Wireless biosensor network for point of care preparedness for critical patients

• US 20120019386A1
• Filed: 07/21/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oxfordian
• Original Assignee: Oxfordian
• Inventors: Doraiswami, Ravi, Pecht, Michael G., Huang, Yunhan, Kluger, Andrew Michael, Vasan, Arvind Sai Sarathi
• Granted Patent: US 8,878,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/48792 Data management, e.g. communication with processing unit for in vivo diagnostics A61B5/0002; transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry

Abstract

A biodegradable, bio-compatible material is described for use in wireless biosensors for point-of-care applications. The biosensor made from this biomaterial is capable of sensing environmental effects and as well as presence of bio-logical entities in the environment of concern simultaneously. Such a sensor can be used for evaluating point-of-care environmental preparedness for a specific patient through continuous monitoring of patient health performance due to environmental exposure. A two-tier network architecture is established for real-time monitoring (static case) that also provides warning of accumulated exposure. Wavelet analysis can be used to identify anomalies in the sensed data to initiate a warning.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring the environmental conditions to which an individual is exposed whereby the individual is provided with one or more biosensors, each biosensor containing a material which undergoes a change in properties in response to a change in environmental conditions, means for measuring the change in properties of the material and storing said measured data in digital form in an associated electronic memory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said stored data periodically transmitted to a wireless transceiver which thereafter transmits the data to a central server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data is transmitted to a central server via the internet.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the data is transmitted from the plurality biosensors to a wireless transceiver via a wireless protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the biomaterial comprises a carrageenan.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the biomaterial is a polymer composite containing carrageenan and epoxy

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the central server analyses the transmitted data and correlates the changes in measured conditions to a change in an environmental condition, said environmental condition relevant to the well being of the individual being monitored.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein a warning or alarm is issued to alert the individual or a monitoring caregiver that the individual is being subjected to a change in environmental conditions which could be injurious to their health.

9. A biosensor for monitoring environmental exposure, said biosensor including a capacitor in which the capacitor dielectric comprises a mixture of an epoxy resin and a hydrocolloid biomaterial, said material capable of undergoing a change in its properties in response to exposure to the environment.

10. The biosensor of claim 9 wherein the hydrocolloid undergoes a change in electrical properties in response to exposure to the environment.

11. The biosensor of claim 9 wherein the capacitor is a parallel plate capacitor.

12. The biosensor of claim 9 wherein the hydrocolloid is a high molecular weight polysaccharide.

13. The biosensor of claim 9 wherein the high molecular weight polysaccharide is a carrageenan.

14. The biosensor of claim 9 further including a power source, an analogue to digital converter, a microprocessor, memory and a wireless transceiver.

15. The biosensor of claim 9 wherein the epoxy-hydrocolloid material is biocompatible.

16. A method for monitoring changes in environment effects on patient health through simultaneous deployment of an environmental sensor network and a body sensor network employing the biomaterial of claim 9 to measure changes in environment and amount of exposure and store data periodically.

17. The method in claim 16, wherein the data is transmitted from the data acquisition block and received and stored at a central server via the internet.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the data is transmitted from the plurality of biosensors deployed to a wireless transceiver using a short distance wireless protocol.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the central server analyzes the transmitted data and correlates the changes in measured conditions to change in an environmental condition to check whether environmental conditions are relevant to the well-being of the patient being monitored.

20. The method in claim 19 wherein a warning is issued to alert the patient or medical personnel that the patient is being subjected to changes in environmental conditions that could be injurious to their health.