Software Architecture for Aggregating and Visualizing Vital Sign Feeds from Medical Devices

Abstract

The large medical devices companies are highly motivated to build a locked-down ecosystem around their devices. This means that there are no easy ways to extract data from these devices in real-time, or after the fact. That comes with a number disadvantages for the users of these devices. It makes doing studies and research a lot harder. Care-takers can t necessarily track what has happened to a patient if something went wrong. And when the hospital decides to buy more equipment, they are forced to buy more equipment from the same manufacturer if they want to remain within the ecosystem.

This thesis will explore the feasibility of designing a software architecture for aggregating streams of vital sign from multiple incompatible medical devices simultaneously and visualizing it. The architecture will focus on three key quality attributes: scalability, availability, and modifiability. Scalability so it can handle many devices with a high data rate simultaneously. Availability so that if something goes wrong with one of the medical devices, the rest of the system is still available to the user. And modifiable so it's as easy as possible to add support for a new medical device.