Health monitoring system implementing medical diagnosis

• US 7,552,101 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vigimedis SAS
• Original Assignee: Vigimedia SAS
• Inventors: Bleines, Bruno
• Primary Examiner(s): Holmes; Michael B
• Application Number:
  US10/577,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20070073520A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

The invention relates to a health surveillance system comprising a medical diagnosis which is made by a medically-qualified person (11) in relation to a patient who is being monitored remotely, e.g. at home, via a communication network. The invention is characterised in that the medically-qualified person (11) links medical data (2) to health actions (3) in a server (1) using surveillance rules. The invention is further characterised in that the server (1) programs a remote terminal (9) which is located close to the patient, such that the remote terminal (9) uses an automatism (5) which applies the surveillance rules to the medical data supplied to the terminal by at least one sensor (8) which is associated with the patient and/or by a man/machine interface of the remote terminal (13) and/or by a man/machine interface of a network station (12) and/or by the network (7).

Claims

1. A health monitoring system implementing a medical diagnosis, said system making it possible for users, in particular doctors, to remotely monitor patients, in particular patients maintained in the home, said system including:

a data server connected to a communications network, in particular of the Internet type;

a first man-machine interface, in particular installed in computing equipment, connected to said data server via said communications network, said first man-machine interface being implemented by the users to;

select and/or input, in said data server, medical data, in particular of the “

vomiting”

type;

input and index health actions, in particular of the “

hospitalisation”

type, corresponding to said medical data;

configure, using said selected medical data, the monitoring rules, presented in particular in the form of SQL queries of the “

if symptoms=vomiting and temperature>

38.5°

C., observation period=24h health action=check urine”

type, said monitoring rules being recorded and indexed with said health actions in said data server; and

input and send alert protocols to said data server, in particular information relative to the contact information of the person to inform in the event that a realised health action would be different from the corresponding monitoring rule;

means of analysis for analyzing the compatibility of said protocols thus sent, in particular the compatibility over time between the new monitoring rules and the former monitoring rules;

a distant terminal, located with said patients, in particular with said patients that are maintained in the home;

said distant terminal being connected to sensors, in particular to medical measuring devices, providing medical data to said distant terminal, and/or said distant terminal receiving said medical data from said users and/or said patients via a second man-machine interface of said distant terminal; and

means of programming in order to program automatisms in said distant terminal, from said data server via said communications network, said automatisms being programmed using said medical data and said health actions indexed in said data server;

said distant terminal including means for activating said automatisms thus programmed in order to;

apply, periodically, said monitoring rules to said medical data provided to said distant terminal by generating health actions to be executed,

check the execution, by said users, of said health actions, and

generate alerts in the event said health actions are not executed by said users;

wherein the system makes it possible to compile a personalised diagnosis base for each patient and to generate the triggering of appropriate alerts.

2. A health monitoring system implementing a medical diagnosis, said system making it possible for users to remotely monitor patients, including:

a data server connected to a communications network;

a first man-machine interface connected to said data server via said communications network, said first man-machine interface being implemented by the users to;

select and/or input, in said data server, medical data;

input and index health actions corresponding to said medical data;

configure, using said selected medical data, the monitoring rules, presented in the form of SQL queries, said monitoring rules being recorded and indexed with said health actions in said data server; and

input and send alert protocols to said data server in the event that a realised health action would be different from the corresponding monitoring rule;

a distant terminal, located with said patients;

said distant terminal being connected to sensors providing medical data to said distant terminal, and/or said distant terminal receiving said medical data from said users and/or said patients via a second man-machine interface of said distant terminal;

means of programming in order to program automatisms in said distant terminal, from said data server via said communications network, said automatisms being programmed using said medical data and said health actions indexed in said data server; and

means for activating said automatisms programmed in said distant terminal in order to;

apply, periodically, said monitoring rules to said medical data provided to said distant terminal by generating health actions to be executed;

check the execution, by said users, of said health actions; and

generate alerts in the event said health actions are not executed by said users,

wherein the system makes it possible to compile a personalised diagnosis base for each patient and to generate the triggering of appropriate alerts.

3. A health monitoring system implementing a medical diagnosis, said system making it possible for users to remotely monitor patients, including:

a data server connected to a communications network;

a first man-machine interface connected to said data server via said communications network, said first man-machine interface being implemented by the users to;

configure, using selected medical data and health actions input in said data server, monitoring rules in order to recommend one of the health actions, presented in the form of SQL queries, said monitoring rules being recorded in said data server; and

input and send alert protocols to said data server in the event that a realised health action would be different from a corresponding monitoring rule;

a distant terminal, located with said patients, said distant terminal being connected to sensors providing medical data to said distant terminal, and/or said distant terminal receiving said medical data from said users and/or said patients via a second man-machine interface of said distant terminal;

means of programming in order to program automatisms in said distant terminal, from said data server via said communications network in said data server; and

means for activating said automatisms programmed in said distant terminal in order to;

apply, periodically, said monitoring rules to said medical data provided to and/or received by said distant terminal in order to recommend health actions to be executed; and

generate alerts in the event said recommended health actions are not executed by said users,

wherein the system makes it possible to generate the triggering of appropriate alerts.

4. A health monitoring system implementing a medical diagnosis, said system making it possible for users to remotely monitor patients, including:

data saving means connected to a communications network,

a first man-machine interface connected to said data saving means via said communications network, said first man-machine interface being implemented by the users to;

configure, using selected medical data and health actions input in said data saving means, monitoring rules in order to recommend one of the health actions, presented in the form of SQL queries, said monitoring rules being recorded in said data saving means; and

input and send alert protocols to said data saving means in the event that a realised health action would be different from the corresponding monitoring rule;

a distant terminal, located with said patients, said distant terminal being connected to sensors providing medical data to said distant terminal, and/or said distant terminal receiving said medical data from said users and/or said patients via a second man-machine interface of said distant terminal;

means of programming in order to program automatisms in said distant terminal, from said data saving means via said communications network in said data saving means; and

means for activating said automatisms programmed in said distant terminal in order to;

apply, periodically, said monitoring rules to said medical data provided to and/or received by said distant terminal in order to recommend health actions to be executed; and

generate alerts in the event said recommended health actions are not executed by said users,

wherein the system makes it possible to generate the triggering of appropriate alerts.

5. A health monitoring method implementing a medical diagnosis making it possible for users to remotely monitor at least a patient, including the following steps:

configuring monitoring rules using medical data and health actions;

obtaining alert protocols;

obtaining medical data by a distant terminal located with said patient, said obtained medical data being medical data measured by sensors and provided to said distant terminal, or medical data received from said users and/or said patient via a first man-machine interface of said distant terminal;

applying, periodically, said monitoring rules to said medical data obtained by said distant terminal in order to recommend health actions to be executed; and

generating at least an alert, taking into account at least one of said alert protocols, in the event said recommended health actions are not executed by said users.

6. The health monitoring method according to claim 5, wherein the step of configuring is implemented by the users by use of a second man-machine interface, connected to a data server via a communications network, said monitoring rules being recorded and indexed with said health actions in said data server, and wherein in the step of obtaining alert protocols, the alert protocols, in the event that a realised health action would be different from the corresponding monitoring rule, are input and sent to said data server, and wherein the step of applying said monitoring rules and the step of generating at least an alert are implemented by automatisms being programmed using said medical data and said health actions indexed in said data server, provided in said distant terminal, activated by said distant terminal.

7. The health monitoring method according to claim 5, further including:

analysing the compatibility of said alert protocols thus obtained.

8. The health monitoring method according to claim 5, further including:

selecting and/or inputting medical data in a data saving means; and

inputting and indexing health actions, such that it is possible to compile a personalised diagnosis base for each patient.

9. Computer program product downloadable from a communication network and/or stored on a medium that can be read by computer and/or executed by a microprocessor comprising program code instructions for implementing the health monitoring method according to claim 5 when said program is executed on a computer.

10. A method of health monitoring implementing a medical diagnosis established by a medically-qualified person concerning a remotely-monitored patient, in particular at his home, and monitored via a communications network, comprising:

associating by the medically-qualified person medical data with health actions in a server via monitoring rules;

programming a distant terminal, located near the patient in such a way that the distant terminal implements an automatism applying the monitoring rules to the medical data provided to the terminal by a sensor associated with the patient and/or by a first man-machine interface of the distant terminal and/or by a second man-machine interface of a networked station and/or by the network; and

applying by said automatism at least one of said monitoring rules to at least one of the medical data provided to said distant terminal by said first man-machine interface of the distant terminal, where said at least one of the medical data has been input by said medically-qualified person, in order to associate with said at least one of the medical data a health action to be executed, and generate an alert in the event said health action to be executed is different from the health action executed by at least a user.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein in the step of applying, said at least one of the medical data input by said medically-qualified person is information contained in a syntactical expression following a medical observation.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said syntactical expression following a medical observation under consideration is selected from the group consisting of:

intensity of pain, state of fatigue, alterations in the state of consciousness, and difficulties in speaking.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein in the step of associating, at least a first data provided by a sensor and at least a second data in the form of information contained in a syntactical expression following a medical observation are associated with an health action.

14. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

saving said medical data, said health actions, and said monitoring rules onto a server connected to said communication network.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

sending at least one of said medical data provided by a sensor that belongs to the patient and/or by the first man-machine interface of the distant terminal and/or by the second man-machine interface of the networked station and/or by the network to the medically-qualified person via said communication network so that the latter takes into account this data sent in order to possibly modify the monitoring rules associating data and health actions at the level of the server.

16. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the sensors under consideration are configured to measure data that is selected from the group consisting of:

blood pressure, heart rhythm, body temperature, skin temperature, sodium content on the skin, kinetic and/or kinematic parameters of the body, blood dosage, analysis of urine and/or stool and/or blood gas, weight, electrocardiogram data, heart sounds, oxygen saturation, and thermal image.

17. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the data provided by the network is related to results of biological examinations and/or functioning of a piece of equipment connected to the network, in particular home automation equipment for detecting presence, control of access, heating, lighting, openings, fire, flooding, mains cut-off and/or a medical device, related to an alarm signal or any signal resulting from the transformation of measurements and coming from such a connected device, in particular a pump and/or administration set and/or respirator and/or fall detector, or related to information coming from third-party software, in particular from an expert system, likely to be executed on the terminal or on a machine connected to the terminal, such as software for monitoring self-care haemodialysis and/or for monitoring glycaemia of diabetics and/or monitoring blood pressure.

18. Computer program product downloadable from a communication network and/or stored on a medium that can be read by computer and/or executed by a microprocessor comprising program code instructions for implementing the method of health monitoring according to claim 10 when said program is executed on a computer.

19. A health monitoring server configured to implement a medical diagnosis established by at least a medically-qualified person concerning a remotely-monitored patient, in particular at his home, and monitored by a communications network, comprising:

means for associating medical data with health actions via monitoring rules for use by the medically-qualified person;

means for programming a distant terminal, located near the patient in such a way that the distant terminal implements an automatism applying the monitoring rules to the medical data provided to the terminal by at least one sensor that belongs to the patient and/or by a first man-machine interface of the distant terminal and/or by a second man-machine interface of a networked station and/or by the network, said automatism applying at least a monitoring rule to the medical data provided to the terminal by said first or second man-machine interface where said medical data was input by said medically-qualified person, in order to associate with said medical data a health action to be executed, and generate an alert in the event said health action to be executed is different-from the health action executed by at least a user; and

means for saving said medical data, said health actions, and said monitoring rules.

20. A health monitoring terminal configured to implement a medical diagnosis established by a least a medically-qualified person concerning a remotely-monitored patient, in particular at his home, and monitored by a communications network, comprising:

a first man-machine interface; and

an automatism implemented with medical data that are provided by at least one sensor that belongs to the patient and/or by a second man-machine interface of a distant terminal located near the patient and/or by a third man-machine interface of a networked station and/or by the network, said automatism applying at least a monitoring rule to the medical data provided to the terminal by said second or third man-machine interface, where said medical data was input by said medically-qualified person;

in order to associate with said medical data a health action to be executed, and generate an alert in the event said health action to be executed is different from the health action executed by at least a user.