SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR STORING, ANALYZING, RETRIEVING AND DISPLAYING STREAMING MEDICAL DATA

• US 20130162433A1
• Filed: 11/13/2012
• Published: 06/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Inventors: Muhsin, Bilal, Sampath, Anand, Gruber, Travis
• Granted Patent: US 9,142,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• 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: G06F 16/24568 Data stream processing; Continuous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/008 Alarm setting and unsetting, i.e. arming or disarming of the security system
• 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 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades

Abstract

A method of storing streaming physiological information obtained from a medical patient in a multi-patient monitoring environment includes receiving identification information, retrieving parameter descriptors, creating a round-robin database file, receiving a data stream, and using a predetermined data rate to map the data stream to locations in the round-robin database file.

Claims

1. A method of automatically adjusting alarm levels for patient monitoring devices, the method comprising:

by one or more processors;

obtaining alarm response data regarding response times to alarms from one or more patient monitors;

storing the alarm response data regarding the response times to the alarms in a journal database;

analyzing the alarm response data to determine whether a selected one of the response times to one of the alarms output by a first one of the patient monitors exceeds a threshold; and

in response to determining that the selected response time exceeds the threshold, automatically adjusting an alarm setting of the first patient monitor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically adjusting the alarm setting comprises increasing a volume of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically adjusting the alarm setting comprises changing a tone of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically adjusting the alarm setting comprises adjusting a threshold level corresponding to an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said adjusting the threshold level comprises raising or lowering the threshold level of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm response data comprises data regarding one or more of the following:

how long it took for a particular healthcare practitioner to respond to the alarms, how long it took a particular shift of healthcare practitioners to respond to the alarms, or how long it took a particular unit of healthcare practitioners to respond to the alarms.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining how many of the alarms were set outside of physiologic norms and storing data regarding the number of alarms set outside of the physiologic norms in the journal database.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the alarm response data to identify healthcare practitioners who need additional training.

9. A system for automatically adjusting alarm levels for patient monitoring devices, the system comprising:

a multi-patient monitoring system comprising one or more processors, the multi-patient monitoring system configured to;

obtain alarm response data regarding response times to alarms from one or more patient monitors;

store the alarm response data regarding the response times to the alarms in a journal database;

analyze the alarm response data to determine whether a selected one of the response times to one of the alarms output by a first one of the patient monitors exceeds a threshold; and

in response to a determination that the selected response time exceeds the threshold, automatically adjust an alarm setting of the first patient monitor.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to perform said automatic adjustment of the alarm setting by at least increasing a volume of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to perform said automatic adjustment of the alarm setting by at least changing a tone of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to perform said automatic adjustment of the alarm setting by at least adjusting a threshold level corresponding to an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to perform said adjustment of the threshold level by at least raising or lowering the threshold level of an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the alarm response data comprises data regarding one or more of the following:

how long it took for a particular healthcare practitioner to respond to the alarms, how long it took a particular shift of healthcare practitioners to respond to the alarms, or how long it took a particular unit of healthcare practitioners to respond to the alarms.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to determine how many of the alarms were set outside of physiologic norms and store data regarding the number of alarms set outside of the physiologic norms in the journal database.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-patient monitoring system is further configured to use the alarm response data to identify healthcare practitioners who need additional training.

17. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed in one or more processors, are configured to implement a method of automatically adjusting alarm levels for patient monitoring devices, the method comprising:

obtaining alarm response data regarding response times to alarms from one or more patient monitors;

storing the alarm response data regarding the response times to the alarms in a journal database;

analyzing the alarm response data to determine whether a selected one of the response times to one of the alarms output by a first one of the patient monitors exceeds a threshold; and

in response to determining that the selected response time exceeds the threshold, automatically adjusting an alarm setting of the first patient monitor.

18. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein said automatically adjusting the alarm setting comprises adjusting a threshold level corresponding to an alarm output by the first patient monitor.

19. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises determining how many of the alarms were set outside of physiologic norms and storing data regarding the number of alarms set outside of the physiologic norms in the alarm response data.

20. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises using the alarm response data to identify healthcare practitioners who need additional training.