Method and Apparatus for Remote Patient Monitoring

• US 20080287749A1
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Reuter, James M.
• Application Number:
  US12/094,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20080287749A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for patient monitoring are described. The method and apparatus include gathering data from a patient medical device (104) and providing the data for analysis. Messages may be provided to the patient via a patient terminal (103).

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a patient terminal (103);

a medical device (104) adapted to garner measurements from a patient and to transmit data from the measurements;

a clinician terminal (102) adapted to receive manual inputs or audio inputs, or both; and

a server (101) adapted to receive the data and the inputs, wherein the server is operative to transfer the inputs to the patient terminal.

2. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the patient terminal (103) comprises a stationary device (107) and a remote device (108) adapted to communicate with the stationary device.

3. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the clinician terminal comprises a stationary device (109) and a remote device (110) adapted to communicate with the remote device (110).

4. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the server (101) further comprises a processor (200) and the processor (200) is adapted to convert the manual and the audio inputs into text and to transmit the text to the patient terminal (103).

5. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the medical device (104) is adapted to transmit the data to the patient terminal (103) and the patient terminal (103) is adapted to transmit the data to the server (101) or the medical device (104) is adapted to transmit the data to the server (101) without transmitting the data to the patient terminal (103).

7. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the server (101) is adapted to analyze the data and, based on the analysis, to transmit a message to the patient terminal.

8. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the data include a time and a date, or a signal quality, or both of each of the measurements.

6. (canceled)

9. A method, comprising:

measuring a vital sign;

transmitting data from the measuring to a server (101);

transmitting the data from the server to a clinician terminal (102);

based on the data, inputting a message to the clinician terminal (102); and

providing the message at the patient terminal (103).

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the measuring vital sign further comprises measuring a time and a date of the measuring.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the inputting the message further comprises one of either:

reviewing the data and inputting a text message at the clinician terminal (102) or reviewing the data and inputting a voice message at the clinician terminal (102).

13. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the transmitting to the server (101) further comprises one of either transmitting the data to the patient terminal (103) and transmitting the data from the patient terminal (103) to the server or not transmitting the data to the patient terminal (103).

15. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the transmitting to the clinician terminal (102) further comprises transmitting the data to a stationary device (109) of the clinician terminal (102), and transmitting the data from the stationary device (109) to a remote device;

and

the inputting further comprises inputting the message to the remote device (110) and transmitting the message to the stationary device (109).

12. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a patient terminal (103);

a medical device (104);

a functional indicator (105, 106) adapted to provide data on a status of the medical device (104); and

a server (101) adapted to receive the data, and based on the data to provide feedback to the patient terminal (103).

17. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the server (101) further comprises a processor (200) adapted to analyze the data and to provide the feedback to the patient terminal (103) based on the analysis.

18. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the functional indicator (105, 106) further comprises a sensor adapted to garner measurements from the medical device (104).

19. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the functional indicator (105, 106) further comprises a self-test circuit within the medical device (104) and the data are from a self-test routine performed with the self-test routine.

20. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the functional indicators (105, 106) are adapted to provide one or more of:

data variance across a plurality of measurements from the medical device provided in a single reading;

an elapsed time to acquire measurement data from the medical device;

a time of day and a date of a measurement from the medical device.

21. A method, comprising:

gathering data from a functional indicator (105, 106) of a medical device (104);

transmitting the data from the functional indicator (104) to a server (101); and

based on the data, determining an appropriate action at the server (101).

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the determining further comprises transmitting a message to a patient terminal (103), not transmitting a message to a patient terminal (103), or comparing the data to one or more measures, and based on the comparing performing the determining.

24. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising, after the gathering, transmitting the data to a clinician terminal (103).

27. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the data further comprise one or more of:

a data variance across a plurality of measurements from the medical device provided in a single reading;

an elapsed time to acquire measurement data from the medical device;

a time of day and a date of a measurement from the medical device.

23. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. (canceled)