Alarm notification system, receiver, and methods for providing live data

• US 20050146431A1
• Filed: 12/31/2003
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Incorporated (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Incorporated (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: Hastings, David C., Charbonneau, Pierre
• Application Number:
  US10/749,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20050146431A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.120
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0456 Apparatus provided with a docking unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/029 Measuring or recording blood output from the heart, e.g. minute volume A61B8/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/08 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for evaluating the respiratory organs A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1172 using fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6843 Monitoring or controlling sensor contact pressure
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0211 Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/028 Communication between parent and child units via remote transmission means, e.g. satellite network
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0283 via a telephone network, e.g. cellular GSM
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0294 Display details on parent unit
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A method for use in monitoring a subject may include receiving physiologic data from sensors connected to the subject, processing the data from the sensors to identify a condition of the subject that may require attention by a user, sending a notification message to a portable electronic device, designed to be carried by a user, to indicate that the subject has a condition that may require attention by the user, and sending live data from the sensor to the portable electronic device based on a notification message sent to the portable electronic device. The live data may include physiologic data such as ECG waveform data. The live data may be sent with the notification message and/or may be sent in response to a user request. The method may also include sending a window of data acquired from the subject at about the same time as the alarm was triggered.

Claims

1. A method for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility where a patient'"'"'s physiological characteristics are being monitored for conditions that may require attention by a clinician, the method comprising:

receiving a notification message indicating that the patient may have a condition that requires attention with a portable electronic device designed to be carried by the clinician; and

receiving live physiologic data of the patient with the portable electronic device based on the notification message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the live physiologic data is received by the portable electronic device at a same time as the notification message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the live physiologic data is sent to the portable electronic device in response to a user input received by the portable electronic device indicating that the user desires to view the live data which user input is received at about a same time as the notification message is displayed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the live physiologic data comprises ECG waveform data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the live physiologic data includes data that has been processed by a monitoring program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of live data received by the portable electronic device is limited.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the amount of live data received is limited by a number of parameters which can be viewed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the amount of live data received is limited based on a size of the data to be transferred.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a window of physiological data acquired from the patient at about a same time as a condition that may require attention by a clinician was identified.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying the window of physiological data and the live data at a same time on the portable electronic device.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising switching data displayed from one of the window of physiological data and the live data to the other of the window of physiological data and the live data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising pausing display of the live data on the portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising forwarding live physiologic data for the patient to a second portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein forwarding live physiologic data includes forwarding data received by the portable electronic device when the data was live.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein forwarding live physiologic data comprises receiving common physiologic data that is live with the portable electronic device and with the second portable electronic device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting points on physiologic data that was received live by the portable electronic device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the points may be used to jump to the physiologic data on which the points were set.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the points may be forwarded to a second portable electronic device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume of less than 75 cubic inches.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume less than about 35 cubic inches.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume less than about 10 cubic inches.

22. A method for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility where a patient'"'"'s physiological characteristics are being monitored for conditions that may require attention by a clinician, the method comprising:

receiving a notification message indicating that the patient may have a condition that requires attention with a portable electronic device designed to be carried by the clinician; and

receiving live physiologic data of the patient with the portable electronic device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the live physiologic data comprises ECG waveform data.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising receiving a window of physiological data acquired from the patient at about a same time as a condition that may require attention by a clinician was identified.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising displaying the window of physiological data and the live data at a same time on the portable electronic device.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising switching data displayed from one of the window of physiological data and the live data to the other of the window of physiological data and the live data.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising forwarding live physiologic data for the patient to a second portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein forwarding live physiologic data includes forwarding data received by the portable electronic device when the data was live.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein forwarding live physiologic data includes sending physiologic data that is live to the second portable electronic device.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume less than about 35 cubic inches.

31. A method for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility where a patient'"'"'s physiological characteristics are being monitored for conditions that may require attention by a clinician, the method comprising:

receiving live physiologic data of the patient with a portable electronic device;

wherein the portable electronic device has a volume of less than about 60 cubic inches.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume less than about 35 cubic inches.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising receiving a window of physiological data acquired from the patient at about a same time as a condition that may require attention by a clinician was identified.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising displaying the window of physiological data and the live data at a same time on the portable electronic device.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising switching data displayed from one of the window of physiological data and the live data to the other of the window of physiological data and the live data.

36. The method of claim 32, further comprising forwarding live physiologic data for the patient to a second portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

37. A method for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility, the method comprising:

receiving physiologic data from sensors connected to a patient;

processing the physiologic data from the sensors to identify a condition of the patient that may require attention by a clinician;

sending a notification message to a portable electronic device designed to be carried by a clinician to indicate that the patient has a condition that may require attention by a clinician; and

sending live physiologic data from the sensor to the portable electronic device based on a notification message sent to the portable electronic device.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the request from the portable electronic device includes data based on a notification message sent to the portable electronic device.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume of no more than about 35 cubic inches.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the live physiologic data is sent to the portable electronic device at a same time as the notification message.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the live physiologic data is sent to the portable electronic device in response to a user input received by the portable electronic device indicating that the user desires to view the live data which user input is received at about a same time as the notification message is displayed.

42. The method of claim 37, wherein the live physiologic data comprises ECG waveform data.

43. The method of claim 37, further comprising sending live physiologic data for the patient to a second portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein forwarding live physiologic data includes forwarding at least some data that is not live which was sent to the portable electronic device when that data was live.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein forwarding live physiologic data includes sending common physiologic data that is live to the portable electronic device and the second portable electronic device.

46. The method of claim 37, further comprising receiving a request from the portable electronic device to receive live physiologic data from a sensor connected to the patient, wherein sending live physiologic data from the sensor to the portable electronic device comprises sending live physiologic data in response to the request received from the portable electronic device.

47. A notification system for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility, the system comprising:

a portable electronic device configured to receive notification messages and designed to be carried by a clinician; and

a processing circuit configured to receive data from monitoring devices that are monitoring patients, generate a control signal to send a notification message to the portable electronic device to indicate that the patient has a condition that may require attention by a clinician based on the data received from the monitoring devices, and generate a control signal to send live physiologic data, relating to the notification message, acquired from one or more monitoring devices to the portable electronic device.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the live physiologic data comprises ECG waveform data.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the portable electronic device has a volume of no more than about 35 cubic inches.

50. The method of claim 47, wherein the live physiologic data is sent to the portable electronic device at a same time as the notification message.

51. The method of claim 47, wherein the system is configured to send a window of physiological data, acquired from the patient at about a same time as the condition of the patient that may require attention by a clinician was identified, to the portable electronic device.

52. The method of claim 50, wherein the portable electronic device is 10 configured to display the window of physiological data and the live data at a same time.

53. The method of claim 50, wherein the portable electronic device is configured to allow a user to switch data being displayed from one of the window of physiological data and the live data to the other of the window of physiological data and the live data.

54. The method of claim 47, further comprising forwarding live physiologic data for the patient to a second portable electronic device based on a user input received by the portable electronic device.

55. A method for use in a medical monitoring system of a health care facility where a patient'"'"'s physiological characteristics are being monitored for conditions that may require attention by a clinician, the method comprising:

receiving data from a monitoring device that is monitoring at least one physiologic characteristic of a patient;

determining whether the patient has a condition that may require attention based on the data received from the monitoring device;

sending a notification message indicating that the patient may have a condition that requires attention to a caregiver receiver designed to be carried by the clinician; and

sending live ECG waveform data of the patient to the caregiver receiver, which live data relates to the notification message sent to the caregiver receiver.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the live ECG waveform data is sent with the notification message.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein the live ECG waveform data is sent in response to a user request input on the caregiver receiver.

58. The method of claim 55, further comprising sending a window of ECG waveform data, acquired from the patient at about a same time as the data that resulted in the notification message being sent, to the caregiver receiver.

59. The method of claim 58, further comprising displaying the window of ECG waveform data and the live ECG waveform data at a same time on the portable electronic device.

60. The method of claim 58, further comprising switching data displayed from one of the window of ECG waveform data and the live ECG waveform data to the other of the window of ECG waveform data and the live ECG waveform data.