Wireless Patient Monitoring System

• US 20120203078A1
• Filed: 02/08/2012
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aulisa Medical Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aulisa Medical Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Sze, Cheng-Feng, Lien, Augustine
• Granted Patent: US 9,195,799 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• 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: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A patient monitoring system for monitoring vital signs, comprises: one or more sensors, wherein the sensors measure vital signs; a monitor station; and one or more portable monitoring devices, wherein monitored data based on the measured vital signs is wirelessly transmitted from the sensors to the monitor station, wherein the monitor station issues one or more alarms to certain ones of the portable monitoring devices as a function of the monitored data, and wherein a portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices and displayed by the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices.

Claims

1. A patient monitoring system for monitoring vital signs, comprises:

one or more sensors, wherein the sensors measure vital signs;

a monitor station; and

one or more portable monitoring devices,

wherein monitored data based on the measured vital signs is wirelessly transmitted from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein the monitor station issues one or more alarms to certain ones of the portable monitoring devices as a function of the monitored data, and

wherein a portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices and displayed by the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices.

2. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein each of the alarms is assigned a priority and wherein the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices generate the alarms in order of the respective priority of the alarms.

3. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising one or more bedside monitors for displaying the monitored data, wherein the bedside monitors route the monitored data from the sensors to the monitor station.

4. The patient monitoring system of claim 3 wherein each of the sensors is paired with one of the bedside monitors.

5. The patient monitoring system of claim 3 wherein the portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to certain ones of the bedside monitors and displayed by the certain ones of the bedside monitors.

6. The patient monitoring system of claim 3 wherein the bedside monitors measure environmental conditions and records audio/video (“

AV”

) and wherein the monitored data includes the measured environmental conditions and the recorded AV.

7. The patient monitoring system of claim 3 wherein each of the bedside monitors comprise a processor, a display, data storage, an identification unit, a power source, one or more environmental sensors, a video camera, a microphone, an alarm unit, and a wireless interface.

8. The patient monitoring system of claim 3 wherein one or more of the sensors are associated with a patient, and said one or more of the sensors is associated with one of the beside monitors such that the measured vital signs from the said one or more of the sensors is wirelessly transmitted to said one of the beside monitors.

9. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein each of the sensors comprise one or more vital sign data collectors, a processor, a wireless interface, data storage, an identification unit, and a battery unit.

10. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein one of the sensors is a pulse oximeter, wherein the pulse oximeter comprises a vital sign data collector, a battery board, and a patch, and wherein the vital sign data collector and the battery board are detachable from the patch.

11. The patient monitoring system of claim 10 wherein the patch comprises a light emitting diode (“

LED”

) driver, a pulse oximeter system-on-chip (“

SOC”

), a wireless SOC, and an antenna chip.

12. The patient monitoring system of claim 10

wherein the vital sign data collector comprises a red light emitting diode (“

LED”

), an infrared (“

IR”

) LED, and a photodiode (“

PD”

),

wherein the pulse oximeter has a first standby state, a second standby state, and a third standby state,

wherein in the first standby state, the oximeter determines whether an object is under measurement by the oximeter,

wherein in the third standby state, the oximeter determines whether light readings from the red LED and infrared LED are within an acceptable predefined range, and

wherein in the second standby state, the oximeter goes into a power saving mode.

13. The patient monitoring system of claim 12 wherein IR data samples are collected by pulsing the infrared LED over a period of time and reading values from the PD to generate a heartbeat signal and wherein the pulse oximeter tracks local minimum values and local maximum values of the IR data samples.

14. The patient monitoring system of claim 13 wherein the local minimum values and the local maximum values of the IR data samples and sampling times for the local minimum values and the local maximum values are stored in an array of eight entries, wherein the array is a first-in first-out array, and wherein a next local maximum value and a next local minimum value are inputted into array.

15. The patient monitoring system of claim 14 wherein the pulse oximeter determines whether a heartbeat rate of a patient is stable by determining whether the difference between the sampling times of any two successive local maximum values of the entries in the array are all less than a predefined threshold value.

16. The patient monitoring system of claim 13 wherein the pulse oximeter determines whether a patient is connected to the pulse oximeter as a function of the local minimum values, of the local maximum values, and of the heartbeat signal.

17. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the monitor station comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, data storage, power supply, ID reader, ID writer, a microphone and a wireless interface.

18. The patient monitoring system of claim 17 wherein a patient is registered at the monitor station by creating a patient identification (“

PID”

) for a patient and wherein a unique identification number for each of said certain ones of the sensors is read by the ID reader and the unique identification number is associated with the PID in a computer database.

19. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein each of the portable monitoring devices comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, a battery board, a microphone, and a wireless interface.

20. The patient monitoring system of claim 1 wherein one or more access points are used to route wireless transmission from the sensors to the monitor station.

21. A patient monitoring system for monitoring vital signs, comprises:

one or more sensors, wherein the sensors measure vital signs and wherein each of the sensors comprise one or more vital sign data collectors, a processor, a wireless interface, data storage, an identification unit, and a battery unit;

one or more bedside monitors, wherein each of the sensors is paired with one of the bedside monitors, wherein the bedside monitors measure environmental conditions and records audio/video, and wherein each of the bedside monitors comprise a processor, a display, data storage, an identification unit, a power source, one or more environmental sensors, a video camera, a microphone, an alarm unit, and a wireless interface;

a monitor station, wherein the monitor station comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, data storage, power supply, ID reader, ID writer, a microphone and a wireless interface;

one or more portable monitoring devices, wherein each of the portable monitoring devices comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, a battery board, a microphone, and a wireless interface; and

one or more access points, wherein the access points are used to route wireless transmission from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein monitored data based on the measured vital signs, the measured environmental conditions, and the recorded audio/video is wirelessly transmitted from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein the monitor station issues one or more alarms to certain ones of the portable monitoring devices as a function of the monitored data,

wherein the bedside monitors display the monitored data,

wherein the bedside monitors route the monitored data from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein each of the alarms is assigned a priority,

wherein the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices generate the alarms in order of the respective priority of the alarms,

wherein a portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices and displayed by the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices,

wherein the portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to certain ones of the bedside monitors and displayed by the certain ones of the bedside monitors,

wherein one or more of the sensors are associated with a patient, and said one or more of the sensors is associated with one of the beside monitors such that the measured vital signs from the said one or more of the sensors is wirelessly transmitted to said one of the beside monitors,

wherein the patient is registered at the monitor station by creating a patient identification (“

PID”

) for the patient, and

wherein a unique identification number for each of said certain ones of the sensors is read by the ID reader and the unique identification number is associated with the PID in a computer database.

23. The patient monitoring system of claim 21 wherein each of the bedside monitors are only allowed to wirelessly connect to the sensors associated with a single patient at any given time and are allowed to wirelessly connect with the sensors associated with a new patient when the sensors associated with the single patient have been disconnected.

25. The patient monitoring system of claim 21 wherein said associated bedside monitor for the sensors of the patient travels with the patient and wherein if said associated bedside monitor is within wireless range of the monitor station, then said associated bedside monitor wirelessly transmits the monitored data of the patient directly to the monitor station, else, said associated bedside monitor searches for any of the access points in wireless range to said associated bedside monitor to relay the monitored data of the patient to the monitor station.

22. A patient monitoring system for monitoring vital signs, comprises:

one or more sensors, wherein the sensors measure vital signs, wherein each of the sensors comprise one or more vital sign data collectors, a processor, a wireless interface, data storage, an identification unit, and a battery unit, wherein at least one of the sensors is a pulse oximeter, wherein the pulse oximeter comprises

a vital sign data collector, wherein the vital sign data collector comprises a red light emitting diode (“

LED”

), an infrared (“

IR”

) LED, and a photodiode (“

PD”

);

a battery board; and

a patch, wherein the patch comprises a light emitting diode (“

LED”

) driver, a pulse oximeter system-on-chip (“

SOC”

), a wireless SOC, and an antenna chip,

wherein the vital sign data collector and the battery board are detachable from the patch,

wherein the pulse oximeter has a first standby state, a second standby state, and a third standby state,

wherein in the first standby state, the oximeter determines whether an object is under measurement by the oximeter,

wherein in the third standby state, the oximeter determines whether light readings from the red LED and infrared LED are within an acceptable predefined range,

wherein in the second standby state, the oximeter goes into a power saving mode,

wherein IR data samples are collected by pulsing the infrared LED over a period of time and reading values from the PD,

wherein the pulse oximeter tracks local minimum values and local maximum values of the IR data samples,

wherein the local minimum values and the local maximum values of the IR data samples are stored in an array of eight entries,

wherein the array is a first-in first-out array,

wherein a next local maximum value and a next local minimum value are inputted into array,

wherein the pulse oximeter determines whether a heartbeat rate of a patient is stable by determining whether the difference between the maximum value of the entries in the array and the minimum value of the entries in the array is less than a predefined threshold value, and

wherein the pulse oximeter determines whether the patient is connected to the pulse oximeter as a function of the local minimum values and of the local maximum values;

one or more bedside monitors, wherein each of the sensors is paired with one of the bedside monitors, wherein the bedside monitors measure environmental conditions and records audio/video, and wherein each of the bedside monitors comprise a processor, a display, data storage, an identification unit, a power source, one or more environmental sensors, a video camera, a microphone, an alarm unit, and a wireless interface;

a monitor station, wherein the monitor station comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, data storage, power supply, ID reader, ID writer, a microphone and a wireless interface;

one or more portable monitoring devices, wherein each of the portable monitoring devices comprises a processor, a display, an alarm unit, a battery board, a microphone, and a wireless interface; and

one or more access points, wherein the access points are used to route wireless transmission from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein monitored data based on the measured vital signs, the measured environmental conditions, and the recorded audio/video is wirelessly transmitted from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein the monitor station issues one or more alarms to certain ones of the portable monitoring devices as a function of the monitored data,

wherein the bedside monitors display the monitored data,

wherein the bedside monitors route the monitored data from the sensors to the monitor station,

wherein each of the alarms is assigned a priority,

wherein the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices generate the alarms in order of the respective priority of the alarms,

wherein a portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices and displayed by the certain ones of the portable monitoring devices,

wherein the portion of the monitored data that pertains to the alarms is wirelessly transmitted to certain ones of the bedside monitors and displayed by the certain ones of the bedside monitors,

wherein one or more of the sensors are associated with the patient, and said one or more of the sensors is associated with one of the beside monitors such that the measured vital signs from the said one or more of the sensors is wirelessly transmitted to said one of the beside monitors,

wherein said associated bedside monitor for the sensors of the patient travels with the patient,

wherein if said associated bedside monitor is within wireless range of the monitor station, then said associated bedside monitor wirelessly transmits the monitored data of the patient directly to the monitor station, else, said associated bedside monitor searches for any of the access points in wireless range to said associated bedside monitor to relay the monitored data of the patient to the monitor station,

wherein the patient is registered at the monitor station by creating a patient identification (“

PID”

) for the patient,

wherein a unique identification number for each of said certain ones of the sensors is read by the ID reader and the unique identification number is associated with the PID in a computer database,

wherein each of the bedside monitors are only allowed to wirelessly connect to the sensors associated with a single patient at any given time and are allowed to wirelessly connect with the sensors associated with a new patient when the sensors associated with the single patient have been disconnected, and

wherein said each of the bedside monitors retrieves set up information for wirelessly connecting to the sensors associated with the single patient by requesting from the monitor station the setup information of the sensors associated with the PID for the patient.

24. The patient monitoring system of clam 23 wherein said each of the bedside monitors retrieves set up information for wirelessly connecting to the sensors associated with the single patient by requesting from the monitor station the setup information of the sensors associated with the PID for the patient.