Processing an alert signal of a medical device

• US 10,008,091 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2014
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Mason, Jonathan David, Aliakseyeu, Dzmitry Viktorovich, Bingley, Peter, Brosens-Kessels, Angelique Carin Johanna Maria, Kaufholz, Paul Augustinus Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Quan-Zhen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black-Childress, Rajsheed
• Application Number:
  US14/891,379
• Publication Number:
  US 20160086476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof

Abstract

A system (100) is provided for processing an alert signal of a medical device associated with a patient. The alert signal comprises medical information (122) representing an alert generated by the medical device to alert a healthcare professional to a state of the patient and/or the medical device. The system obtains the alert signal (024) of the medical device (020). The system comprises an interpretation subsystem (140) which accesses an interpretation database (040). Using the interpretation database (040), the interpretation subsystem (140) generates an interpreted version (142) of the alert by using the interpretation data (044) to interpret the medical information. This interpreted version of the alert provides an explanation of the alert in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient. The system then generates an output signal (162) comprising said interpreted version for a mobile device to enable communicating the interpreted version of the medical information to the non-professional caretaker via the mobile device (060). As such, the non-professional caretaker is provided with information he/she can understand.

Claims

1. A system for processing an alert signal of a medical device, the medical device being associated with a patient, the medical device generating an alert for alerting a healthcare professional to a state of the patient and/or the medical device, comprising:

an input interface that receives the alert signal of the medical device, the alert signal accompanying an alert in the form of an auditory or visual alarm generated by the medical device and comprising medical information that is to be sent to a healthcare professional, the medical information representing the alert;

an interpretation database comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing interpretation data for generating interpreted versions of medical information representing alerts generated by the medical device wherein the interpreted versions comprise explanations of alerts generated by the medical device in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient;

an interpretation subsystem comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

estimate a location of a mobile device using one or more of a location provided by the mobile device, WiFi based locating, and attempting communication with the mobile device via a short range communication technique;

access the interpretation database and receive therefrom interpretation data corresponding to the alert; and

generate an interpreted version of the alert by using the received interpretation data to interpret the medical information representing the alert, wherein the interpreted version of the alert is different from the medical information that is to be sent to the healthcare professional and provides an explanation of the alert in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient; and

an output interface that communicates the interpreted version of the alert to the non-professional caretaker via the mobile device if the estimated location of the mobile device is within a range of the medical device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the input interface is arranged for receiving sensor data of the auditory or visual alarm, and wherein the system is arranged for using a video or audio analysis technique to identify the alert signal in the sensor data and the medical information from the alert signal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the input interface receives the alert signal from the medical device in the form of a network message.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpretation subsystem is arranged for limiting a frequency of the providing of the explanation for a particular type of alert by providing the explanation a limited number of times.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpretation subsystem adjusts a detail and/or type of the interpreted version of the alert based on the estimated location of the mobile device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpretation subsystem estimates the location to establish if the non-professional caretaker is located in one of the group of:

a room of the patient, a hospital of the patient, and outside of the hospital.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a patient schedule interface that accesses a patient schedule of the patient, and wherein the interpretation subsystem further generates pre-alert information based on the patient schedule for informing the non-professional caretaker about a scheduled event associated with the patient.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the scheduled event is one of the group of:

a patient visit to the patient, a medical examination of the patient, a medical treatment of the patient, and a medical diagnosis of the patient.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the output interface comprises a mobile device interface that communicates with the mobile device using a short-range communication technique, and

the interpretation subsystem estimates the location of the mobile device by attempting communication with the mobile device via the short-range communication technique, and

the output interface communicates the interpreted version of the alert to the non-professional caretaker via the mobile device if the mobile device is within range of the short-range communication technique.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile device interface enables the non-healthcare professional to pair the mobile device with the system using the short-range communication technique.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that comprises a program that, when executed by a processing system, causes the processing system to:

obtain an alert signal from a medical device, the alert signal accompanying an alert in the form of an auditory or visual alarm generated by the medical device and comprising medical information that is to be communicated to a healthcare professional, the medical information representing the alert;

access an interpretation database comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing interpretation data for generating interpreted versions of medical information representing alerts generated by the medical device wherein the interpreted versions comprise explanations of alerts generated by the medical device in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient,

receiving therefrom from the interpretation database an interpreted version of the alert, wherein the interpreted version of the alert is different from the medical information that is to be sent to the healthcare professional and provides an explanation of the alert in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient;

estimate a location of a mobile device, and

communicate the interpreted version of the alert to the non-professional caretaker via the mobile device conditional upon the location of the mobile device being within a range of the medical device.

12. The medium of claim 11, wherein the processing system obtains the alert signal from the medical device via a network interface.

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein, in the event of obtaining repetitive alert signals, the program causes the processing system to cease communication of the interpreted version of the alert after a given number of communications.

14. The medium of claim 11, wherein the program further causes the processing system to access a patient schedule of the patient, and to communicate pre-alert information based on the patient schedule to inform the non-professional caretaker about a scheduled event associated with the patient.

15. The medium of claim 11, wherein the program causes the processing system to:

estimate the location of the mobile device by attempting communication with the mobile device via a short-range communication technique, and

communicate with the mobile device using the short-range communication technique conditional upon the mobile device being within range of the short-range communication technique.

16. A system for processing an alert signal of a medical device, the medical device being associated with a patient, the medical device generating an alert for alerting a healthcare professional to a state of the patient and/or the medical device, comprising:

an input interface that receives the alert signal of the medical device, the alert signal accompanying an alert in the form of an auditory or visual alarm generated by the medical device and comprising medical information that is to be sent to a healthcare professional, the medical information representing the alert;

an interpretation database comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing interpretation data for generating interpreted versions of medical information representing alerts generated by the medical device wherein the interpreted versions comprise explanations of alerts generated by the medical device in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient;

an interpretation subsystem comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

access the interpretation database and receive therefrom interpretation data corresponding to the alert; and

generate an interpreted version of the alert by using the received interpretation data to interpret the medical information representing the alert, wherein the interpreted version of the alert is different from the medical information that is to be sent to the healthcare professional and provides an explanation of the alert in a manner suitable for a non-professional caretaker of the patient; and

a short-range communication interface that communicates the interpreted version of the alert to the mobile device if the mobile device is within range of the short-range communication interface.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the short-range communication interface pairs with the mobile device whereby the short-range communication interface communicates with the paired mobile device.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the short-range communication interface operates using one of Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, and ZigBee.