Appendix 29: Protocol Transfer Utility
Purpose of the utility
This utility program exists to allow transfer of EEGer Session Plans and Presets between clients and between clinicians.
Session plans are comprised of a series of setup stages (setting frequencies, electrode sites, modes, etc.) and run stages (time to run at the previous setup).
Presets are comprised of single setup stages that can be entered into a session plan from a selection menu. They have all the same settings/values that a setup stage in a session plan can have and are intended to speed up creating custom session plans for a client. Presets are organized by protocol class and by layout.
Session plans can be packaged (by the utility) into tiny compressed files. These files can then be (re)loaded as either default session plans or session plans for specific clients. They can also be transmitted via email or downloaded (from some TBD site) and installed on any clinician's system (and then installed wherever). The limitation is that the plans are "Layout-specific" meaning that you cannot load a 5-trace layout plan into a 6-trace layout (but I handle that internally).
Presets can be gathered up and packaged (by the utility) into tiny compressed files. The presets can then be added to existing presets, either for the same protocol class or for a related class (AT presets NOT allowed in SMR, for example). They can also be transmitted via email or downloaded (from some TBD site) and installed on any clinician's system (and then installed wherever).
Installation
The utility is available from www.eeger.com <http://www.eeger.com> (Click on the Downloadable Files and Updates page, then click on Handy add-on utilities for EEGer). It may already be preinstalled with EEGer.
The utility is installed just like other installation programs - start it and acknowledge the prompts. The only option during installation is whether or not a desktop icon is created for the utility.
Starting the utility
Click on Start->All Programs->EEGer->Protocol Transfer Utility or Double click on the desktop icon. Recent EEGer versions also have a start option under the Tools menu.
Usage
There are six option buttons on the main screen:
Install Session Plan for a Client
Install Session Plan as a Default Session Plan
Install Presets
Create Installable Session Plan from Existing Client
Create Installable Presets from Existing Presets
I would like to believe they are self-explanatory but the detailed procedures are described following.
The main menu looks like this:
The first process to discuss is creating an installable session plan to use.
Clicking on "Create Installable Session Plan from Existing Client" brings up a client selection screen just like in EEGer:
At this point select the client/protocol class you want to draw a session plan from. The next screen
lets you select which layout the session plan is drawn from. The plan itself is unmodified - only a copy is made. Then, you enter a descriptive line (such as why this is a great session plan):
Now you select a file name for the file (which should help in selecting such a file later):
The default location for these files is C:\EEGer\Export but you can save them anywhere you like.
Next -
Now that we have an installable session plan, let's install it.
Clicking on "Install Session Plan for a Client" brings up a file selection menu:
Selecting (double click or select and click on Open) a file lets the utility validate that it IS a valid session plan and then brings up a client selection menu for you to select the recipient client for the session plan.:
After selecting the client -
If you want to install a session plan as the "default" plan, click on "Install Session Plan as a Default Session Plan". This brings up the plan selection screen:
After selecting a plan, the default destination selection screen comes up:
After picking the desired compatible protocol class -
To create an installable presets file, click on "Create Installable Presets from Existing Presets" from the main menu.
Then choose the protocol class to export from.
You then get a list of the layouts for that protocol class:
You can select one or more of the layouts to export presets from (Ctrl-click for more than one).
When done selecting layouts, click OK and the following screen comes up:
Enter something useful as a reminder.
Clicking on OK brings us to the export file naming screen:
It is usually better to pick a (short) descriptive file name so you can recognize it later.
Then, of course:
To actually install presets, click on "Install Presets" from the main menu.
After selecting a presets file, the following choices are available:
Normally, you will then get :
You may also get :
This means you had all the presets in the file already existent in your presets for that protocol class.