Virtual machine based PFT and new approach for serialized collaboration in the clinic/specialized test facility

Abstract

The emergence of more sophisticated full body plethysmograph systems has occurred over recent years reflecting necessity for broader testing of respiratory functions. Specific airway resistance (sRaw) and interthoratic gas volume (ITGV/TGV) or FRCpleth can provide more accurate measure of lung function utilizing a computerized full body plethysmograph. Clinics and/or specialized test facilities today could use this type of system for testing, evaluation, and long term monitoring of patients suspected of suffering from pulmonary disease of which there is no cure. Modern plethysmograph systems consist of having a self-contained workstation, specialized software, database and the PFT equipment. In the case when the dedicated pulmonary function test (PFT) workstation is unavailable, the respiration diagnostic capabilities of the clinic and/or test facility are reduced. Virtual machines (VMs) along with a cloud computing service can be used as remedy. Specifically, this project focused on implementation of three (Windows, Oracle, and VMWare based) independent standalone plethysmograph system VMs which were used for the PFT. The VMWare implementation offered the best options for access of PFT data with the shortest cloud service sync time and a method to improve the standardized PFT capabilities by providing a web based VM/cloud computing serialized collaboration environment for the clinic/specialized test facility.