Medical gas cylinder alarm and monitoring system and method
First Claim
1. A medical gas cylinder alarm and monitoring device comprising:
- a portable housing adapted to be removably affixed to a medical gas cylinder;
a user interface coupled to the housing and adapted to receive selected user inputs;
an output disposed within the housing and adapted to provide an alarm notification; and
a processor disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to the user interface and the output, the processor adapted to ascertain the remaining duration until the pressure in the medical gas cylinder reaches a prescribed pressure threshold value based on the user inputs and provide a signal to the output when remaining duration reaches an alarm threshold.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A medical gas cylinder monitoring and alarm device is provided. The medical gas cylinder monitoring and alarm device is a portable device that provides a monitoring function for one or more cylinders and may be carried by a patient or respiratory therapist or may be removably affixed to a medical gas cylinder. The monitoring device is a processor based device adapted to receive selected user inputs for a specific medical gas cylinder application and determine the estimated time remaining before the medical gas cylinder is emptied. The device displays the time remaining for the medical gas cylinder and is also adapted to provide visual and audible alarm notifications when the gas cylinder is near empty.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A medical gas cylinder alarm and monitoring device comprising:
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a portable housing adapted to be removably affixed to a medical gas cylinder; a user interface coupled to the housing and adapted to receive selected user inputs; an output disposed within the housing and adapted to provide an alarm notification; and a processor disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to the user interface and the output, the processor adapted to ascertain the remaining duration until the pressure in the medical gas cylinder reaches a prescribed pressure threshold value based on the user inputs and provide a signal to the output when remaining duration reaches an alarm threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A gas cylinder alarm and monitoring device comprising:
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a portable housing; a user interface coupled to the housing and adapted to receive selected user inputs; a processor disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to the user interface, the processor adapted to ascertain a remaining duration until a medical gas cylinder is near empty and an alarm threshold value based on the user inputs and produce an alarm command when the remaining duration reaches the alarm threshold; and an output display operatively coupled to the processor and adapted to visually display the remaining duration and display an alarm notification in response to the alarm command from the processor. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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- 15. The device of claim 13 wherein the output display is further adapted to display for each medical gas cylinder the duration remaining until the medical gas cylinder is near empty.
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15-1. A method of monitoring a medical gas cylinder comprising the steps of:
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inputting selected user inputs including gas cylinder size, gas cylinder content, and flow rate to a processor based portable monitoring device; calculating a duration remaining until the medical gas cylinder is near empty based on the selected user inputs; setting an alarm threshold; and displaying the duration remaining until the medical gas cylinder is near empty on an output display of the processor-based portable monitoring device; and providing an alarm notification when the duration remaining reaches the alarm threshold value.
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Specification