SBIR Phase I: Integrating Patient Photographs with Medical Imaging Examinations to Reduce Medical Errors

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是广泛采用一项在医疗保健方面直接节省成本的技术。据估计，每年有近5000名患者因医学成像中的错误患者而受到伤害。此外，即使放射科医生的工作效率提高10%，也将为整体医疗预算节省约9亿美元。最后，一个间接但有影响的结果是提高医学影像报告的相关性和准确性的潜力。预计，将医学成像研究与患者面部和上半身的患者照片配对，可以快速有效地提供重要的临床信息。最广泛地说，这项新技术可以转化为为数百种新医疗设备产生的数字数据提供患者身份验证和身份识别。拟议的项目涉及在医院无缝集成患者识别系统，以提高患者的安全性和放射学吞吐量。这项工作的智力价值是一种革命性的方法，克服了现有患者识别方法的失败，同时利用嵌入式摄像系统的力量来改善患者护理。为了实现这一目标，这项工作将开发一种成像同步技术，该技术可以自动获取患者面部和上半身的照片，并将其嵌入在成像检查期间拍摄的X光中。为了测试和确定可行性，这项技术的最初目标将是在大容量设置下将便携式X光机带到患者的床边。具体地说，拟议的工作将1)结合人脸跟踪技术，以确保患者的面部和躯干始终被相机捕捉；2)通过在大型学术医院的~6台便携式X光机上部署该技术，在大型学术医院进行可行性研究，并将其与医院的图像存档和通信系统(PACS)集成；以及3)进行初步的工作流程研究。长期目标是1)通过在医学成像研究中嵌入内在的、外部可见的生物识别识别器来提高错误患者差错的检测率；以及2)通过减少翻译时间来减少周转时间。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is widespread adoption of a technology with a direct cost-­savings in healthcare. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 patients are harmed each year due to wrong-patient errors in medical imaging. Additionally, even a 10% improvement in efficiency in radiologists' performance would translate to ~$900 million savings to the overall health care budget. Finally, an indirect, but impactful outcome is the potential to improve the relevance and accuracy of medical imaging reports. It is anticipated that pairing the medical imaging studies to the patient photographs of the patient's face and upper body, where tubes and wires are often located, can provide important clinical information in a rapid and efficient manner. In the broadest terms, this novel technology can be translated to provide patient authentication and identification for the digital data that is being generated by hundreds of new medical devices. The proposed project concerns the seamless integration of a patient Identification system in hospitals to improve patient safety and radiology throughput. The intellectual merit of this work is a transformative approach overcoming the failure of existing patient identification methods while harnessing the power of an embedded camera system to improve patient care. Toward this goal this work will develop an imaging synchronization technology that automatically obtains and embeds a photograph of the patient's face and upper body onto the x-ray taken during an imaging examination. To test and establish feasibility, the initial target of this technology will be portable x-ray machines brought to the patient's bedside in high volume settings. Specifically, the proposed work will 1) incorporate face-­tracking technology to ensure the patient's face and torso are always captured by the camera, 2) conduct a feasibly study in a real-world setting by deploying the technology on ~6 portable radiography machines at a large academic hospital where it will be integrated with the hospital's Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), and 3) perform preliminary workflow studies. The long term objectives are to 1) increase the detection rate of wrong-­patient errors by embedding an intrinsic, externally visible biometric identifier with medical imaging studies; and 2) decrease turn-­around time by decreasing interpretation time.