System and method for providing feedback to an individual patient for automated remote patient care

• US 6,852,080 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2003
• Issued: 02/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cardiac Intelligence Corp (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cardiac Intelligence Corp (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Bardy, Gust H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jastrzab, Jeffrey R.
• Application Number:
  US10/646,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• Field of Search: 600/301, 600/300, 600/508, 600/509, 607/32, 607/60, 128/903, 128/906, 128/920, 128/923, 705/2, 705/3
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A system for providing feedback to an individual patient for automated remote patient care is presented. A medical device having a sensor for monitoring physiological measures of an individual patient regularly records a set of measures. A remote client processes voice feedback into a set of quality of life measures relating to patient self-assessment indicators. A database collects the collected measures set, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set into a patient care record for the individual patient. A server periodically receives the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set from the medical device, and analyzes the identified collected device measures set, the quality of life measures set, and the collected device measures sets in the patient care record relative to other collected device measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

Claims

1. A system for providing feedback to an individual patient for automated remote patient care, comprising:

a medical device regularly recording a set of measures by a medical device having a sensor for monitoring at least one physiological measure of an individual patient, the collected measures set comprising individual measures which each relate to patient information recorded by the medical device;

a remote client processing voice feedback into a set of quality of life measures which each relate to patient self-assessment indicators, the voice feedback having been spoken by the individual patient into a remote client substantially contemporaneous to the collection of an identifiable device measures set;

a database collecting the set of measures from the medical device by storing the collected measures set, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set into a patient care record for the individual patient within a database organized to store one or more patient care records which each comprise a plurality of the collected measures sets, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set;

a server periodically receiving the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set from the medical device, and analyzing the identified collected device measures set, the quality of life measures set, and one or more of the collected device measures sets in the patient care record for the individual patient relative to one or more other collected device measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

the server repeatedly receiving one or more collected measures sets which are each recorded by a sensor which monitors at least one physiological measure of the individual patient, each such sensor monitoring a site within the individual patient unique from the site monitored by any other such sensor, and analyzing one or more of the site specific collected measures sets in the patient care record for each site within the individual patient relative to one or more other site specific collected measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator; and

the database storing each collected measures set organized by specific site into the patient care record for the individual patient within the database.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from the same relative site.

4. A system according to claim 2, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from a different site.

5. A system according to claim 1, the remote client further comprising:

an audio prompter requesting a quality of life measure via a voice prompt played on the remote client to the individual patient.

6. A system according to claim 5, further comprising:

a written script comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests stored within the remote client; and

the audio prompter further comprising a speech synthesizer module retrieving each quality of life request from the stored written script with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt and synthesizing speech for playback from the retrieved quality of life request.

7. A system according to claim 5, further comprising:

pre-recorded speech comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests stored within the remote client; and

the audio prompter further comprising a playback module retrieving each quality of life request from the stored pre-recorded speech with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt and playing the pre-recorded speech from the retrieved quality of life request.

8. A system according to claim 1, the remote client further comprising:

a speech engine recognizing individual words in the spoken voice feedback and translating the individual spoken words into written individual words.

9. A system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a voice grammar stored within the remote client, the voice grammar comprising a plurality of speech phrases expressed in a natural language, each speech phrase corresponding to a normalized quality of life measure;

the speech engine further comprising;

a parser parsing the written individual words into tokens; and

a lexical analyzer performing a lexical analysis of the parsed tokens in accordance with the voice grammar to identify one such normalized quality of life measure.

10. A system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a vocabulary stored within the remote client, the vocabulary comprising the written individual words; and

the speech engine further comprising a lookup module performing a lookup of the written individual words from the vocabulary stored within the remote client.

11. A system according to claim 1, the remote client further comprising:

wherein the remote client comprises at least one of a personal computer, an audio interface, and a telephony instrument.

12. A method for providing feedback to an individual patient for automated remote patient care, comprising:

regularly recording a set of measures by a medical device having a sensor for monitoring at least one physiological measure of an individual patient, the measures set comprising individual measures which each relate to patient information recorded by the medical device;

collecting the measures set from the medical device;

processing voice feedback into a set of quality of life measures which each relate to patient self-assessment indicators, the voice feedback having been spoken by the individual patient into a remote client substantially contemporaneous to the collection of an identifiable device measures set;

storing the collected measures set, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set into a patient care record for the individual patient within a database organized to store one or more patient care records which each comprise a plurality of the collected measures sets, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set;

periodically receiving the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set from the medical device;

analyzing the identified collected device measures set, the quality of life measures set, and one or more of the collected device measures sets in the patient care record for the individual patient relative to one or more other collected device measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising:

repeatedly receiving one or more collected measures sets which are each recorded by a sensor which monitors at least one physiological measure of the individual patient, each such sensor monitoring a site within the individual patient unique from the site monitored by any other such sensor;

storing each collected measures set organized by specific site into the patient care record for the individual patient within the database; and

analyzing one or more of the site specific collected measures sets in the patient care record for each site within the individual patient relative to one or more other site specific collected measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from the same relative site.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from a different site.

16. A method according to claim 12, the operation of processing voice feedback further comprising:

requesting a quality of life measure via a voice prompt played on the remote client to the individual patient.

17. A method according to claim 16, the operation of requesting a quality of life measure further comprising:

storing a written script comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests within the remote client;

retrieving each quality of life request from the stored written script with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt; and

synthesizing speech for playback from the retrieved quality of life request.

18. A method according to claim 16, the operation of requesting a quality of life measure further comprising:

storing pre-recorded speech comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests within the remote client;

retrieving each quality of life request from the stored pre-recorded speech with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt; and

playing the pre-recorded speech from the retrieved quality of life request.

19. A method according to claim 12, the operation of processing voice feedback further comprising:

recognizing individual words in the spoken voice feedback; and

translating the individual spoken words into written individual words.

20. A method according to claim 19, further comprising:

storing a voice grammar within the remote client, the voice grammar comprising a plurality of speech phrases expressed in a natural language, each speech phrase corresponding to a normalized quality of life measure;

parsing the written individual words into tokens; and

performing a lexical analysis of the parsed tokens in accordance with the voice grammar to identify one such normalized quality of life measure.

21. A method according to claim 19, further comprising:

storing the written individual words as a vocabulary within the remote client; and

performing a lookup of the written individual words from the vocabulary stored within the remote client.

22. A method according to claim 12, wherein the remote client comprises at least one of a personal computer, an audio interface, and a telephony instrument.

23. A computer-readable storage medium holding code for providing feedback to an individual patient for automated remote patient care, comprising:

code for regularly recording a set of measures by a medical device having a sensor for monitoring at least one physiological measure of an individual patient, the collected measures set comprising individual measures which each relate to patient information recorded by the medical device;

code for collecting the set of measures from the medical device;

code for processing voice feedback into a set of quality of life measures which each relate to patient self-assessment indicators, the voice feedback having been spoken by the individual patient into a remote client substantially contemporaneous to the collection of an identifiable device measures set;

code for storing the collected measures set, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set into a patient care record for the individual patient within a database organized to store one or more patient care records which each comprise a plurality of the collected measures sets, the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set;

code for periodically receiving the identified collected device measures set and the quality of life measures set from the medical device;

code for analyzing the identified collected device measures set, the quality of life measures set, and one or more of the collected device measures sets in the patient care record for the individual patient relative to one or more other collected device measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

24. A storage medium according to claim 23, further comprising:

code for repeatedly receiving one or more collected measures sets which are each recorded by a sensor which monitors at least one physiological measure of the individual patient, each such sensor monitoring a site within the individual patient unique from the site monitored by any other such sensor;

code for storing each collected measures set organized by specific site into the patient care record for the individual patient within the database; and

code for analyzing one or more of the site specific collected measures sets in the patient care record for each site within the individual patient relative to one or more other site specific collected measures sets stored in the database to determine a patient status indicator.

25. A storage medium according to claim 24, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from the same relative site.

26. A storage medium according to claim 24, wherein the one or more site specific collected measures sets and the one or more other site specific collected measures sets both store measures collected from a different site.

27. A storage medium according to claim 23, the operation of processing voice feedback further comprising:

code for requesting a quality of life measure via a voice prompt played on the remote client to the individual patient.

28. A storage medium according to claim 27, the operation of requesting a quality of life measure further comprising:

code for storing a written script comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests within the remote client;

code for retrieving each quality of life request from the stored written script with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt; and

code for synthesizing speech for playback from the retrieved quality of life request.

29. A storage medium according to claim 27, the operation of requesting a quality of life measure further comprising:

code for storing pre-recorded speech comprising a plurality of quality of life measure requests within the remote client;

code for retrieving each quality of life request from the stored pre-recorded speech with each such retrieved quality of life measure request comprising one such voice prompt; and

code for playing the pre-recorded speech from the retrieved quality of life request.

30. A storage medium according to claim 23, the operation of processing voice feedback further comprising:

code for recognizing individual words in the spoken voice feedback; and

code for translating the individual spoken words into written individual words.

31. A storage medium according to claim 30, further comprising:

code for storing a voice grammar within the remote client, the voice grammar comprising a plurality of speech phrases expressed in a natural language, each speech phrase corresponding to a normalized quality of life measure;

code for parsing the written individual words into tokens; and

code for performing a lexical analysis of the parsed tokens in accordance with the voice grammar to identify one such normalized quality of life measure.

32. A storage medium according to claim 30, further comprising:

code for storing the written individual words as a vocabulary within the remote client; and

code for performing a lookup of the written individual words from the vocabulary stored within the remote client.