbing nitrogen in the air from the viewpoint of obtaining a high concentration of oxygen of 90% or more. Adsorption type oxygen concentrators are widely known and used. Among them, a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator using a compressor as a pressure fluctuation apparatus is widely spread in the world. Such an apparatus normally supplies compressed air from a compressor to one or a plurality of adsorbent beds filled with an adsorbent that selectively adsorbs nitrogen, and adsorbs nitrogen by bringing the inside of the adsorbent bed into a pressurized state. This is an apparatus for obtaining high concentration oxygen by repeating an adsorption process for obtaining unadsorbed high concentration oxygen and a desorption step for desorbing nitrogen by depressurizing the inside of the adsorption bed.

  In such a medical oxygen concentrator, an apparatus including means for monitoring and storing a critical driving situation is used, and a technique relating to information communication means and abnormality information storage means has been proposed. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-143451 discloses a method for delivering information through a telephone line. The technique disclosed in this document is very useful for, for example, a management company that performs maintenance because it facilitates management of information sent from individual machines.

  Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-54910 discloses a technique that has a means for measuring an operation state, determines whether the operation is normal from the measurement result, and generates an alarm depending on the determination result. Specifically, for example, when checking the state in the adsorption cylinder, by providing a sensor for measuring the pressure in the adsorption cylinder, it has a low pressure measurement immediately before adsorption and a high pressure measurement function immediately before desorption, Further, by monitoring the value, it is possible to determine an abnormal state due to a decrease in the performance of the compressor.

  On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-227516 discloses a technique for collecting information from a machine base using a handy terminal. With this technology, the manager side can retrieve the operation data of the oxygen concentrator as needed.

  As described above, according to the conventional technique, it is possible to confirm a decrease in function during normal operation, such as a decrease in adsorption performance. If necessary, a maintenance person can visit the user of the apparatus and extract information.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-143451 JP-A-6-54910 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-227516

  As described above, storage of operating information for medical devices such as oxygen concentrators, transmission / reception of stored information, and information collection technology have been developed. However, constant monitoring of the operating status of home medical devices is a matter of memory capacity and communication costs. Impossible and not done. With conventional devices, only data at the time of alarm occurrence and the maximum and minimum values of each operation data are stored, so changes in operation data over time are not stored in the device, and communication is performed once a day. A method of analyzing daily fluctuations by storing data transmitted to an information management center through a line is adopted.

  Since conventional devices do not employ a real-time clock, a method of estimating the date and time of occurrence of an abnormality from the accumulated usage time of the device has been adopted. There is a problem that it is impossible to accurately grasp factors that lead to device abnormality such as whether or not the device is appropriate and whether the device itself has deteriorated over time.

  When a malfunction case of a device occurs, the operating state until the failure occurs cannot be grasped, so it is not possible to determine the cause of the device or whether there is a problem with the user's usage state, etc. It took a lot of effort and hindered accurate analysis.

  This invention solves the said subject, and provides the medical device which can grasp | ascertain the operating condition of an apparatus correctly and can grasp | ascertain the cause of apparatus abnormality correctly.

  That is, the present invention provides a medical device that includes a real-time clock and includes a storage unit that accumulates the operation data of the medical device in the device together with time data every predetermined time. In particular, the storage unit includes the operation data. The upper limit value and / or lower limit value set value is stored, and when the operation data exceeds the range of the set value, the abnormal operation data and the generated time data are stored in the storage means as the abnormal data. The present invention provides a medical device that is a means for storing a group of time data and operation data in an abnormal operation information storage area of the storage means.

  Further, the present invention provides a medical device characterized in that the storage means is means for storing operation data for every 24 hours in a normal operation storage area.

As with the medical device of the present invention, time data can be accurately recognized by using a real-time clock, and long-time operation data can be stored in the device by using a large-capacity memory. It becomes. As a result, for example, data for at least 24 hours can be stored in the device with a period of up to 1 hour, and the data can be extracted by the person in charge (sales, maintenance, development) to analyze the complaint and diagnose deterioration I can do it easily.
In addition, when a device abnormality occurs, information on the past 24 hours is stored together with the abnormality information, thereby making it possible to analyze the cause of whether the cause of the abnormality is due to the device or the device usage method.

An embodiment of the medical device of the present invention will be described using an example of an oxygen concentrator.
FIG. 1 is a schematic apparatus configuration diagram illustrating a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator as an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an oxygen concentrator, and 3 denotes a user (patient) who inhales humidified oxygen-enriched air. The pressure fluctuation adsorption-type oxygen concentrator 1 includes an external air intake filter 101, a compressor 103, a switching valve 104, an adsorption cylinder 105, a check valve 106, a product tank 107, a pressure regulating valve 108, a flow rate setting means 109, and a filter 110. Thereby, oxygen-enriched air obtained by concentrating oxygen gas from the raw material air taken in from the outside can be produced.

  First, the raw material air taken in from the outside is taken in from an air intake port provided with an external air intake filter 101 for removing foreign matters such as dust. At this time, the normal air contains 1.2% of about 21% oxygen gas, about 77% nitrogen gas, 0.8% argon gas, water vapor and other gases. In such an apparatus, only oxygen gas necessary as a breathing gas is concentrated and extracted.

  The oxygen gas is taken out from the adsorption cylinder 105 filled with an adsorbent made of zeolite or the like that selectively adsorbs the nitrogen gas molecules rather than the oxygen gas molecules. While sequentially switching 105, the source air is pressurized and supplied by the compressor 103, and approximately 77% of nitrogen gas contained in the source air is selectively adsorbed and removed in the adsorption cylinder 105.

The adsorbing cylinder 105 is formed of a cylindrical container filled with the adsorbent, and usually a multi-cylinder type of three or more cylinders is used in addition to the one-cylinder type and the two-cylinder type. In order to produce oxygen-enriched air from raw material air, it is preferable to use a multi-cylinder type adsorption cylinder 105. Further, as the compressor 103, a swing type air compressor may be used, and a rotary type air compressor such as a screw type, a rotary type, or a scroll type may be used. Further, the power source of the electric motor that drives the compressor 103 may be alternating current or direct current.
Oxygen-enriched air mainly composed of oxygen gas that has not been adsorbed by the adsorption cylinder 105 flows into the product tank 107 through a check valve 106 provided so as not to flow backward to the adsorption cylinder 105.

  Note that the nitrogen gas adsorbed by the adsorbent filled in the adsorption cylinder 105 needs to be desorbed from the adsorbent in order to adsorb the nitrogen gas again from the newly introduced raw material air. For this purpose, the pressurized state realized by the compressor 103 is switched to a reduced pressure state (for example, an atmospheric pressure state or a negative pressure state) by the switching valve 104, and the adsorbent is regenerated by desorbing the adsorbed nitrogen gas. In this desorption process, in order to increase the desorption efficiency, oxygen-enriched air may be allowed to flow back as a purge gas from the product end side of the adsorption cylinder or the product tank 107 during the adsorption process.

  Oxygen-enriched air is produced from the raw air and stored in the product tank 107. The oxygen-enriched air stored in the product tank 107 contains high-concentration oxygen gas, for example, 95%, and the supply flow rate and pressure are controlled by the pressure regulating valve 108, the flow rate setting means 109, etc. Supplied to the vessel 201 and humidified oxygen-enriched air is supplied to the patient.

  By detecting the set value of the flow rate setting means 109 for setting the supply flow rate of oxygen-enriched air, the concentration value of the oxygen concentration sensor 301, and the actual oxygen flow value of the flow rate sensor 302, and storing the detection result in the storage means 402. In order to monitor the operating state and adjust the oxygen generation amount based on the detection result, the control means 401 controls the motor rotation speed of the compressor 103 to control the supply amount of raw material air, and further controls the switching valve 104. Control the switching timing of adsorption / desorption.

  The compressor 103 is provided with a temperature sensor (not shown) and a motor rotation number detecting means (not shown), and monitors and records the operation of the compressor, as well as a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor ( The suction cylinder pressure and temperature are monitored and recorded in the storage means 402.

  The storage means 402 is provided with a normal operation information storage area and an abnormal operation information storage area. Each operation information such as the oxygen concentration and flow rate of the oxygen-enriched air, the temperature in the apparatus, and the pressure is stored in the normal operation information storage area together with the time information of the real time clock 403 every predetermined time. It is difficult to constantly monitor each operation information because of the storage capacity of the storage means 402. For example, each operation data for 24 hours and 24 hours is stored together with time information. Overwrite the data after the 25th time. Thereby, the operation data for at least the past 24 hours can be stored in the apparatus.

  As the normal range of operation data, the set value of the upper limit value or lower limit value of each operation data is memorized, and when that range falls outside the operation data, it is judged as an abnormal value, and when an abnormal value occurs, the abnormal data The occurrence time and abnormal value data are stored in the abnormal operation information storage area of the storage unit 402, and the stored operation information data for the past 24 hours are also stored in the abnormal information storage area. As a result, the occurrence time of the abnormal data and the operation information for the past 24 hours are stored in the apparatus. When the device is temporarily stopped and returned to normal, the operation data is stored in the normal operation information storage area, so the past 24 hours of data relating to abnormal operation is not erased.

The time interval and the number of times of operation data storage are appropriately selected based on the storage capacity of the storage means and the operation data capacity.
In addition to being stored in the storage means in the device, the stored operation information is extracted from the information extraction terminal 404 by an information terminal such as a handy terminal possessed by the person in charge of maintenance, and transmitted to the information center through a communication line. Is also possible.

  In this way, the real-time clock is used, along with the time data of the year, month, day and time, as well as normal information for the past 24 hours of the operation data at that time (operation data such as flow rate, adsorption pressure, temperature, etc. in the case of an oxygen concentrator) By accumulating data, it is possible to predict the deterioration of equipment from the data for 24 hours during maintenance.

  In addition, when a malfunction of the device or the user occurs, it is possible to grasp the operation state before and after the malfunction occurs from the operation data of the device. In addition to being able to easily analyze the cause of abnormalities, information such as when the user's usage environment deviates from the warranty environment (temperature, etc.) or when the prescription flow rate is not observed is also stored, It becomes data for educating usage environment and usage.

The schematic diagram of the pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator which is an embodiment of the oxygen concentrator of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: Oxygen concentrator 2: Waterless humidifier 3: User
101: External air intake filter
103: Compressor
104: Switching valve
105: Adsorption cylinder
106: Check valve
107: Product tank
108: Pressure regulating valve
109: Flow rate setting method
110: Filter
201: Humidifier
301: Oxygen concentration sensor
302: Flow sensor
401: Control means
402: Memory means
403: Real time clock
404: Information collection terminal

Claims (5)

  A medical device having a real-time clock and having storage means for storing operation data of the medical device in the device together with time data every predetermined time.   The storage means stores the set value of the upper limit value and / or the lower limit value of the operation data, and when the operation data exceeds the range of the set value, as abnormal data, abnormal operation data and generated time data, The medical device according to claim 1, wherein the medical device is a means for storing a group of time data and operation data stored in the storage means in an abnormal operation information storage area of the storage means.   The medical device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the storage means is means for storing operation data every predetermined time for at least 24 hours in a normal operation storage area.   At least one adsorbent bed filled with an adsorbent capable of selectively adsorbing nitrogen rather than oxygen, air supply means for supplying air to the adsorbent bed, and air from the air supply means being supplied to the adsorbent bed In a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator equipped with a flow path switching means for repeating an adsorption process for extracting concentrated oxygen gas and a desorption process for depressurizing the adsorbent bed and regenerating the adsorbent at a fixed timing. Operation data of the oxygen concentrator selected from the oxygen concentration or flow rate of the oxygen gas, the temperature or supply amount of the air supply means, the pressure or temperature of the adsorption bed, and the time data are accumulated in the apparatus every predetermined time. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator provided with a storage means.   The storage means stores the set value of the upper limit value and / or the lower limit value of the operation data, and when the operation data exceeds the range of the set value, as abnormal data, abnormal operation data and generated time data, 5. The pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrating device according to claim 4, wherein the time data and the group of operation data stored in the storage means are stored in an abnormal operation information storage area of the storage means.

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