Abstract:
Method and apparatus for using geographical location information to narrow a selection list of persons to be identified by biometric means, thereby improving the accuracy of the biometric identification. The method includes the steps of capturing and storing biometric information about a person, and capturing and storing the person&#39;s geographical location. At a later encounter where positive identification of the person is required, biometric information is captured from the person and this biometric information is used to select the best match among biometric information captured for people within a pre-set geographical range of the current location.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic biometric identification, and more particularly to ensuring positive identification of patients from whom blood is to be drawn. The invention teaches the use of geographical location information to reduce the likelihood of mis-identification of patients at the time blood samples are drawn. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Blood and other specimen testing is a source of a large portion of the clinical data used by physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Collection of the required specimens is a critical step in this process, as an incorrectly collected or identified specimen, particularly a specimen that is linked to the wrong patient identification information, is at best useless and at worst, dangerous. 
         [0003]    To reduce the likelihood of such errors, generally known as ‘Wrong Blood In Tube’ (WBIT) errors, those collecting blood samples are trained in various procedures designed to reduce the risk. This may include such steps as asking the patient to state their name and date of birth and comparing this to another source of information; pre-printing labels for the specimen containers to ensure accurate, complete and legible information; using bar-coded patient identification wristbands; and having two practitioners cross-check the patient information at the time of collection. These safety procedures work reasonably well in controlled environments such as hospitals, but break down in less controlled environments. 
         [0004]    Examples of bedside specimen collection systems are well known in the art. Virtually all of them use some form of bar-coded patient identification wristbands. Examples include the PDC bedside specimen collection system (Precision Dynamics Corporation), the Bridge system (Cerner Inc.) the specimen collection system offered by Siemens and others. 
         [0005]    A rapidly aging population in the western world is creating a new challenge for accurate patient identification during specimen collection. The aged are much more likely to be treated in a home or assisted living environment than a hospital, largely because it is prohibitively expensive to admit this growing population into acute care hospitals. Therefore, more and more specimens are being collected in a less-controlled environment. Furthermore, many older patients suffer from dementia, and cannot be trusted to correctly respond when challenged to state their name, birth date or other identifying information. Compounding the problem is the natural unwillingness of older people living independently or assisted to wear an identification tag at all times. 
         [0006]    Therefore there is a growing need for a way to positively identify a person that does not rely on that person correctly identifying themselves, does not require them to wear and identifying tag, and can be used in the person&#39;s home. 
         [0007]    An obvious solution to this problem is to use one of various forms of biometric identification know in the art, such as fingerprinting, iris scanning, facial recognition, palm reading, retinal scanning or others. Although all of these techniques can be made to work, they have not been widely adopted due to cost of the required hardware, bulk, and lack of portability of systems providing sufficiently high identification accuracy. Smaller, mobile versions of such technology often do not provide the speed and accuracy required, or suffer from other impediments to acceptance, such as the reluctance of people to be fingerprinted due to the association with criminal investigations. 
         [0008]    Therefore, an ideal specimen collection system will provide for highly accurate identification of the patient though biometric means, without the need for bulky, expensive hardware and will provide for printing of durable, legible and accurate labels at the point of specimen collection (eliminating the risk of pre-printed label mix ups) 
         [0009]    Recent developments in mobile technology have resulted in highly portable mobile computing devices (tablet computers and smart phones) that include high-function digital cameras, geographical location devices, computer network connections and powerful processors. This enables a new approach to mobile positive patient identification and specimen collection. 
         [0010]    The object of the current invention is to use image-based, non-contact biometric identification on a mobile computing device, linked to a portable specimen label printer to provide a complete specimen collection system that ensures very high accuracy of patient identification. 
         [0011]    The invention uses images captured by the camera embedded in a mobile computing device to perform facial recognition (or, in an alternate embodiment, iris recognition). To improve the accuracy of the facial recognition, the patient image to be identified is compared only to registered data for patients known to be within a certain geographical distance from the mobile computing device at the time the identification is to be made, as determined by the geographical location device included in the computing device. Using the geographical information allows the list of identification candidates to be greatly reduced, significantly improving the recognition accuracy. 
         [0012]    Upon accurately identifying the patient, the specimen collection system uses the mobile computing device&#39;s wired or wireless communications capability to transmit the registered patient identification information to a portable label printer which produces a specimen label. 
         [0013]    The invention meets the requirements of mobile, high-accuracy patient identification and on-demand label printing at an uncontrolled patient location, without the need for the patient to self-identify, wear an identity tag or provide finger or palm-prints. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and to the drawings, wherein 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  is a schematic representation of select components of the specimen collection system according to the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart showing operational steps used in an illustrated embodiment of a specimen collection system according to the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart showing the operational steps shows used in an illustrated embodiment of a specimen collection system according to the present invention that are required to register a patient not previously known to the system. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0018]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , mobile computer  10  is a smartphone or tablet computer comprising a computer processor, touch screen display, wireless data communications device, imaging (camera) device and global positioning system device (GPS), which in the preferred embodiment is an iPhone or iPad (Apple Computer Corporation, Cupertino California) running software hereinafter described. Printer  12  is a battery-powered mobile label printer that supports wireless data communications. In the preferred embodiment printer  12  is a model QL-220 printer from Zebra Technologies Inc. (Lincolnshire Ill.), which may be connected to mobile computer  10  with either wired, universal serial bus (USB) connection  18  or a wireless (e.g., Bluetooth) connection. 
         [0019]    Patient  14  is a patient from whom specimens are required, usually in the form of blood, but possibly other body fluids. Container  16  is a container suitable for the desired specimen, usually an evacuated test tube for extraction of a blood sample, such as a Vacutainer manufactured by Becton Dickinson Inc. of Franklin Hills New Jersey. The overall objective of the system is to print a label with printer  12  for attachment to container  16  that includes complete, accurate, legible identification information about patient  12 . 
         [0020]      FIG. 2  shows the steps that a phlebotomist or other technician follows when using the specimen collection system. 
         [0021]    Preliminarily, a data store containing biometric identification information for plural patients is created (as detailed below). The data store contains biometric identification information for plural patients who have already been identified and whose information has been saved in the data store. The biometric identification information for each such patient is contained in a data record in the data store and each data record in the data store includes patient identifying information including, among other data, name, date of birth, health record number, social security number, etc., and facial identifying characteristics and geographic location information. Patients who have had biometric identification information stored in data records in the data store become “registered” or “recognized” patients or “candidates.” The data store may be within mobile computer  10 , or may be a remote data store located on a file server, in which case mobile computer  10  will use one of its wireless network devices (which may include, for example, WiFi, Bluetooth or Cellular Data) to establish a connection to the data store and retrieve the required subset of patient data. 
         [0022]    Upon receiving an order to collect specimens, the phlebotomist moves to the expected location of the patient (the patient&#39;s home, care facility or assisted living location for example). At the patient&#39;s location, the phlebotomist activates the sample collection software application on mobile computer  10  (step  20 ). This causes the Global Positioning System receiver within mobile computer  10  to determine the current geographical location of mobile computer  10  (step  22 ). Once the location of mobile computer  10  is known, the software retrieves data from a data store for all patients known to be within a pre-determined geographical distance from the determined location (step  24 ). The actual geographic distance for the pre-determined distance from the determined location may depend upon the particular circumstances and is variable depending upon the situation at hand. Once the patient data is retrieved, the software causes mobile computer  10  to display a prompt asking the phlebotomist to capture an image of the patient and activates the camera within mobile computer  10  (step  26 ). 
         [0023]    When an image of the patient is captured, the software on mobile computer  10  extracts identifying characteristics from the image using a face recognition algorithm, which in the preferred embodiment is that provided within iOS5 operating system of mobile computer  10  (Apple Computer Corporation, Cupertino Calif.) (step  28 ). These characteristics are compared to the characteristics in the data set retrieved in step  24  to see if there is a sufficiently good match between the characteristics of the newly captured image and those for one of the previously registered patients—the “registered recognition candidates” (step  30 ). If no sufficiently good match is found, the software on mobile computer  10  prompts the phlebotomist to register the image from the unidentified patient as being for a new patient, following the process hereinafter described (step  46 ). A patient whose identifying characteristics have not yet been saved in a data record in the data store is referred to at times herein as an “unidentified” recognition candidate or patient. 
         [0024]    If a suitable match is found (step  32 ) the associated patient demographic information is displayed on the screen of mobile computer  10  (step  34 ), after which the phlebotomist is prompted to confirm that the displayed patient identification is correct (step  36 ). If the phlebotomist indicates that the patient information is not correct (step  38 ), the software on mobile computer  10  prompts the phlebotomist to register the image as being for a new patient, following the process hereinafter described (step  46 ). Secondary confirmation of patient identity may also be conducted using personal identifying information such as name, address, health record number, social security number, etc. 
         [0025]    If the phlebotomist indicates that the correct patient identification is displayed, they are prompted to collect the required specimens (step  40 ). Once the phlebotomist indicates that the specimen collection is complete, they are prompted to select the number of specimen labels required (step  42 ). This causes mobile computer  10  to send data to mobile printer  12  over serial connection  18  to cause the correct number of labels to print (step  44 ). 
         [0026]      FIG. 3  shows the steps required to register a patient not previously known to the system. If a new registration is required (step  46 ), mobile computer  10  uses its internal GPS location device to capture the current location of the patient (step  48 ) then activates the camera device within mobile computer  10  and prompts the phlebotomist to capture an image of the patient&#39;s face (step  50 ). In the preferred embodiment, guide lines are superimposed on the live camera image to suggest the placement of the patient&#39;s face and how close the camera should be. 
         [0027]    Once an image is captured, the software on mobile computer  10  extracts the facial feature data from the image (step  52 ). The phlebotomist is then prompted to enter the patient&#39;s identification information (e.g. name, date of birth, health record number, etc.) (step  54 ). Once all the required data is entered, the patient information, facial characteristics data and GPS location data are transferred to the data store (step  56 ) and the software on mobile computer  10  returns to the specimen collection process previously described. 
         [0028]    In practice, the current invention ensures that specimen label information correctly refers to the patient from which the specimen is drawn. The current invention improves upon the prior art in that biometric means are used to identify the patient, but the biometric identification accuracy is greatly enhanced by using geographic location information to reduce the number of identification candidates. Further, unlike other biometric identification means, a facial image capture requires no contact with the patient&#39;s body and can be done with apparatus already embedded in commonly available mobile computing devices. 
         [0029]    Many different adaptations and variations of the subject invention are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention; therefore, the present invention should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims. For example, although the preferred embodiment uses facial recognition as the biometric identification means, a similar result could be achieved with iris recognition, fingerprint, palm, or other biometric recognition means. Further, although the preferred embodiment uses iOS5-based products such as the iPhone and iPad from Apple Computer Corporation, there are many suitable tablet computer and smartphone devices that could perform the same function. Similarly, numerous companies provide commercially-available face recognition algorithms that could be used instead of those provided by Apple Computer Corporation. Finally, the software systems may be provided in a variety of platforms such as, for example, use of the software as a service platform.