Adaptive Alarm System And Method

• US 20120029301A1
• Filed: 07/28/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Covidien LP (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Nellcor Puritan Bennett LLC (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Battista, John A. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,380,982 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

An adaptive-alarm system and its uses in the context of medical devices, such as patient monitors, are described. In one embodiment, the monitor has a processor configured to receive and analyze an input relating to ambient sounds. The monitor may generate an alarm signal in response to physiological data that meets a defined requirement, such as a physiological alarm condition. The alarm signal that is generated by the monitor is substantially free of masking by the ambient sounds.

Claims

1. A patient monitor, comprising:

a processor capable of generating an alarm signal in response to an ambient sounds input and patient physiological data indicative of an alarm condition; and

a user interface coupled to the processor and being operable to receive the alarm signal generated by the processor and to provide a user-audible indication of the alarm condition, the user-audible indication being substantially free of masking by ambient sounds in an environment in which the patient monitor is located.

2. The patient monitor of claim 1, comprising a second user interface coupled to the processor being operable to allow a user to provide the ambient sounds input to the processor for generating the alarm signal.

3. The patient monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform an acoustic analysis of ambient sounds and the alarm signal is generated in response to the analysis.

4. The patient monitor of claim 3, wherein the acoustic analysis comprises a comparison of frequencies of the ambient sounds to frequencies of an original alarm signal corresponding to the alarm condition, and the processor generates a modified alarm having different frequencies than the frequencies of the ambient sounds if the frequencies of the original alarm and the ambient sounds overlap by a pre-determined amount.

5. The patient monitor of claim 3, wherein the acoustic analysis comprises a comparison of a volume of the ambient sounds to a volume of an original alarm signal corresponding to the alarm condition, and the processor generates a modified alarm having a volume greater than the volume of the ambient sounds if the volume of the ambient sounds is sufficient to mask the original alarm.

6. The patient monitor of claim 3, wherein the processor generates a modified alarm signal from an original alarm signal on the fly in response to the analysis.

7. The patient monitor of claim 3, wherein the processor selects a stored alarm signal from a table of stored alarm signals in response to the analysis.

8. The patient monitor of claim 1, wherein the monitor is a pulse oximetry monitor.

9. A patient monitoring system, comprising:

a patient monitor having;

a processor capable of generating an alarm signal in response to an ambient sounds input and patient physiological data indicative of an alarm condition; and

a user interface coupled to the processor and being operable to receive the alarm signal generated by the processor and to provide a user-audible indication of the alarm condition, the user-audible indication being substantially free of masking by ambient sounds in an environment in which the patient monitor is located; and

a sensor capable of being coupled to the patient monitor and being operable to collect the patient physiological data.

10. The patient monitoring system of claim 9, wherein the sensor comprises a transducer being operable to capture the ambient sounds and provide the ambient sounds input to the processor, and wherein the processor is capable of performing an acoustic analysis of the ambient sounds and generating the alarm signal in response to the analysis.

11. The patient monitoring system of claim 10, wherein the acoustic analysis comprises a comparison of frequencies of the ambient sounds to frequencies of an original alarm signal corresponding to the alarm condition, and the processor generates a modified alarm having different frequencies than the frequencies of the ambient sounds if the frequencies of the original alarm and the ambient sounds overlap by a pre-determined amount.

12. The patient monitoring system of claim 10, wherein the acoustic analysis comprises a comparison of frequencies of the ambient sounds to frequencies of an original alarm signal corresponding to the alarm condition, and the processor generates a modified alarm having different frequencies than the frequencies of the ambient sounds.

13. The patient monitoring system of claim 10, wherein the acoustic analysis comprises a comparison of a volume of the ambient sounds to a volume of an original alarm signal corresponding to the alarm condition, and the processor generates a modified alarm having a volume greater than the volume of the ambient sounds if the volume of the ambient sounds is sufficient to mask the original alarm.

14. A method of patient monitoring comprising:

monitoring a patient physiological parameter;

determining if an alarm condition exists based on measurements of the patient physiological parameter; and

sounding an alarm if an alarm condition exists, wherein the alarm is selected such that it is substantially un-masked by ambient sounds.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising:

capturing ambient sounds;

analyzing the captured ambient sounds to determine whether the ambient sounds will mask an original alarm of the alarm condition; and

if so, generating a new alarm substantially unmasked by the ambient sounds.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein analyzing the captured ambient sounds comprises:

comparing a volume of the ambient sounds with a volume of the original alarm;

identifying whether the volume of the ambient sounds is sufficient to mask the volume of the original alarm; and

generating a modified alarm with a higher volume than the volume of the ambient sounds.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein analyzing the captured ambient sounds comprises:

generating a frequency spectrum of the captured ambient sounds;

comparing the frequency spectrum of the ambient sounds with a frequency spectrum of the original alarm;

identifying whether the frequencies of the ambient sounds overlap with frequencies of the original alarm; and

generating a modified alarm with substantially no overlap.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising generating the modified alarm by selecting an alarm stored in a table, generating a substantially new alarm, modifying the original alarm, or any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting an alarm stored in a table comprises:

comparing the frequency spectrum of the captured ambient sounds with frequency spectra of alarms stored in the table;

selecting an alarm having the least overlapping frequencies with the ambient sounds; and

adjusting a volume of the selected alarm if a volume of the ambient sounds is above a predetermined volume threshold.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein generating a substantially new alarm comprises:

analyzing the frequency spectrum of the captured ambient sounds to identify available frequencies, the available frequencies comprising frequencies not substantially emitted by the ambient sounds;

selecting a plurality of frequencies from the available frequencies; and

synthesizing a tone based on the selected frequencies.