DEVICE AND METHOD TO MONITOR, ASSESS AND IMPROVE QUALITY OF SLEEP

• US 20110190594A1
• Filed: 02/04/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Andrews, Burton Warren, Srinivasan, Soundararajan, Benitez, Diego, Heit, Juergen
• Granted Patent: US 8,348,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 21/00 Other devices or methods to cause a change in the state of consciousness; Devices for producing or ending sleep by mechanical, optical, or acoustical means, e.g. for hypnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• 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 medical sleep disorder arrangement integrates into current diagnosis and treatment procedures to enable a health care professional to diagnose and treat a plurality of subjects suffering from insomnia. The arrangement may include both environmental sensors and body-worn sensors that measure the environmental conditions and the condition of the individual patient. The data may be collected and processed to measure clinically relevant attributes of sleep quality automatically. These automatically determined measures, along with the original sensor data, may be aggregated and shared remotely with the health care professional. A communication apparatus enables the healthcare professional to remotely communicate with and further assess the patient and subsequently administer the treatment. Thus, a more accurate diagnosis and more effective treatment is provided while reducing the required clinician time per patient for treatment delivery.

Claims

1. An arrangement for monitoring a patient'"'"'s sleep activity, comprising:

at least one environmental sensor configured to sense a condition within an environment for sleeping;

at least one body-worn sensor configured to be worn by the patient during the sleep activity and configured to sense a condition of the patient during the sleep activity;

a first communication apparatus including an audio speaker and a video display disposed proximate at least one of the sensors;

a second communication apparatus including a second microphone, second audio speaker and second video display disposed at a location remote from the first communication apparatus;

a first processing means communicatively coupled to the environmental sensor, the body-worn sensor, and to the first communication apparatus, the first processing means being for;

collecting and aggregating sensor readings from the environmental sensor and from the body-worn sensor;

deriving conditions of the patient and the environment based on the sensor readings;

preparing a report based on the aggregated sensor readings;

receiving output signals from the first microphone and the first camera;

providing a first audio signal played on the second audio speaker and at least partially based on the output signal from the first microphone; and

providing a first video signal displayed on the second video display and at least partially based on the output signal from the first camera and on the report;

first means for transmitting the report, the first audio signal and the first video signal to a database at the remote location, the first transmitting means being communicatively coupled to the first processing means, the database being accessible by a clinician; and

a second processing means communicatively coupled to the second communication apparatus, the second processing means being for;

receiving output signals from the second microphone and the second camera;

providing a second audio signal played on the first audio speaker and at least partially based on the output signal from the second microphone; and

providing a second video signal displayed on the first video display and at least partially based on the output signal from the second camera; and

second means for transmitting the second audio signal and the second video signal to the first processing means, the second transmitting means being communicatively coupled to the second processing means.

2. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the environmental sensor comprises a motion detector configured to sense movement of the patient.

3. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the body-worn sensor includes at least one inertial sensor.

4. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the first processing means is for performing regression analysis on automatically determined objective measures, subjective measures, and current therapy progress.

5. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the first and second transmitting means are communicatively coupled over a packet switching or circuit switching wide area network.

6. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the second video signal is at least partially based on the report.

7. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the first processing means is for performing a diagnosis of the patient at least partially based on the report.

15. The method of claim 14 comprising the further steps of:

automatically filling out sleep diaries and clinical questionnaires on behalf of the patient based on data related to the sensor readings of the arrangement of claim 7;

summarizing the information contained in the filled out sleep diaries and questionnaires into a report;

automatically diagnosing the patient at the location of the first or second processing means of claim 1 based upon the data used to automatically fill out sleep diaries and clinical questionnaires;

communicating the automatically filled out sleep diaries and questionnaires, the report, and the diagnosis to the clinician, wherein the treating step occurs after the diagnosis has been communicated to and accepted by the clinician, and wherein the treating step include adjusting frequency and duration of therapy program; and

transmitting a request to the patient to prompt consultation with the treating clinician directly or remotely, automatically controlling the tactile actuator to prompt the patient to get out of bed in response to the transmitted information indicating that the patient has been unable to fall asleep after a period of time.

8. An arrangement for treating a patient having a sleep disorder, comprising:

at least one environmental sensor configured to sense a condition within an environment for sleeping;

at least one body-worn sensor configured to be worn by the patient during the sleep activity and configured to sense a condition of the patient during the sleep activity;

a tactile actuator configured to be worn by the patient;

a first communication apparatus including a first camera, first microphone, first audio speaker and first video display;

a second communication apparatus including a second camera, second microphone, second audio speaker and second video display is disposed at a location remote from the first communication apparatus;

a first processing means communicatively coupled to the environmental sensor, the body-worn sensor, the tactile actuator, and to the first communication apparatus, the first processing means being for;

collecting sensor readings from the environmental sensor and from the body-worn sensor;

receiving output signals from the first microphone and the first camera;

providing a first audio signal played on the second audio speaker and at least partially based on the output signal from the first microphone;

providing a first video signal displayed on the second video display, the first video signal being at least partially based on each of the output signal from the first camera, the sensor readings, and subjective ratings by the patient; and

aggregating the sensor readings and producing a report at least partially based on the aggregated sensor readings;

first means for transmitting the first audio signal, the first video signal and the report to a database at the remote location, the first transmitting means being communicatively coupled to the first processing means, the database being accessible by a clinician; and

a second processing means communicatively coupled to the second communication apparatus, the second processing means being for;

receiving output signals from the second microphone and the second camera;

providing a second audio signal played on the first audio speaker and at least partially based on the output signal from the second microphone;

providing a second video signal displayed on the first video display and at least partially based on the output signal from the second camera; and

providing a tactile signal controlling the tactile actuator; and

second means for transmitting the second audio signal, the second video signal, and the tactile signal to the first processing means, the second transmitting means being communicatively coupled to the second processing means, wherein an image displayed on the second video display is dependent upon the sensor readings.

9. The arrangement of claim 8 wherein the first communication apparatus is disposed within the proximity of at least one of the sensors, such that communication in the ISM band can take place.

10. The arrangement of claim 8 wherein the first transmitting means is for transmitting information related to the sensor readings to the remote location.

11. The arrangement of claim 8 wherein the tactile actuator comprise a vibration-generating device.

12. The arrangement of claim 8 wherein the second communication apparatus includes a keyboard, wherein the second processing means is for:

receiving output signals from the keyboard; and

providing the tactile signal dependent upon an output signal from the keyboard.

13. A method of treating a patient who has a sleep disorder, the method comprising:

sensing at least one environmental condition within an environment in which the patient engages in sleep activity;

before the sleep activity, enabling patients to enter factors that may contribute to the quality of their sleep;

during the sleep activity, sensing a condition of the patient;

after the sleep activity, enabling patients to manually rate factors that may have contributed to the quality of their sleep;

electronically transmitting information about the sensed environmental condition and the sensed condition of the patient to a clinician at a remote location;

providing a tactile actuator that is worn by the patient during the sleep activity; and

treating the patient before and while the patient is trying to initiate sleep or while the patient is already sleeping, the treatment being administered either by the arrangement of claim 8 or from the remote location via at least one means of audio communication and the tactile actuator.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the environmental condition includes temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, noise level, light level, carbon dioxide level, or movement within the environment.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the condition of the patient includes body temperature, nasal and/or oral air-flow, or a type or intensity of movement by the patient.

17. The method of claim 13 comprising the further steps of:

calculating at least one signal feature of the sensor readings from the environmental and body-worn sensors by virtue of the first processing means;

deriving conditions of the patient and the environment from a plurality of signal features by means of a predefined mapping; and

employing a temporal model to determine the most likely sequence of conditions in order to obtain accurate estimates of time duration of each condition and the frequency of condition changes, whereby attributes characterizing a patient'"'"'s sleep quality from the time durations and frequency of condition changes can be derived.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the clinician can see and hear the patient during the sleep activity, the treatment being administered from the remote location.

19. The method of claim 13 comprising the further steps of:

using the sensed conditions of the patient to predict a likelihood that the patient will get out of bed or fall out of bed within a predetermined time period; and

if the likelihood exceeds a threshold level, inform personnel disposed at the environment of the likelihood being above the threshold level.

20. The method of claim 13 comprising the further step of adjusting parameters of the treatment, the adjusting being performed between nightly said sleep activities.