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Received January 17, 2020, accepted December 1, 2020, date of publication January 25, 2021

A Multi-platform Information Management System of the 
Total Life Cycle for Medical Equipment

By Huang. Erliang1,2, Chen. Xiaoyi, Xie. Pengcheng1,2, Xie. Weihua1,2    

1 Logistics Department of Guangzhou Women & Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou, China
2 Medical Devices Management Branch of Guangdong Association of Primary Medicine, Guangzhou, China 

ABSTRACT

Objective: To establish a total life cycle information management system for medical equipment based on our hospital’s actual 
situation. 
Methods: Per the definition of the total life cycle for the particular item of medical equipment, the function modules were de-
signed and distributed according to different staff postings and then implemented on the WeChat public account-a series of API 
and services to develop custom features, a mobile app, and a computer web browser. 
Results: After implementation, the system can cover a series of management stages of the entire life cycle for medical equipment 
and the information exchanged among various stages. The relevant staff in different posts can operate the medical equipment 
management information on any of the three platforms. 
Conclusion: The improvement and efficiency aid staff in various settings in managing medical equipment and medical behav-
iors and patient safety is increased..
Keywords – Medical equipment, Information system, Multi-platform.

Copyright © 2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY): Creative Commons - Attribu-
tion 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) 
are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is 
permitted which does not comply with these terms.

INTRODUCTION

Large-scale hospitals have a wide variety of scientific 
and medical equipment which requires efficient infor-
mation management systems. Traditional management 
methods cannot cover and connect the devices at various 
stages effectively while they are in hospital circulation. 
Traditional medical device management methods have 
the following drawbacks:

• Data are not interconnected. There is an information 
island between the functional modules of medical 

device information management because each func-
tion module has different application sequences, 
different software vendor solutions, and different 
technical levels in different periods. There is also a 
failure of unification in planning and construction 
leading to differences in system architecture, data 
formats, protocol standards, and network environ-
ment among functional modules. The system func-
tion modules are independent of each other, making 
it impossible to implement or partially implement 
data sharing.

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Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021  6

• Data management is not integrated. Traditional 
management methods focus on bidding procurement, 
contract management, installation and acceptance, 
fixed asset files, maintenance and measurement, and 
scrapping. Therefore, traditional management systems 
are generally established in these areas. However, for 
planning and budgeting, market research and inquiry, 
usage evaluation, routine maintenance, inspections 
and preventive maintenance, adverse event monitor-
ing and recalls are usually underestimated leading to 
a relative lack of management information modules 
for the devices.

• The data processing error rate is high. As data in de-
vice management modules cannot share or partially 
share information, and if the device management 
information among the modules is inconsistent, 
data will not be accurately provided. For example, 
a device in a Chinese hospital management system 
has four ledgers: (1) Financial management depart-
ment general ledger; (2) Fixed assets management 
department ledger; (3) Procurement ledger; and (4) 
Medical equipment maintenance unit account. Since 
the four ledgers' management information is not 
entirely interconnected, it may cause data discrep-
ancies if login is on different systems and may also 
cause management information inconsistency with 
the physical object. The management information of 
the equipment may be lost due to poor management, 
mostly when recorded in paper format.

• Data processing is not timely. For traditional equip-
ment, information management at various stages 
is stored in different system modules and storage 
media, such as Client/Server architecture mode 
database, Excel spreadsheet, or paper files. Access-
ing and updating real-time information on devices 
requires operating on different systems at different 
times. Also, equipment maintenance, inspections, 
measurements, etc., need to be executed regularly, 
but traditional management methods cannot achieve 
dynamic setting plans and automatic expiration 
reminders effectively.

• Data statistics and reporting functions are imperfect. 
The statistical data of various devices are fuzzy, and 
muti-latitude measurement and comparison data are 

scarce. Monitoring of the running status of equipment 
is not clear or intuitive.

With the needs of modernization and the intelligent 
refinement development of hospitals and the need to 
review China's 3A grade and Healthcare Information and 
Management Systems Society (HIMMS), medical equipment 
management urgently needs an integrated information 
management system to break the barriers among the 
original modules and realize information interconnection 
among modules and systems. The total product life cycle 
(TPLC) method is a holistic approach that considers all of 
the steps and processes in the evolution of a device from 
conception to obsolescence and integrates information and 
knowledge across pre-market and post-market activities. 
David W. Feigal proposed that TPLC of a medical product 
included phases such as concept, prototype, preclinical, 
clinical, manufacturing, marketing, commercial use, and 
obsolescence. Combining the perspectives from different 
science disciplines was widely accepted in the medical 
devices field.1 According to the characteristics of equip-
ment management in China's medical institutions and 
the medical technology management of our hospital, we 
divided the total life cycle information management system 
for medical equipment (TLCIMSME) in the hospital into 
the following stages: (1) Equipment demand, planning, 
and budget as the starting point; (2) Market research, 
bidding procurement, and contract management as the 
initial stage of equipment life; (3) Receiving, installation, 
and acceptance, personnel training, fixed asset file man-
agement, use management, application evaluation, daily 
maintenance, inspection and preventive maintenance, 
metering maintenance, and monitoring and analysis of 
adverse events are used as application stages; and (4) 
Recalls, scraps, and updates as the later stages. According 
to the four stages, the medical equipment life cycle infor-
mation management system should be fully covered and 
all stages can be interconnected. Each user of the system 
can log in to the system to manage medical equipment 
information at any time or place and get statistics and 
report information intuitively. 

METHODS

The TLCIMSME had to be designed to interconnect 
functional modules and other relevant information 



7 J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021

Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

systems in the hospital. The TLCIMSME was designed 
and implemented from multiple perspectives, including 
logical general view, hierarchical system structure, life 
cycle timing diagram, functional module diagram, and 
three-platform operation diagram.

CONNECTING MEDICAL EQUIPMENT 
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND OTHER RELATED 

INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN THE HOSPITAL 

The information systems related with medical equip-
ment management system in our hospital have are Office 
Automation (OA) system, medical equipment preliminary 
marketing research system, third-party tender evaluation 
system, intensive care system, Laboratory Information 
System (LIS, Picture Archiving and Communication Sys-
tems [PACS]), outpatient and inpatient electronic medical 
record system, fixed asset management system and finance 
system. The medical equipment information management 
system should interconnect with these related systems 
(Figure 1).

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 
LAYERED STRUCTURE

1. User interface layer. This layer, containing all user 
pages, is responsible for interacting with the outside 
world, receives business requests from the Application 
Programming Interface (API), forwards the request to 

the business logic layer for processing, and returns 
the final result. 

2. Business logic layer. This layer is responsible for pro-
cessing requests submitted by users. The requests 
are submitted to the data access layer and the results 
are passed back to the user interface layer. Windows 
Communication Foundation (WCF) is used to pass 
messages between the user interface layer and the 
business logic layer.

3. Data access layer. This is a bridge between the business 
logic layer and the database. Pass the request to the 
database and return the results to the business logic 
layer2 (Figure 2). 

FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

1. The starting point of the lifeline. When the medical 
equipment demand departments fill in the applica-
tion form and submit the demands, a serial number 

FIGURE 1. Connecting medical equipment management systems 
and other related information systems in the hospital. 

FIGURE 2. Medical equipment management system layered 
structure. 



Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021  8

is generated to track the equipment. Information 
such as the application department, equipment name, 
quantity, budget, and basic equipment configuration 
and functional requirements are transmitted to the 
tendering stage.

2. Initial stage of equipment. The hospital generally 
entrusts a third-party bidding company to tender ac-
cording to a hospital’s needs (refer to the provisions of 
the national bidding documents) and determines the 
bid supplier, equipment brand, model, quantity, and 
price. This information is transmitted to the hospital 
procurement stage. Our hospital and the winning sup-
plier sign the purchase and sale contract following the 
winning bid information.

3. Equipment application stage. Then the clinical medical 
engineer, the manufacturer engineer, department staff, 
and the fixed asset manager install, test, and accept the 
medical equipment together according to the contract. 
After acceptance, the fixed asset administrator will file 
the equipment information into the assets system. After 
training medical engineers and equipment operators, 
the equipment can be used. Clinical medical engineers 
then conduct risk assessment of the equipment in the 
system, develop preventive maintenance measures 
and content and cycle, inspection plans and daily 
maintenance plans and later execution, additional 
measurement plans and a measurement equipment 
file are prepared for the metering equipment and 
executed later. If the equipment fails, the equipment 
user can initiate application by two-dimensional 
code of the fixed assets which is created during the 
acceptance. Medical engineers also receive the repair 
information through the system to execute and fill in 
the maintenance report form. When an adverse event 
occurs, both the equipment users and the clinical en-
gineers can report through the system, and the fixed 
asset administrator also counts the medical device by 
scanning the two-dimensional code.

4. Late stage of the equipment. When a medical device 
recall occurs, all the models and batch numbers of the 
equipment involved are queried in the system, and the 
recall procedure is executed. When the medical device 
is scrapped, the device user, the fixed asset adminis-
trator, and the clinical medical engineer operate and 

record the event together in the system. When updating 
the equipment, the system can be used to check and 
analyze the medical equipment repair, inspection, and 
maintenance data records and determine whether the 
equipment needs to be updated. In this way, a medical 
device completes the closed-loop management of the 
entire life cycle3 (Figure 3).

PERSONNEL POSITIONS FOR MEDICAL 
EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT

Medical equipment personnel positions are divided 
into equipment section chiefs, equipment operators, pur-
chasers, fixed asset administrators, gaugers, and clinical 
medical engineers4 (Figure 4). The medical equipment 
department chief mainly obtains statistics and reports 
on various types of equipment management information 
from a macroscopic perspective. The requirements include 
statistics on the hospital’s entire assets, statistics on the 
asset distribution in various hospital departments, the 
proportion of risk levels and another 16 asset statistical 
analysis charts such as usage rate and asset brand statistics.

The equipment operators use the system for routine 
maintenance and inquiry to repair. 

The purchaser mainly uses the procurement manage-
ment module, including summary demanding application 
and approvals, procurement demonstration and plan, 
entrusting the third-party tendering company, signing 
purchase and sales contracts and conducting contract 
management and invoice management.

FIGURE 3. Equipment lifeline sequence diagram. 



9 J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021

Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

The fixed asset manager is responsible for equipment 
acceptance, documentation, asset label printing, asset 
allocation, borrowing, inventory, and scrapping.

The gauger is responsible for the metering of medical 
equipment in the hospital according to annual plans, includ-
ing compiling the inventory of the metering instruments, 
drawing up the annual metering plan for the instruments, 
recording the metering files, and ensuring consistency 
between accounting books and physical inventory.

Clinical medical engineers utilize three modules: 
repair, maintenance, and quality control management.5 
Functions of the repair module include online receipt 
of repair orders, online dispatch, repair stations, online 
work orders, online approval, warranty management, 
equipment faults library, spare parts inventory man-
agement, and maintenance invoice management. The 
maintenance module includes inspection and preventive 
maintenance, as well as daily maintenance. The quality 
control management module includes medical device 
risk assessment, medical device performance testing and 
planning, measurement management, and adverse event 
management. After logging on to the system, personnel 
in different positions can set the corresponding function 
modules' operation rights, and the information between 
each function module can be interconnected.

THREE PLATFORM TERMINALS

The system makes full use of the popular mobile app 
technology and computer network technology to provide 
three kinds of platform for user interaction: a public 
WeChat account, a mobile app, and PC web pages.6 The 
underlying data of the three platforms are interactive 
and interoperable.

Public WeChat Account

WeChat is a multi-purpose messaging and social net-
working app developed by Tencent. It has been called 
China's "app for everything" and a "Super App" because 
of a wide range of functions and platforms. Almost every 
Chinese person has a WeChat account.7  WeChat supports 
developers registering a public account, which can interact 
with users and provide them with services. This system 
has developed a public account named "gzfezx" as the 
interaction ports and equipment operators can register 
user account through the public account and then scan 
two-dimensional code on the assets to record daily main-
tenance information and submit a repair application of 
medical equipment.

Mobile App

A mobile app is a computer program designed to run 
on a mobile device such as a phone/tablet or watch. The 

FIGURE 4. The personnel positions for medical equipment management. 



Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021  10

system is specially developed named Medical Equipment 
Information System（MEIS（App. Equipment operators, 
fixed asset managers, gaugers, clinical medical engineers, 
and equipment chiefs can log in on the MEIS App to imple-
ment the modules in their rights distributed. It will not 
be detailed here.

PC Web Pages

The PC web pages adopt the traditional browser/
server（B/S（based architecture mode, and the equipment 
asset manager, metering staff, equipment chief, and clini-
cal medical engineer can login through Uniform Resource 
Locator（URL（to access the web server for medical device 
management information interaction. After login on the 
URL, modules can be found based on their right, and it 
will not be expanded. The configuration environment for 
the PC Web Pages is as follows:
• Database: MySQL database: simple operation, friendly 

interface, multi-user database management system;
• Development language: PHP language: cross-platform, 

efficient execution, supports almost all popular da-
tabases and operating systems;

• Server operating system: LINUX operating system: 
occupying small resources, safe and stable.

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS

Medical Device Life Cycle Line

Selecting either device and clicking allows the user to 
display the events of the device by time axis. The events 
include the installation date, the date of repair, routine 
maintenance, inspections, preventive maintenance date, 
metering date, and transfer cases. Clicking on each item 
expands the details of each item. Double-clicking the de-
vice name queries the fixed asset details, device pictures 
and graphically displaying the medical device overview, 
including normal usage, number of repairs, maintenance 
costs, and maintenance hours. The users can also analyze 
maintenance, quality control analysis, and benefits analysis 
for the device selected.

Equipment Repair Process

The clinical department’s equipment manager scans 
the Quick Response（QR（code of asset management using 

FIGURE 5. Equipment repair process. 



11 J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021

Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

the smartphone app to apply for repair which is transmit-
ted to the server. The team leader who is responsible for 
repair dispatches engineers according assigned jobs. The 
engineers will judge the equipment fault type and then 
carry out an independent repair or inform the manu-
facturer or a third-party company to repair as needed. 
After the maintenance is completed, the engineers fill in 
the maintenance report, the related clinical department 
scores the maintenance situation, and then finally, the 
process ends (Figure 5).

Purchasing Module

This management module includes purchase appli-
cation, purchase review, procurement plan, equipment 
selection demonstration, procurement announcement, 
negotiation record, contract management, acceptance, 
installation, and invoice management. Clicking on each 
item to allows access specific information. Other modules 
include maintenance, quality control, maintenance, adverse 
event management, metering management and equipment 
benefit analysis. The system also has a distribution map 
for life support devices that can monitor status such as 
the amount, type, distribution, fault condition, and intact 
rate of equipment in the hospital.

THREE INTERFACING PLATFORMS

Public WeChat Account

This port is mainly provided for clinical departments. 
After clinical department equipment managers log in, 
the system automatically matches all the department's 
devices to their accounts. The equipment administrator 
can perform daily maintenance or submit repair applica-
tions for all department equipment by scanning a code. 
For equipment with a borrowing time of 3 days or less, the 
borrower can operate through the temporary maintenance 
menu. For equipment that is not in the department when 
scanning the code, instructions are given for borrowing or 
asset transfer procedures before maintenance. Under this 
interface the system can remind the user of the number 
of daily maintenance orders. After clicking the reminder, 
the user can check the detailed information and carry out 
maintenance. The equipment administrator can also check 
the number of equipment items in the department that 
are under repair. Also, the equipment administrator can 

also perform asset transfer and repair applications after 
logging in and can perform daily inspections and view 
inspection records and statistical analysis. 

Mobile Phone App

This app supports both Android and Apple operating 
systems. This port is intended for use by clinical engineers, 
fixed asset managers, gaugers, and equipment management 
chiefs. After the clinical engineers log in, they can check 
the maintenance status of all clinical departments. They 
can inspect the equipment according to departments. They 
can also perform preventive maintenance and produce 
reports in the system for the equipment according to the 
plan. The clinical engineers can process the repair appli-
cations initiated by the clinical departments and record 
at this interface; the metering staff can perform meter-
ing and performance testing management after logging 
in; the common items can be statistically graphed. Asset 
administrators can also perform inventory management 
on the devices with this app. 

PC Web Pages

PC Web Pages allow clinical engineers, fixed assets 
administrators, metering staff, and medical equipment 
departments to operate and achieve detailed statistics 
and graphical reports. The computer maintenance and 
management module has three menus: routine mainte-
nance, inspection, and preventive maintenance. The routine 
maintenance menu can be queried according to the device 
name, type of care, the use of the department and templates 
of routine maintenance can also be set up. The inspection 
menu can set the inspection task and remind the inspec-
tion time. After an inspection, an electronic report form 
is generated and archived. The preventive maintenance 
menu can alert devices that are due for expiration, set up 
preventive maintenance plans, and execute and set up a 
personalized template and match. The system can also 
provide abundant graphical reporting features such as 
the distribution of equipment failure types,8 statistics of 
value of equipment assets over time, and the total number 
of repairs according to the department.



Erliang, Xiaoyi, Pengcheng, Weihua: A Multi-platform Information Management System of the Total Life Cycle for 
Medical Equipment 

J Global Clinical Engineering Vol.4 Issue 1: 2021  12

CONCLUSION

The MEIS system comprehensively utilizes the public 
WeChat public account the mobile phone app and web 
pages based on the B/S structure to modularize the de-
sign of the medical device life cycle, and the work-flow 
moves through various staff positions in the equipment 
department to realize optimal equipment management 
and interconnect information resources in multiple mod-
ules allowing users to share and break the information 
resources "island" situation. Interconnection between 
various management modules mutual authentication 
information ensures accurate information is extracted. 
The management data also updates to the cloud server, 
the security of device management information is guar-
anteed, and the risk of information loss is greatly reduced.

The system uses the two-dimensional code-fixed as-
set tag as the interactive medium between the staff and 
the medical devices. All the three platforms can scan the 
fixed asset two-dimensional code to read and write the 
device management information in real time.

The system can output a variety of equipment manage-
ment information statistical charts, including statistical 
analysis functions of assets from 16 different angles, 
including value, use department, equipment risk level, 
normal usage rate, and statistical analysis by asset brand. 
Also, 23 different statistical analysis functions are avail-
able, including maintenance and maintenance costs, 
fault type, the type of maintenance, repair application 
departments distribution, Top 20 clinical departments 
by the number of malfunction statistics, graphical daily 
maintenance, inspection and preventive maintenance 
profiles by department, and by type of equipment. The 
system also enables cost analysis of large medical devices 
and provides analytical reports and statistical analysis of 
medical device adverse events and metrology.

DISCUSSION

The MEIS system's promotion and use standardize the 
workflow in the daily maintenance, inspection, and pre-
ventive maintenance of medical equipment. The system 
platforms can be planned in advance and then implemented 
according to the plan to ensure the workflow's smooth 
progress. Simultaneously, the devices can be effectively 

monitored in real-time on three different platforms to 
ensure the quantity of maintenance.

The promotion of the MEIS systems has improved 
user interaction and experience. The combination of the 
QR code and smartphones enables the user to operate 
through the scan code login platforms under the 4G mobile 
network and the WIFI network, which greatly assists the 
users of each role.

The traditional medical equipment management system 
is based on a fixed asset management system and a medical 
equipment maintenance system, paper processing, and 
Excel form management for the initial stage, application 
stage, and final medical equipment stage. The MEIS system 
realizes electronic management of data at each stage of 
the life cycle, which aligns with the hospital's paperless 
development process and HIMMS review requirements.

Of course, there are still some issues at present. For 
example, if the manufacturer does not provide a standard-
ized, unified data interface such as a Digital Imaging and 
Communications in Medicine (DICOM) protocol port, it will 
make the device dynamic data collection difficult. Thus, the 
user cannot analyze the benefit of a single medical device 
effectively. The hospital environment is complex, equip-
ment is scattered, the network communication conditions 
can be poor, and the hospital networking infrastructure 
can be weak. Also, the overall program cost can be high 
which could delay the use of the MEIS system. However, 
with the hospital's intelligent development needs, these 
problems can be solved gradually.

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