Automatic Identification for Spot Measurements

• US 20080162185A1
• Filed: 05/01/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Baldus, Heribert, Klabunde, Karin
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/65 stored on portable record carriers, e.g. on smartcards, RFID tags or CD
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A patient monitoring system (8) monitors physiological functions of a plurality of patients (12). Each clinician (10) and each patient (12) has an associated identification device (20, 22), which each includes an identification code corresponding to respective clinician and patient. Each identification device (20, 22) includes a respective body-coupled communication device (24, 26) for communicating the identification code to a medical device (14). The clinician (10) activates the medical device (14) which includes a body-coupled communication device (40) including an ID reader (42). The ID reader (42) scans the area to detect whether the clinician identification is present. After the clinician'"'"'s identification code is read, the medical device (14) is ready to take measurements. The clinician (10) takes the medical device (14) to the patient (12). The ID reader (42) scans the area to detect the patient identification code. The result of the measurement along with the patient identification code is stored in a medical device memory (56) and later transferred to a patient record in a hospital database (70).

Claims

1. A patient monitoring system for monitoring physiological functions of each of a plurality of patients, the system comprising:

a plurality of identification devices, each associated with one of a patient or a clinician including;

an electronic identification code memory for storing an identification code corresponding to one of the patient or the clinician, and

a body-coupled communication device for communicating the identification code; and

a medical device including;

a body-coupled communication device for reading respective communicated identification codes and automatically associating the medical device and measurement results with the identification codes;

a sensor for spot measuring a physiological function of each of a plurality of patients; and

a memory for storing results of the measurements and the identification codes.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1, further including:

a clinician identification device including;

an electronic clinician identification code memory for storing the clinician identification code, and

a clinician body-coupled communication device for communicating the clinician identification code.

7. The system as set forth in claim 1, further including:

a clinician identification device including;

an electronic clinician identification code memory for storing the clinician identification code, and

a clinician body-coupled communication device for communicating the clinician identification code; and

a patient identification device (including;

an electronic patient identification code memory for storing the patient identification code, and

a patient body-coupled communication device for communicating the patient identification code.

8. The system as set forth in claim 7, further including:

a hospital database for downloading the results of measurements along with the respective patient and clinician identification codes from the medical device memory.

3. The system as set forth in claim 3, wherein the medical device further includes:

a medical device activator for triggering the clinician body-coupled communication device to transmit the electronic clinician identification code.

4. The system as set forth in claim 3, further including:

a patient identification device including;

an electronic patient identification code memory for storing the patient identification memory, and

a patient body-coupled communication device for communicating the patient identification code.

5. The system as set forth in claim 4, further including:

a measurement activator for activating the medical device in response to receiving the electronic clinician identification code and triggering the patient body-coupled communication device to transmit the electronic patient identification code.

6. The system as set forth in claim 5, further including:

a hospital database for downloading the results of measurements along with the respective patient identification code from the medical device memory.

9. A method for monitoring a plurality of patients, comprising:

assigning wireless identification devices to one of a patient or a clinician, which each identification device is encoded with an electronic identification code that uniquely identifies one of the patient or the clinician;

automatically associating the wireless identification devices to a medical device which is linked to the patients;

spot measuring a physiological function of each of the plurality of patients; and

storing results of the measurements and the identification codes in a measurement memory.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9, further including:

assigning a wireless clinician identification device to a selected clinician which identification device is encoded with an electronic clinician identification code that uniquely identifies the selected clinician which it is assigned to.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10, further including:

triggering a transmission of the electronic clinician identification code to the medical device via body-coupled communication.

12. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein the transmission of the electronic clinician identification code includes:

communicating the electronic clinician identification code to the medical device via body-coupled communication.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12, further including:

assigning wireless patient identification devices to the selected patients, which each identification device is encoded with an electronic patient identification code that uniquely identifies the selected patient which it is assigned to.

14. The method as set forth in claim 13, further including:

in response to receiving the electronic clinician identification code, activating the medical device; and

triggering a transmission of the electronic patient identification code to the medical device via body-coupled communication.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14, wherein the transmission of the electronic patient identification code includes:

communicating the electronic patient identification code to the medical device via body-coupled communication.

16. The method as set forth in claim 14, further including:

transferring the results of measurements along with the respective clinician and patient identification codes from the medical device into a hospital database.

17. A patient monitoring system for monitoring physiological functions of each of a plurality of patients, the system comprising:

a clinician identification device including;

an electronic clinician identification code memory for storing the clinician identification code, and

a clinician body-coupled communication device for communicating the clinician identification code;

a patient identification device including;

an electronic patient identification code memory for storing a patient identification code, and

a body-coupled communication device for communicating the patient identification code; and

a medical device including;

a medical device body-coupled communication device for reading respective communicated identification codes and automatically associating the medical device with the identification codes;

a sensor for spot measuring a physiological function of each of a plurality of patients;

a memory for storing results of the measurements and the identification codes; and

a communication interface for transferring the stored data to a hospital database.

18. A spot measurement device for measuring a physiological function of a plurality of patients, the device comprising:

a sensor for measuring at least one physiological function;

a body-coupled communication device which electronically receives patient identification codes contemporaneously with measuring the physiological function; and

a memory for storing data indicative of the measured physiological function and contemporaneously determined patient identification codes.

19. The device as set forth in claim 18, wherein the body-coupled communication device further retrieves a clinician identification code which identifies a clinician operating the measurement device to measure the physiological function.

20. The device as set forth in claim 18, further including:

a timestamp which is attached to the measurement and indicative of at least a time at which an associated measurement is taken;

a medical device identification code which is stored in a medical device identification code memory; and

wherein the stored data includes the timestamps associated with each measured physiological function and the medical device identification code withdrawn from the medical device identification code memory.