U.S. patent application number 13/750173 was filed with the patent office on 2013-05-30 for outpatient monitoring systems and methods.
This patent application is currently assigned to MEDICALGORITHMICS LTD.. The applicant listed for this patent is MEDICALGORITHMICS LTD.. Invention is credited to Marek Dziubinski.
Application Number | 20130137937 13/750173 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41434394 |
Filed Date | 2013-05-30 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130137937 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Dziubinski; Marek |
May 30, 2013 |
OUTPATIENT MONITORING SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Abstract
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including
computer program products, for outpatient monitoring. In some
examples, the outpatient monitoring technology includes a system
for remote monitoring and consultations of patients' state
associated with automated interpretation of vital signs signals. In
other examples, the outpatient monitoring technology includes a
system for remote monitoring of patients' state associated with
analysis of full-disclosure vital signs digital signals with
reduced bit data or channel data. In some examples, the outpatient
monitoring technology includes a system for remote monitoring of
patients' state associated with ongoing automated analysis and
transmission of full-disclosure vital signs digital signals and
automatically generated signals' interpretation results and
manually marked patient symptoms.
Inventors: |
Dziubinski; Marek;
(Warszawa, PL) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
MEDICALGORITHMICS LTD.; |
Warsaw |
|
PL |
|
|
Assignee: |
MEDICALGORITHMICS LTD.
Warsaw
PL
|
Family ID: |
41434394 |
Appl. No.: |
13/750173 |
Filed: |
January 25, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12865437 |
Jul 30, 2010 |
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PCT/IB2009/007469 |
Nov 16, 2009 |
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13750173 |
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61115214 |
Nov 17, 2008 |
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61236602 |
Aug 25, 2009 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
600/300 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A61B 5/0002 20130101;
G16H 10/60 20180101; A61B 5/0022 20130101; G16H 40/67 20180101;
A61B 5/7475 20130101; A61B 5/72 20130101; G16H 40/63 20180101; H04L
67/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
600/300 |
International
Class: |
A61B 5/00 20060101
A61B005/00 |
Claims
1. A system for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated
with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure
data signals representative of vital signs, interpretation results
data, and manually marked patient symptoms information data, the
system comprising: at least one portable patient monitor, the
portable patient monitor comprising: an acquisition module for
acquiring digital data signals representative of full-disclosure
vital signs; an analysis module for interpreting the acquired
digital data signals; an interactive user interface for reporting
subjective symptoms; a recording module for storing the
full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs, the
interpretation results, and the information entered via the user
interface; and a transmission module configured to transmit the
data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs, the
interpretation results, and the information entered via the user
interface.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one portable patient
monitor triggers the data transmission based on the interpretation
results, the patient's interaction, or on a periodic schedule.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive user interface
allows for defining symptom's characteristics; and defining
patient's activity and circumstances related to the symptom's
occurrence.
4. A method for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated
with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure
signals data representative of a patients' vital signs,
automatically generated interpretation data results, and manually
marked patient symptoms information, the method comprising the
steps of: receiving, in a remote location, data representative of a
patients' full-disclosure signals with interpretation data results
and manually marked subjective symptoms information; reviewing,
from the remote location, the data representative of a patients'
full-disclosure signals with the interpretation data results and
the manually marked subjective symptoms information; and reporting,
from the remote location, the interpretation data results and the
manually marked subjective patient symptoms information.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising correlating
interpretation data results with the manually marked, subjective
patient symptoms information.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating monitoring
reports including the interpretation data results correlated with
the manually marked subjective patient symptoms information.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the monitoring reports are
generated on an ongoing basis, during the patient monitoring, and
at the end of the monitoring session.
8. A system for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated
with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure
data signals representative of vital signs, interpretation results
data, and manually marked patient symptoms information data, the
system comprising: at least one means for portable patient
monitoring, the means for portable patient monitoring comprising:
means for acquiring digital data signals representative of
full-disclosure vital signs; means for interpreting the acquired
digital data signals; means for reporting subjective symptoms;
means for defining symptom's characteristics; and means for
defining patient's activity and circumstances related to the
symptom's occurrence; means for storing the full-disclosure data
signals representative of vital signs, the interpretation results,
and the information entered via the user interface; and means for
transmitting the data signals representative of full-disclosure
vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information
entered via the user interface.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser.
No. 12/865,437, filed Jul. 30, 2010, which is the U.S. National
Stage of International Application No. PCT/IB2009/007469, filed on
Nov. 16, 2009, published in English, which claims the benefit of
U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/236,602, filed on Aug. 25,
2009, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/115,214, filed on
Nov. 17, 2008, the entire teachings of the above applications are
incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Use of telemedicine can have a significant impact on
individual health and can therefore favorably impact longevity. The
value to the economy for these improvements in life expectancy is
about as large as the value of all other consumption goods and
services combined. In this regard, certain health services can be
greatly enhanced via telemedicine. For example, home health
services are receiving a great deal of attention and investment in
many countries around the world. Telemedicine technologies enable
home health providers to redefine patient treatment plans, as they
are able to increase virtual patient visits through the elimination
of a significant percentage of travel to patients' homes. In
addition, in many situation outpatient monitoring allows for
hospitalizations prediction, which results in actions leading to
avoiding such expensive procedures. Further, access to quality,
state of the art health care in underserved areas, such as rural
communities, is one of the most important promised benefits of
telemedicine. Rural residents are not second-class citizens; they
deserve access to health care services that those in metropolitan
areas enjoy.
[0003] An example of popular telemedicine applications are
long-term, outpatient arrhythmia diagnostic systems, where patients
are monitored for several weeks, while staying at home or carrying
their normal lives. These systems utilize a concept of transmitting
short ECG fragments, when an important cardiac event occurs. In
more obsolete applications, the event transmissions are manually
triggered by the patients, while most recent applications use
intelligent algorithms, operating in real-time, which based on
automatically detected events, trigger the transmissions. Both of
the above applications can be viewed as so-called `event systems`,
because they transmit only short ECG fragments, representing
limited events only. Diagnostic reports from such systems usually
contain limited, in terms of statistical representation,
information describing the normal and abnormal heart rhythm and
produce qualitative rather than quantitative results. On the
contrary, the so called `Holter systems`, popular applications for
short term (usually 24 hours or 48 hours) arrhythmia diagnostics,
allow for reviewing the entire full-disclosure ECG signal and
verifying classification results for each heart beat, hence they
are capable of producing qualitative and comprehensive statistical
reports, with each heart beat counted and classified. The `Holter
systems`, however, are offline applications, where the ECG signal
is stored by `Holier recorders` carried by the patients, and after
the diagnostic session is completed, the recorders are returned to
a physician/specialist for data download and automated analysis and
post-processing.
[0004] Thus, a need exists in the telemedicine field for outpatient
monitoring systems and methods allowing for generating more
quantitative analysis results.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The present invention relates generally to computer-based
methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for
outpatient monitoring.
SUMMARY
[0006] One approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for remote
monitoring and consultations of a patients' state associated with
automated interpretation of vital signs signals. The system
including at least one portable monitor, each portable monitor
configured to: acquire data signals representative of a patient's
vital signs; interpret the representative data signals; and
generate interpretation result data; and transmit the
interpretation results and the vital signs signals. The system
further includes at least one monitoring computer station, the
monitoring computer station including: a downloading module for
obtaining the data signals representative of the patients' vital
signs and the interpretation result data; a display module for
viewing the obtained data signals representative of the patients'
vital signs and the interpretation result data; a revision module
for correcting and/or affixing comments to the interpretation
result data; and a synchronization module for synchronizing the
revised interpretation result data with a data interpretation
center and repository.
[0007] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for
remote monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis and
transmission of full-disclosure data signals having reduced bit
data and/or reduced number of channels, representative of patient's
vital signs. The system includes at least one portable monitor
configured to acquire, store and compress/reduce data signals
representative of patients' vital signs with a lossy
compression/bit reduction algorithm/channel reduction procedure;
and transmit the compressed data signals along with some
uncompressed vital signs signal data fragments. The system further
includes at least one monitoring computer station, the monitoring
computer station including a downloading module for obtaining the
compressed/reduced data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data
fragments; and a verification module visually distinguishing
between the compressed/reduced data signals and the
uncompressed/unreduced data fragments.
[0008] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for
remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing
automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals
representative of vital signs, interpretation results data, and
manually marked patient symptoms information data. The system
including at least one portable patient monitor, the portable
patient monitor including an acquisition module for acquiring
digital data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs;
an analysis module for interpreting the acquired digital data
signals; an interactive user interface for reporting subjective
symptoms; a recording module for storing the full-disclosure data
signals representative of vital signs, the interpretation results,
and the information entered via the user interface; and a
transmission module configured to transmit the data signals
representative of full-disclosure vital signs, the interpretation
results, and the information entered via the user interface.
[0009] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a method for
remote monitoring of patients' state associated with interpretation
results data representative of the patients' vital signs. The
method including the steps of remotely initializing at least one
monitoring session having an associated unique identification
number; obtaining the sessions' identification number; associating
a patients' personal data and a consultants' personal data with the
obtained sessions' identification number; transmitting vital signs
signals with interpretation results; verifying the interpretation
results data and/or post-processing the received signals data
and/or inserting comments to the interpretation results data; and
synchronizing the verified or commented on interpretation results
data with a data interpretation center and repository.
[0010] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a method for
remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with analysis of
full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs having a
reduced bit data/reduced number of channels. The method including
the steps of receiving bit-reduced and/or channel-reduced
full-disclosure signals data representative of a patients' vital
signs and uncompressed/unreduced data signals fragments; visually
reviewing the compressed/reduced full-disclosure signals data
representative of a patients' vital signs and the uncompressed data
signals fragments; and remotely requesting additional
uncompressed/unreduced data signals fragments for a more detailed
analysis and/or verification.
[0011] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a method for
remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing
automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure signals data
representative of a patients' vital signs, automatically generated
interpretation data results, and manually marked patient symptoms
information. The method including the steps of receiving, in a
remote location, data representative of a patients' full-disclosure
signals with interpretation data results and manually marked
subjective symptoms information; reviewing, from the remote
location, the data representative of a patients' full-disclosure
signals with the interpretation data results and the manually
marked subjective symptoms information; and reporting, from the
remote location, the interpretation data results and the manually
marked subjective patient symptoms information.
[0012] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a computer
program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the
computer program product including instructions being operable to
cause a data processing apparatus to perform any one of the
approaches and/or examples described herein.
[0013] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for
remote monitoring and consultations of a patients' state associated
with automated interpretation of vital signs signals. The system
including at least one means for portable monitoring, each means
for portable monitoring configured to acquire data signals
representative of a patient's vital signs; interpret the
representative data signals; and generate interpretation result
data; and transmit the interpretation results and the vital signs
signals. The system further including at least one monitoring
computer station, the monitoring computer station including means
for obtaining the data signals representative of the patients'
vital signs and the interpretation result data; means for viewing
the obtained data signals representative of the patients' vital
signs and the interpretation result data; means for correcting
and/or affixing comments to the interpretation result data; and
means for synchronizing the revised interpretation result data with
a data interpretation center and repository.
[0014] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for
remote monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis and
transmission of full-disclosure data signals having reduced bit
data and/or reduced number of channels, representative of patient's
vital signs. The system including at least one means for portable
monitoring configured to acquire, store and compress data signals
representative of patients' vital signs with a lossy
compression/bit reduction algorithm/channel reduction procedure;
and transmit the compressed/reduced data signals along with some
uncompressed/unreduced vital signs signal data fragments. The
system further including at least one means for monitoring, the
means for monitoring including: means for obtaining the compressed
data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments; and
means for visually distinguishing between the compressed/reduced
data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments.
[0015] Another approach to outpatient monitoring is a system for
remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing
automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals
representative of vital signs, interpretation results data, and
manually marked patient symptoms information data. The system
including at least one means for portable patient monitoring, the
means for portable patient monitoring including means for acquiring
digital data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs;
means for interpreting the acquired digital data signals; means for
reporting subjective symptoms; defining symptom's characteristics;
and defining patient's activity and circumstances related to the
symptom's occurrence; means for storing the full-disclosure data
signals representative of vital signs, the interpretation results,
and the information entered via the user interface; and means for
transmitting the data signals representative of full-disclosure
vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information
entered via the user interface.
[0016] In other examples, any of the approaches above can include
one or more of the following features.
[0017] In some examples, the portable monitor operates in real-time
and continually generates the data signals representative of the
patients' vital signs, the interpretation result data, and a
hardware status data of the at least one portable monitor.
[0018] In other examples, the hardware status data contains
information describing the portable monitor's battery status,
memory status and mobile telephony communication error list.
[0019] In some examples, the data interpretation center and
repository receives the data files from the at least one portable
monitor, reads the data signals representative of the patients'
vital signs and inserts the interpretation result data, with links
to the data signals representative of the patients' vital signs,
into the data repository.
[0020] In other examples, the at least one monitoring computer
stations synchronizes remotely with the data interpretation center
and repository.
[0021] In some examples, the revised interpretation result data are
propagated to the data interpretation center and repository and
distributed further to the at least one monitoring computer station
connected with the data interpretation center and repository.
[0022] In other examples, the at least one portable monitor selects
the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments based on generated
interpretation results and/or a signal condition representing at
least one significant signal event.
[0023] In some examples, the verification module of the at least
one monitoring computer station remotely requests additional
uncompressed/unreduced data fragments stored in the at least one
portable monitor's memory for additional review.
[0024] In other examples, the additionally requested
uncompressed/unreduced data fragments and the compressed/reduced
data signals are visually distinguished by the at least one
monitoring computer station with the use of the verification
module.
[0025] In some examples, the at least one portable patient monitor
triggers the data transmission based on the interpretation results,
the patient's interaction, or on a periodic schedule.
[0026] In other examples, the interactive user interface allows for
defining symptom's characteristics; and defining patient's activity
and circumstances related to the symptom's occurrence.
[0027] In other examples, the sessions' identification number is a
combination of the session initialization time, date, and a
portable monitor's identification number.
[0028] In some examples, the method further including creating an
event list based on interpretation results data, each event having
an unconfirmed status indicator.
[0029] In other examples, the method further including changing the
unconfirmed status indicator to a confirmed status indicator when
the event has been detected properly, deleted, determined to be a
false event, determined to be unclear, or when the consultant is
not sure whether it is a true event or an incorrectly detected
event.
[0030] In some examples, the method further including correlating
interpretation data results with the manually marked, subjective
patient symptoms information.
[0031] In other examples, the method further including generating
monitoring reports including the interpretation data results
correlated with the manually marked subjective patient symptoms
information.
[0032] In some examples, the monitoring reports are generated on an
ongoing basis, during the patient monitoring, and at the end of the
monitoring session.
[0033] An advantage to the outpatient monitoring technology
quantitative analysis results can be generated by accessing
remotely the full-disclosure signals, thereby enabling detailed
post-processing of the data, detailed verification of the analysis
results, and more confidence in generating qualitative analysis
reports.
[0034] Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will
become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating the
principles of the invention by way of example only.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0035] The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages
will be apparent from the following more particular description of
embodiments, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which
like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the
different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale,
emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of
the embodiments.
[0036] FIG. 1 is an illustration of vital signs signals outpatient
monitoring and tele-consultations system;
[0037] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates full-disclosure signal data
flow;
[0038] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates tele-consultations data
flow;
[0039] FIG. 4 is an illustration of the real-time outpatient
interactive and full-disclosure vital signs signals monitoring
system for symptomatic events recording and correlation with
automatically detected signal events;
[0040] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustration of a method for remote
monitoring of patient's state associated with interpretation
results data representative of patients' vital signs;
[0041] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustration of a method for remote
monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis of
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel-reduced full-disclosure vital
signs signals; and
[0042] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustration of a method for remote
and real-time monitoring of patient's state associated with
analysis of full-disclosure vital signs signals.
DESCRIPTION
[0043] Outpatient monitoring technology can include a system
enabling long-term, outpatient and real-time analysis of vital
signs signals, where the data is transmitted via a
bandwidth-limited communication channel, such as mobile telephony
network, during the diagnostic session on an ongoing basis. The
outpatient monitoring technology can have the benefit of access to
full-disclosure signals. The technology enables generation of more
comprehensive and qualitative statistical analysis results on an
ongoing basis and real-time response to the automatically detected
events requiring immediate reaction, or to the symptomatic events
reported by the patients during the monitoring. The technology also
allows for correlating the symptomatic events, reported by the
patients, with the full-disclosure vital signs signals and the
automatically generated signal description.
[0044] The outpatient monitoring technology can include a system
for outpatient monitoring of patients' status, based on automated
analysis of vital signs signals. The vital signs signals can be
acquired through a sensor in a portable patients' monitor. The
portable monitor can analyze the signals in real-time and can
generate vital signs interpretation information including, for
example, information for emergency cases. Based on the
interpretation results, significant events associated with patient
state are detected. In addition, the acquired vital signs signals
are compressed/downsized with lossy-compression/bit-reduction or
channel-reduction algorithm which generally decreases quality of
the vital signs signals, or reduces information contained by the
signals, but enables transmission of the continuous,
full-disclosure signals through a bandwidth-limited communication
channel (e.g., mobile telephony network, wired telephony network,
etc.) to a specialist at a remote location. In addition, based on
the automated interpretation results, i.e., in accordance to the
determined events, short, uncompressed/unreduced vital signs
signals fragments are selected. The full-disclosure,
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced, or channel-reduced signals along with
the selected uncompressed/unreduced fragments and the
interpretation results can be stored in digital files and
transmitted via the bandwidth-limited communication channel, with
the use of any type of transmission mechanism, e.g., file transfer
protocol to a remote system server connected to the Internet. The
entire vital signs signals can be stored in the portable patients'
monitor in an uncompressed/unreduced format for later reference.
When a new monitoring session is initiated with the use of the
portable patient's monitor, a session unique ID number can be
generated and/or can be stored in the session's initialization
digital file. The ID number can be a combination of the
initialization time and date and the device unique ID number. The
system server can receive the data files and can insert the
interpretation results with links to the transmitted data files to
a database. Once the server detects a new monitoring session ID
file, the server can create a new folder for storing the session
digital files, and can create a new record in the database. The
vital signs signals monitoring computer stations can have access to
a network (e.g., internet, local area network, etc.), and can
connect remotely to the system server and the database, can
download the monitoring digital files, and/or can display
information about the newly initiated session. When the new session
is detected by the monitoring center's consultants with the use of
the monitoring computer stations, the monitoring center's
representative contacts the portable monitor's owner/user, e.g., a
physician or a patient in remote location, and obtains personal
data, medical history and other information regarding the monitored
person and inserts it to the system server's database. The
information can be also inserted directly to the system server's
database, by the owner/user of the portable monitor, via a web
browser, through a web based interface.
[0045] In some examples, personal data of all consultants
responsible for analyzing the patient's vital signs signals during
the monitoring session and personal information of the user/owner
of the portable monitor who initiated the monitoring session from
remote location can be inserted to the system server's database and
can be associated with the monitoring session's record. The vital
signs monitoring computer stations databases can synchronize with
the system server database and can download the monitoring session
data files. The consultants can review the full-disclosure vital
signs signals with the attached interpretation information in order
to verify the automated analysis results. The consultants can
post-process the received full-disclosure signals in order to
generate more complete statistical reports. All events,
automatically detected by the portable patients' monitor and/or
events generated during the post-processing procedure can have the
initial status set to "unconfirmed". The operators can verify and
review the events. The operators can change the status to
"confirmed" if the event has been detected properly. The operators
can change the status to "deleted" in case of false events. The
operators can change the status to "unclear", in case of doubts, so
other operators can consult the event.
[0046] In other examples, the consultants can modify events
description and/or insert comments or impressions. All the status
modifications and/or changes and/or inserted information are
propagated through the system server to all other vital signs
monitoring stations instantly or nearly instantly. The monitoring
stations can also display the full-disclosure vital signs signals
with different color than the uncompressed/unreduced vital signs
signals fragments. Therefore the operators/consultants, aware of
the lossy-compressed/bit-reduced or channel-reduced signals
limitations, can remotely request from the portable patients'
monitors, additional uncompressed/unreduced vital signs signals
fragments for verification, in case of significant events that were
not automatically selected for representation with the
uncompressed/unreduced data. Any fragment of the full-disclosure
vital signs can be requested, since the entire uncompressed
unreduced vital signs representation signals are stored in the
portable monitor's memory.
[0047] The technology can include a system for outpatient
monitoring of patients' status, based on automated analysis of
vital signs signals and subjectively indicated symptoms, marked by
the patient with the use of interactive interface of the patient's
monitor, allowing for correlation of the objectively detected
events and/or the subjective events. The vital signs signals can be
acquired through a sensor by a portable patients' monitor. The
portable monitor can analyze the signals in real-time and can
generate vital signs signals interpretation information. Based on
the interpretation results significant/emergency events associated
with patient state are detected. In addition, the patient, with the
use of an interactive interface of the portable patient monitor,
can indicate that he/she felt symptom or symptoms. The patient
and/or the operator can determine additional information related to
the symptoms occurrence, such as patient's activity when the
symptom happened, and/or the type of felt symptom or symptoms.
[0048] The full-disclosure signals along with the additional data
including interpretation results and the patient reported symptoms
can be stored in digital files and transmitted via a
bandwidth-limited communication channel (e.g. mobile telephony
network) with the use of any type of transmission mechanism, e.g.,
file transfer protocol to a system server connected to the
Internet. The entire vital signs signals with the additional data
are stored in the portable patients' monitor for later reference
and remote or direct retrieval.
[0049] In other examples, the patient monitor provides interactive
tools for real-time symptomatic events reporting, enabling for
synchronization of the felt symptoms with symptoms represented in
the vital signs signals and the signals annotations.
[0050] The outpatient vital signs signals monitoring system can
utilize any type of network (e.g. a mobile telephony network, other
bandwidth-limited communication network, etc.) advantageously
enabling for data exchange between a patient's monitor at a
patient's location and a physician/specialist from a remote
location.
[0051] In some examples, the system transmits
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced or channel-reduced full-disclosure
signals representation and enables remote consultations and
verification and post-processing of the automatically generated
interpretation results and the full-disclosure signals. The system,
despite bandwidth limitation of the wireless network transmission
channel, can enable access to the full-disclosure signals
representations with interpretation results from remote location
due to utilizing lossy compression/bit reduction algorithm, or
channel reduction approach. The system, with the use of a portable
patient's monitor which is a microcomputer with built in wireless
network communication module, can automatically interpret the vital
signs signals in real-time, stores the results in memory and
transmits the interpretation results, along with the signals, to
the remote system server.
[0052] In other examples, the transmitted
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced or channel-reduced representation
signals are accompanied by a limited number of
uncompressed/unreduced signals fragments, representing significant
signals events. The plurality of remote monitoring computer
stations, in connection with the system server thought a network
(e.g., internet, wide area network, etc.), can download and/or can
visualize the signals and the interpretation results. The
monitoring computer stations, operated by consultants, can modify
and/or change the automatically generated vital signs
interpretation results and post-process and post-analyze the
full-disclosure signals and/or allow for inserting additional
comments or impressions. The inserted information and/or the
modifications are propagated through the system server to other
monitoring computer stations. Such information exchange can be
viewed as consultations between the monitoring computer stations'
operators. The operators, after initial review of the
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel-reduced full-disclosure vital
signs signals can remotely request, from the portable patient
monitors' memory, additional uncompressed/unreduced vital signs
signals fragments for more thorough analysis and/or
verification.
[0053] In some examples, the system transmits full-disclosure
signals with automatically generated signals' description and
information related to subjective symptoms marked by the patient,
allowing for correlation and reporting of the automatically
detected and manually marked events.
[0054] In other examples, the system, with the use of a portable
patient's monitor, which is a microcomputer with built in mobile
telephony or wireless network communication module, automatically
interprets the vital signs signals in real-time, can store the
results in memory and can transmit, on an ongoing basis, the
interpretation results for emergency events, along with the signals
and information related to the subjective symptoms, to a remote
monitoring center. The patient, with the use of interactive user
interface of the portable patient monitor, can manually report
subjective symptoms with indication of the symptoms characteristics
and information describing patient's activity during which, or
circumstances under which the felt symptoms occurred.
[0055] FIG. 1 is an illustration of the system 100 diagram for
providing remote outpatient real-time vital signs signals
monitoring with the capability of tele-consultations between the
system operators/specialists operating the vital signs data
reviewing and tele-consultation stations 110A, B, C through Z-1 and
Z, being connected to the system server 109 (e.g., directly via a
network, indirectly via a network, etc.). The patient's portable
monitor 101 transmits the data, through a network 107 (e.g., a
mobile telephony network, a wireless network, etc.) and/or through
the Internet 108 to the system server 109. The other patients'
portable monitors 101 through 101 z transmit the data to the system
server 109. The system 100 includes, but is not limited to, the
following components: [0056] 1) Portable monitor 101--a
microcomputer connected to a vital signs signals sensor 106 with
built in wireless network transceiver (e.g., a global system for
mobile communication (GSM) module) 102, central processing unit
(CPU) 105 for data processing, random access memory (RAM) 103 and
storage memory 104 for storing the signals and processing results
with the use set of programmed instructions for real-time vital
signs signals interpretation, compression and communication
management. [0057] 2) Vital signs signals data reviewing,
post-processing and tele-consultation station 110--monitoring
computer station with software for data downloading, storing and
propagating the inserted and generated, by the operator, additional
analysis results, and results modifications and other inserted
information related to the diagnostic session from the operated
monitoring computer station to all other monitoring computer
stations assigned to the diagnostic session, through the system
server. [0058] 3) System server 109 with software for communication
management between the patients' monitors and the vital signs data
reviewing and tele-consultation stations and distributing the
inserted information between the vital signs data reviewing and
tele-consultation station.
[0059] When the portable monitor based software detects
pathological/emergency events, the software can automatically
select and send uncompressed/unreduced vital signs signals strips
representing these events, along with the
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel reduced full-disclosure signal
segment and the interpretation results representing this segment.
The interpretation results and the full-disclosure signal segments
can be, for example, streamed to the system server in short time
intervals.
[0060] FIG. 2 is an illustration of the full-disclosure data flow
scheme 200 between the portable monitor 201 and the vital signs
data reviewing, post-processing and tele-consultation station, i.e.
the vital signs signals monitoring computer station 214. The vital
signs signal data is transmitted through the mobile telephony or
other wireless network 210 and further through the Internet 221 to
the system server 211. The scheme includes, but is not limited to,
the following components: [0061] 1) Portable monitor 201--a
microcomputer with memory for storing the vital signs signals 202
in the following forms: full-disclosure uncompressed/unreduced
signals representation 203, full-disclosure
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel-reduced signals representation
205, uncompressed I unreduced signals fragments 204 representing
significant signal events; hardware diagnostic information 206
including memory status information and communication errors list;
monitoring settings 207 information, including communication
settings 208 with server IP and port number and signals analysis
settings 209 with the analysis parameters and thresholds. [0062] 2)
System server 211--including database 212 and the data management
module 213 for exchanging information between the portable monitors
201 and the monitoring computer stations 214. [0063] 3) Monitoring
computer station with software 214--including the downloading
module 218 with RAM 219 and storage memory 220 for vital signs
signals download operations (e.g., obtaining the data signals
representative of the patients' vital signs) and storing, the
verification module 215 for reviewing and requesting
uncompressed/unreduced signals strips 216 from the remote portable
patient's monitor, and for modifying the portable patient's monitor
settings 217.
[0064] In some examples, the portable monitor 201 acquires data
signals representative of patients' vital signs, interprets the
representative data signals, and generates interpretation result
data based on the same.
[0065] In other examples, the portable monitor 201 operates in
real-time and continuously generates the data signals
representative of the patients' vital signs, the interpretation
result data, and/or a hardware status data of the portable monitor
201. The hardware status data can include information describing
the portable monitor's battery status (e.g., 80%, five minutes
until battery failure, etc.), memory status (e.g., 90% memory
capacity, four megabytes available, etc.), and/or a mobile
telephony communication error list (e.g., 80% communication failure
rate, five packets transmission attempts, or four packets lost in
the past sixty seconds, etc.).
[0066] In other examples, the monitoring computer station includes
a display module (not shown), a revision module (not shown), and/or
a synchronization module (not shown). The display module enables
viewing of the data signals representative of the patients' vital
signs. The revision module enables the correcting and/or affixing
comments to the interpretation result data. The synchronization
module enables synchronizing the revised interpretation result and
post-processing results data with a data interpretation center and
repository (e.g., off-site data storage facility, etc.). The
synchronization between the monitoring computer station and the
data interpretation center and repository can occur remotely. The
synchronization between the monitoring computer station and the
data interpretation center and repository can occur based on
revised interpretation result data and/or interpretation data
generated during post-processing and/or any other condition.
[0067] FIG. 3 is an illustration of the tele-consultations data
flow scheme 300 between the monitoring computer stations 301
through 301z and the portable patient's monitors 316 through the
mobile telephony or wireless network 315 and further through the
Internet 311. The scheme includes, but is not limited to, the
following components: [0068] 1) Monitoring computer station 301
exchanging two sets of data: [0069] Data set A 302 exchanged only
between the computer stations including: [0070] events status
modifications 303, [0071] interpretation results changes 304,
[0072] analysis reports changes 305, [0073] patients' personal info
changes 306, [0074] consultants' personal info changes 307; [0075]
Data set B 308 exchanged between the computer stations 301 and the
portable monitor 316, including: [0076] information regarding the
requested uncompressed signals fragments 309, [0077] signals
monitoring settings changes 310; [0078] 2) System server
314--including database 313 and consultations data synchronization
module 312 for exchanging information from data set B 308 between
the monitoring computer stations 301 and the portable patient's
monitors 316, and for synchronizing/exchanging information from
data sets A 302 and B 308 between the operated monitoring computer
station 301 all other monitoring computer stations 301 assigned to
the same diagnostic session. [0079] 3) Portable patient monitor 316
receiving and responding to the uncompressed signals fragments
requests and the signals interpretation settings changes from data
set B 308.
[0080] FIG. 4 is an illustration of real-time outpatient
interactive and full-disclosure vital signs signals monitoring
system for symptomatic events recording and correlation with
automatically detected signal events 400. The system scheme
includes, but is not limited to, the following components: portable
patient monitors 401 through 401z, each including vital signs
signals sensor 402, acquisition module 403 for vital signs signals
acquisition, signal analysis module 404 for automatic signals
interpretation, interactive user interface for reporting subjective
symptoms 407 felt by the patient, recording module 405 for storing
interactive interface operations introduced by the patient and
transmission module 406 for transmitting the vital signs signals,
the interpretation results and the manually triggered symptomatic
events information through the mobile telephony or wireless network
408 and further through the Internet 409 to the remote monitoring
stations 410, operated by trained specialists, responsible for
reviewing the signals, verifying the automatically generated
interpretation results, post-processing the full-disclosure signals
and for generating diagnostic reports during and after the
diagnostic session.
[0081] The systems, stations, monitors, and/or components described
herein can, for example, utilize the CPU to execute computer
executable instructions and/or include a processor to execute
computer executable instructions (e.g., an encryption processing
unit, a field programmable gate array processing unit, etc.). It
should be understood that the systems, stations, and/or monitors
can include, for example, other modules, devices, and/or processors
known in the art and/or varieties of the illustrated modules,
devices, and/or processors.
[0082] FIG. 5 is a flowchart 500 illustration of a method for
remote monitoring of patient's state associated with interpretation
results data representative of patients' vital signs. The method
includes, but is not limited to, the following steps: [0083] 1)
Initializing of the monitoring session 502 through the portable
patient's monitor 501 interface; [0084] 2) Transmitting of the
vital signs signals and the automatically generated interpretation
results 503 to a remote location, through a bandwidth-limited
communication channel 504, to the system server 505, accessible via
Internet 506; [0085] 3) Associating of the initialized monitoring
session ID with the patient's personal data and with the trained
specialist's personal data 508 with the use of the specialist's
computer station 507; [0086] 4) Verifying of the automatically
generated signal interpretation results 509, including
post-processing of the signal and inserting additional comments,
related to the interpretation; and [0087] 5) Synchronizing of the
post-processing interpretation modifications and the inserted
comments with the server repository 510.
[0088] FIG. 6 is a flowchart 600 illustration of a method for
remote monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel-reduced full-disclosure vital
signs signals. The method includes, but is not limited to the
following steps: [0089] 1) Receiving a lossy-compressed and/or
bit-reduced and/or channel-reduced full-disclosure signals data
representative of patient's vital signs 602 from the portable
patient's monitor 608, through a bandwidth-limited communication
channel 607, via the system server 606 accessible through the
Internet 605; [0090] 2) Visually reviewing the
lossy-compressed/bit-reduced/channel-reduced full-disclosure vital
signs signals 603 with the use of the specialist's computer station
601; and [0091] 3) Remotely requesting additional
uncompressed/unreduced signals fragments, representing significant
signal events, for verification and more detailed analysis and
signal measurements 604 from the patient's monitor 608, through the
bandwidth-limited communication channel 607, via the system server
606 accessible through the Internet 605;
[0092] FIG. 7 is a flowchart 700 illustration of a method for
remote and real-time monitoring of patient's state associated with
analysis of full-disclosure vital signs signals. The method
includes, but is not limited to the following steps: [0093] 1)
Receiving at remote location full-disclosure vital signs signals
with the automatically generated interpretation results 702, from
the portable patient's monitor 708, through a bandwidth-limited
communication channel, via the system server 705 accessible through
the Internet 706, on an ongoing basis during the monitoring; [0094]
2) Reviewing 703, with the use of specialist's computer station
701, the full-disclosure vital signs signals and the automatically
generated analysis results on an ongoing basis, during the
monitoring; and [0095] 3) Post-processing of the received
full-disclosure signals, with the use specialist's computer station
701, in order to generate more detailed/more accurate
interpretation results and reporting the results and the manually
indicated patient's symptoms on an ongoing basis, during the
monitoring 704.
[0096] In other examples, the portable patient's monitor 708
transmits 709 the remote location full-disclosure vital signs
signals with the automatically generated interpretation results to
the specialist's computer station 701 through a bandwidth-limited
communication channel, via the system server 705 accessible through
the Internet 706.
[0097] The above-described systems and methods can be implemented
in digital, electronic circuitry, in computer hardware, firmware,
and/or software. The implementation can be as a computer program
product (i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in an
information carrier). The implementation can, for example, be in a
machine-readable storage device and/or in a propagated signal, for
execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing
apparatus. The implementation can, for example, be a programmable
processor, a computer, and/or multiple computers.
[0098] A computer program can be written in any form of programming
language, including compiled and/or interpreted languages, and the
computer program can be deployed in any form, including as a
stand-alone program or as a subroutine, element, and/or other unit
suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program can
be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers
at one site.
[0099] Method steps can be performed by one or more programmable
processors executing a computer program to perform functions of the
invention by operating on input data and generating output. Method
steps can also be performed by and an apparatus can be implemented
as special purpose logic circuitry. The circuitry can, for example,
be a FPGA (field programmable gate array) and/or an ASIC
(application-specific integrated circuit). Modules, subroutines,
and software agents can refer to portions of the computer program,
the processor, the special circuitry, software, and/or hardware
that implement that functionality.
[0100] Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program
include, by way of example, both general and special purpose
microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of
digital computer. Generally, a processor receives instructions and
data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The
essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing
instructions and one or more memory devices for storing
instructions and data. Generally, a computer can include, can be
operatively coupled to receive data from and/or transfer data to
one or more mass storage devices for storing data (e.g., magnetic,
magneto-optical disks, or optical disks).
[0101] Data transmission and instructions can also occur over a
communications network. Information carriers suitable for embodying
computer program instructions and data include all forms of
non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor
memory devices. The information carriers can, for example, be
EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, magnetic disks, internal hard
disks, removable disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-ROM, and/or
DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by,
and/or incorporated in special purpose logic circuitry.
[0102] To provide for interaction with a user, the above described
techniques can be implemented on a computer having a display
device. The display device can, for example, be a cathode ray tube
(CRT) and/or a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor. The
interaction with a user can, for example, be a display of
information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device (e.g.,
a mouse or a trackball) by which the user can provide input to the
computer (e.g., interact with a user interface element). Other
kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a
user. Other devices can, for example, be feedback provided to the
user in any form of sensory feedback (e.g., visual feedback,
auditory feedback, or tactile feedback). Input from the user can,
for example, be received in any form, including acoustic, speech,
and/or tactile input.
[0103] The above described techniques can be implemented in a
distributed computing system that includes a back-end component.
The back-end component can, for example, be a data server, a
middleware component, and/or an application server. The above
described techniques can be implemented in a distributing computing
system that includes a front-end component. The front-end component
can, for example, be a client computer having a graphical user
interface, a Web browser through which a user can interact with an
example implementation, and/or other graphical user interfaces for
a transmitting device. The components of the system can be
interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication
(e.g., a communication network). Examples of communication networks
include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the
Internet, wired networks, and/or wireless networks.
[0104] The system can include clients and servers. A client and a
server are generally remote from each other and typically interact
through a communication network. The relationship of client and
server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the
respective computers and having a client-server relationship to
each other.
[0105] Packet-based networks can include, for example, the
Internet, a carrier internet protocol (IP) network (e.g., local
area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), campus area network
(CAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), home area network (HAN)), a
private IP network, an IP private branch exchange (IPBX), a
wireless network (e.g., radio access network (RAN), 802.11 network,
802.16 network, general packet radio service (GPRS) network,
HiperLAN), and/or other packet-based networks. Circuit-based
networks can include, for example, the public switched telephone
network (PSTN), a private branch exchange (PBX), a wireless network
(e.g., RAN, bluetooth, code-division multiple access (CDMA)
network, time division multiple access (TDMA) network, global
system for mobile communications (GSM) network), and/or other
circuit-based networks.
[0106] The transmitting device can include, for example, a
computer, a computer with a browser device, a telephone, an IP
phone, a mobile device (e.g., cellular phone, personal digital
assistant (PDA) device, laptop computer, electronic mail device),
and/or other communication devices. The browser device includes,
for example, a computer (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer)
with a world wide web browser (e.g., Microsoft.RTM. Internet
Explorer.RTM. available from Microsoft Corporation, Mozilla.RTM.
Firefox available from Mozilla Corporation). The mobile computing
device includes, for example, a Blackberry.RTM..
[0107] Comprise, include, and/or plural forms of each are open
ended and include the listed parts and can include additional parts
that are not listed. And/or is open ended and includes one or more
of the listed parts and combinations of the listed parts.
[0108] One skilled in the art will realize the invention may be
embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit
or essential characteristics thereof. The foregoing embodiments are
therefore to be considered in all respects illustrative rather than
limiting of the invention described herein. Scope of the invention
is thus indicated by the appended claims, rather than by the
foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning
and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be
embraced therein.
* * * * *