REMOTE FOLLOW-UP AUTOMATICITY WITH INTELLIGENT DATA DOWNLOAD RESTRICTIONS

• US 20110257700A1
• Filed: 06/27/2011
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories)
• Original Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories)
• Inventors: Levine, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/32
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37211 Means for communicating with stimulators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37252 Details of algorithms or data aspects of communication system, e.g. handshaking, transmitting specific data or segmenting data
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37282 characterised by communication with experts in remote locations using a network

Abstract

An implanted device is equipped with a flag that indicates to a remote monitoring unit that an event such as a patient medical emergency or device failure has occurred. The remote monitoring unit is configured in some embodiments to maintain a low power communication link with the implanted device when they are within range. When the flag indicates an event has occurred, the remote monitoring unit quickly downloads sensed data collected by the implanted device and transfers it over a network so that it can be utilized by a medical practitioner. The remote monitoring unit is further configured in some embodiments to query the implanted device at regular intervals. The remote monitoring unit may read a subset of the data stored by the implanted device and, based on that data, determine whether to complete a full or partial download.

Claims

1. An implantable device comprising:

a wireless transceiver configured to establish a communications link with an external computing device and to broadcast data to and receive data from the external computing device;

at least one sensor that senses activity including the activity of a patient'"'"'s heart and the performance of the implantable device;

a memory that stores data indicative of the sensed activity, the memory further comprising a download schedule including a plurality of scheduled downloads; and

a processor that analyzes the stored data according to the download schedule in order to determine whether a significant change has occurred, and that induces the wireless transceiver to transmit the stored data to the external computing device when it is determined that a significant change has occurred and to inhibit one of the plurality of scheduled downloads when it is determined that a significant change has not occurred.

2. The implantable device of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a plurality of sensors that sense at least a first and second type of data, and wherein the processor induces the transmission of only the first type of data when the processor determines that a significant change has occurred only in the first type of data and induces the transmission of only the second type of data when the processor determines that a significant change has occurred only in the second type of data.

3. The implantable device of claim 1, wherein the processor further determines whether an emergency event has occurred based upon the sensed activity and induces the wireless transceiver to transmit the stored data to the external computing device without waiting for the next scheduled download when it is determined that an emergency event has occurred.

4. The implantable device of claim 3, wherein the processor further induces the external computing device to generate an alarm when it is determined that an emergency event has occurred.

5. The implantable device of claim 1, wherein the processor determines whether a significant change has occurred based on a plurality of pre-selected criteria, and wherein the memory is configured to store data indicative of the pre-selected criteria provided by an external programmer.

6. The implantable device of claim 5, wherein the pre-selected criteria correspond to at least one of a number of detected events, a threshold heart rate, a detected heart arrhythmia, an expected battery lifespan, and an expected device performance criteria.

7. A cardiac monitoring system comprising:

an implantable cardiac device having a memory and a communications link, wherein the implantable cardiac device senses the performance of the device and the patient'"'"'s heart, stores signals indicative thereof in the memory, and categorizes the signals based upon a pre-selected criteria; and

a monitoring device that includes a first communications link capable of communicating with the implantable cardiac device, wherein the monitoring device periodically queries the implantable cardiac device for update information about the performance of the implantable cardiac device or the patient'"'"'s heart;

wherein the implantable cardiac device is configured to transmit update information generated from the stored signals in response to receiving the periodic query from the monitoring device only when the implantable cardiac device has categorized the signals based upon the pre-selected criteria as being important enough to warrant transmission.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the implantable cardiac device further categorizes certain information about the implantable cardiac device or the patient heart as requiring immediate transmission to the monitoring device upon detection of the presence of the monitoring device.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the pre-selected criteria comprise at least one of a heart rate threshold, a detected arrhythmia, an impedance measurement indicating a dislodged lead, a data storage error rate, a remaining battery lifespan, and a remaining device lifespan.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the implantable cardiac device is configured to indicate that the signals are important enough to warrant transmission using at least one data flag.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one data flag comprises a plurality of data flags wherein each data flag corresponds to different types of data, and wherein the implantable cardiac device is configured to transmit update information related to only the types of data corresponding to ones of the plurality of data flags that indicate the type of data is important enough to warrant transmission.

12. A method for controlling the download of information sensed by an implantable cardiac device, comprising the steps of:

sensing cardiac activity;

monitoring the performance of the implantable cardiac device;

determining whether an event has occurred based on collected data corresponding to the sensed cardiac activity and to the performance of the implantable cardiac device;

storing the collected data indicative of the event when the event has occurred;

determining whether the event corresponds to a dangerous condition when the event has occurred;

setting an indicator that induces an immediate data download to an external monitoring device when it is determined that the event corresponds to a dangerous condition; and

resetting the indicator after the data download.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the event has occurred comprises analyzing the collected data based on a plurality of pre-selected criteria.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the event corresponds to a dangerous condition comprises analyzing the collected data based on a plurality of pre-selected criteria.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the indicator comprises a data flag that has a first set condition indicating that the event corresponding to a dangerous condition has occurred and a second reset condition indicating that the data download has occurred after the last event corresponding to a dangerous condition.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the data download corresponds only to data related to the event corresponding to a dangerous condition.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the event comprises at least one of:

an equipment malfunction, a low battery charge reading, and a dangerous medical condition.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the event comprises at least one sensed medical condition selected from the group of ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter.