METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ON-SCREEN INCIDENT REVIEW IN AN AED

• US 20020156503A1
• Filed: 10/14/1999
• Published: 10/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: CYRUS, JUDITH L., WOELFER, KARL A., POWERS, DANIEL J.
• Granted Patent: US 6,990,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/5
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3925 Monitoring; Protecting

Abstract

A novel apparatus and method for recording and replaying patient treatment and response data that occurs during the course of an emergency response on a defibrillator. The data and events of an emergency response may be recorded automatically by the defibrillator. Incidents may then be randomly accessible (i.e. “scrollable”) by medical personnel on the defibrillator by placing the defibrillator into an incident review mode. The ability to quickly review critical ECG and event data on the scene. This provides medical personnel with a reliable and efficient alternative to paper based recording systems.

Claims

1. A method of reviewing incident data on an external defibrillator comprising:

deploying the defibrillator for use in an emergency, wherein the defibrillator is attached to a patient;

monitoring ECG data from the patient;

recording the monitored ECG data in memory; and

activating an incident review mode.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving the recorded ECG data from memory; and

replaying the recorded ECG memory on a visual image generator.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the activating step is accomplished by user intervention.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the replaying step occurs automatically without user actuation activation button.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the recording step includes recording audible data received from a microphone into memory.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the replaying step further comprises replaying the audible data recorded into memory during the recording step.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein prior to the replaying step, the user selects which information is replayed. mechanisms may be provided to end the incident review mode in response to a detected arrhythmia—

either by user activation or automatically.

Of course, the operation of this feature is also applicable to devices where the monitor/therapy modes are not combined. For example, where the user is required to intervene in order to activate the monitor function.

It should be appreciated that the scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. Various modifications and alterations might be made by those of skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the user selects from the group consisting of:

ECG data, audible data, and a combination of ECG and audible data.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein ECG data is selected from the group consisting of:

patient ECG data, and patient therapy data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the replaying step is activated by the user depressing soft keys.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the replaying step is activated by the user depressing a combination of soft keys.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the incident review mode is activated in response to disconnecting the patient from the defibrillator.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the incident review mode is activated in response to insertion of a battery.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying a legend on a visual image generator that the defibrillator is in event review mode.

15. The method of claim 2 wherein the replaying option is presented to the user when the instrument is turned off.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the replaying option is presented to the user when the battery is inserted into the device.

17. The method of claim 2 wherein the defibrillator continues to monitor patent ECG.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the replaying step further comprises displaying currently monitored ECG data along with the recorded ECG data retrieved from memory.

20. The external defibrillator of claim 19 wherein the memory is selected from the group consisting of removable memory and integral memory.

21. The external defibrillator of claim 20 wherein the memory is selected from the group consisting of:

flash, EEPROM, ROM and RAM.

22. The external defibrillator of claim 20 wherein the incident review output also comprises an audible sound generator.

23. The external defibrillator of claim 19 wherein the incident review activator is a soft key.

24. The external defibrillator of claim 19 wherein the incident review activator is a combination of soft keys.

25. The external defibrillator of claim 19 wherein the defibrillator further comprises incident review navigators.

26. The external defibrillator of claim 24 wherein the incident review navigators enable a caregiver to advance or replay the incident.

27. The external defibrillator of claim 26 wherein the incident review navagator is a soft key.

28. The external defibrillator of claim 26 wherein the incident review navigator is a combination of soft keys.

19. An external defibrillator comprising:

a controller,

an energy delivery system operable by the controller to deliver an electrical shock from an energy source to an electrode interface;

memory for recording incident data;

an incident review activator; and

an incident review output comprising a visual image generator, wherein the incident review output retrieves incident data from memory upon activation of the incident review activator by the user.