This post if for advanced users who want to access data contained in MediCollector datafiles directly.  

Normally, to access the data in a MediCollector datafile, you would use the MediCollector software to export the data it into a standard file format like a tab-delimited CSV file or an EDF file. This is done from within MediCollector by choosing FILE>EXPORT from the menu.  The resulting file can then be imported into other applications like Excel, Matlab, SAS, R, etc.  

But with a little programming effort, you can actually skip the export step and access the data directly in the .medi datafile.

Before continuing, I highly suggest you read through our FAQ, because it contains a lot of useful information about datafiles etc.  Below, I will provide more details for our advanced users:

WARNING!  
Please be aware that this is for advanced users only.  For the majority of users, we recommend simply choosing FILE>EXPORT to get your data into 3rd party application.  But if you are a good programmer, please continue reading. 

What is the .medi file format?
MediCollector stored data in files that have a ".medi" file extension.  These files are stored using a compressed binary format called TDMS. This format is an open standard maintained by National Instruments.

How do I directly access data in .medi files?
If desired, you can use third-party tools and programming languages to access data in .medi files directly.  And you can even install plugins into programs like Excel to load .medi files directly.  Below are various resources to help you get started with this.

• How to open files directly from Excel
• How to  access data from other 3rd Party Applications

Do you have any Matlab examples?
Yes!  Please download our example Matlab code for loading and plotting data directly from .medi files.  This zip file contains instructions, an example Matlab script, and some required 3rd party components to make it all work.  This code is provided without technical support.  So you are on your own!  If you aren't a skilled a Matlab programmer, we suggest you just EXPORT your data into a TXT or EDF file and then import it into Matlab.  

Did you ever wish that MediCollector products could collect data from multiple devices simultaneously?

Even though this is not an out-of-the-box option with MediCollector, below I describe some simple ways to solve this problem.   

MediCollector BEDSIDE is a software product for retrieving and recording data from patient monitors and medical devices.  But currently, it only allows one-to-one connections. So you would typically install MediCollector on one computer, and record data from one device. But we have some solutions for those who want to record from multiple devices:

• Option 1:  Buy multiple copies of MediCollector.  This is not a very elegant solution, but its probably the quickest.  
• Option 2:  Hire us to make this possible!  MediCollector already has the underlying code for communicating with medical devices.  So its not exactly rocket science to modify our products to support multiple devices.  If this functionality is something you really need, and you're willing to finance the development, please contact us and let us know!
• Option 3:  Use your Patient Monitor as the data aggregator.  Most patient monitors, such as GE monitors or Philips Intellivue monitors, allow you to plug almost any device into them.  They can essentially act as an all-in-one data aggregator for you.  Using this technique, you can plug just about anything into your patient monitor to acquire and display data from multiple devices.  Then you can use one copy of MediCollector to record the data from that patient monitor.  As an example, Philips offers special modules called VueLink or IntelliBridge which plug into the Intellivue device and can acquire data from virtually anything.  MediCollector is skilled at building custom aggregator solutions like this, and it is probably the most elegant, affordable and accurate method of aggregating the data.   By using the patient monitor as the "aggregator" you are able to synchronize all the signals using the clock inside the patient monitor, which provides a very accurate method of synchronizing data from multiple sources.  Please contact us and we can help you do this.

Welcome to our blog!  This is the first post in the MediCollector Blog.  This blog was created to provide support and advice to MediCollector customers.  We'll post here about once a week with news, information and expert opinions on topics such as:

• Company news and press releases
• Product updates, patches and new releases
• Tips and tricks for using MediCollector products
• LabVIEW programming advice
• Knowledgebase articles
• General advice, thoughts and onions related to automation, data-acquisition and measurement systems
• User-cases
• Customer reviews

​We look forward to hearing from you!  Use the comments below to tell us what you think!