Cooperative processing with mobile monitoring device and computer system

• US 20060025696A1
• Filed: 05/24/2005
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medicomp Incorporated (Medicomp, Inc. /Balda/)
• Original Assignee: United Therapeutics Corporation
• Inventors: Gibson, Lucy, Albrecht, Paul, Kurzweil, Raymond C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,715,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/35 by template matching
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

An arrangement includes a mobile device executing a process to detect an episode in electrical signals representative of a beating heart. The mobile device determines that the detected episode is a notable finding and sends data corresponding to the notable finding to a second system. The second system analyzes the data corresponding to the notable finding using one or more additional computing resources.

Claims

1. An arrangement comprises:

a mobile device including;

a process to detect an episode in electrical signals representative of a beating heart;

a process to determine that the detected episode is a notable finding;

a process to send data corresponding to the notable finding to a second system; and

the second system, comprising;

a process to analyze the data corresponding to the notable finding using one or more additional computing resources.

2. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein additional computing resource includes more powerful computing hardware than in the mobile device, a pattern or a user-specific pattern.

3. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein an additional computing resource comprises:

a database storing patterns.

4. The arrangement of claim 2 wherein patterns are produced from historical data on the user, the historical data including ECG strips, or templates or reference data.

5. The arrangement of claim 2 wherein the mobile device receives at least one pattern from the second system and processes the signals using the pattern.

6. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein criteria are used to determine if the detected episode corresponds to a notable finding.

7. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the second computer system in response to processing the data sends to the mobile device a new pattern to be used by the mobile device to process subsequent incoming ECG data signals.

8. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the mobile device operates in standalone mode when access to a second computer system is not available, and during that time, saves notable findings in memory.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein determining that the detected episode is a notable finding comprises:

detecting a pattern that does not match any of the templates in the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein determining that the detected episode is a notable finding comprises:

detecting a high level of noise in the signal.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein determining that the detected episode is a notable finding comprises:

determining that quality measure related to the notable finding indicates low quality.

12. A method comprises:

detecting an episode in data representative of a beating heart using a mobile device;

determining by the mobile device that the detected episode is a notable finding;

sending the data corresponding to the notable finding to the second computer system; and

analyzing the data corresponding to the notable finding, by using one or more additional computing resources on the second system.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

analyzing the data according to patterns.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

sending, in response to the analysis of the data by the second computer system, a pattern to be used by the mobile device to process against incoming ECG data.

15. A mobile device comprises:

circuitry to receive ECG data;

circuitry to identify a notable finding in the ECG data;

circuitry to send the ECG data corresponding to the notable finding to a second computer system; and

circuitry to receive from a second system, a pattern sent to the mobile device based on analysis of the ECG data sent from the second system using additional computing resources.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein circuitry in the mobile device processes signals according to the pattern sent to the mobile device by the second computer system.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein circuitry in the mobile device processes data collected by the mobile device according to the pattern sent to the mobile device by the second computer system.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the pattern comprises templates of signal morphologies, additional data, additional processing rules or additional executable computer programs.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the mobile device operates in standalone mode when access to a second computer system is not available, and during that time, saves notable findings and ECG data in non-volatile memory.

20. A mobile device comprises:

sensors to receive physiological signals from a subject

circuitry that conditions the signals from the sensors and converts the signals to digital data;

a computing device to process the digital data, comprising;

a storage device that stores a computer program product to cause the computing device to;

analyze the digital signals representative of a beating heart;

conduct a detailed analysis to determine when the digital data corresponds to a notable finding;

determine when to send the digital data corresponding to the notable finding to a second system for re-analysis; and

a process to receive a selected new pattern to re-configure the mobile device to change analysis of data received by the mobile device.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a wireless link that allows the mobile device to communicate with the second computer system.