Apparatuses and methods for automatically assessing and monitoring a patient's responsiveness
First Claim
1. A patient care system for managing pain and discomfort associated with medical procedures comprising:
- (a) a device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs;
(b) at least one device for prompting a response from a patient;
(c) at least one device for sensing the patient'"'"'s response to a prompt from the at least one device for prompting a response; and
(d) an electronic controller in communication with the device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs, the at least one device for prompting a response and the at least one device for sensing a patient'"'"'s response, wherein the controller generates an assessment of the patient'"'"'s responsiveness based upon a latency period between a prompt by the at least one device for prompting a response and the patient'"'"'s response to the prompt, wherein the latency period is compared with a predetermined patient response period to determine if the latency period is greater than the predetermined patient response period, thus requiring an adjustment in the quantity of drug to be delivered, and further, where said electronic controller may automatedly determine the quantity of drug to deliver to the patient based on the assessment of the patient'"'"'s responsiveness, and controls the device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs to modify the supply rate of said one or more drugs to deliver said quantity of drug to the patient.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A care system and associated methods are provided for alleviating patient pain, anxiety and discomfort associated with medical or surgical procedures. The care system facilitates a procedural clinician'"'"'s safely and efficaciously providing sedation and analgesia and in some measure, amnesia to a patient by providing a responsiveness monitoring system which monitors the responsiveness of the patient and generates a value representing the level of patient responsiveness. In further aspects of the invention, the responsiveness monitoring system is an automated system which includes patient query and response devices. Additional embodiments of the system and methods are directed to alleviating patient pain or discomfort while enabling safe drug delivery (automated, clinician-controlled or patient-controlled) in correlation with the monitoring of patient health conditions.
71 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A patient care system for managing pain and discomfort associated with medical procedures comprising:
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(a) a device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs; (b) at least one device for prompting a response from a patient; (c) at least one device for sensing the patient'"'"'s response to a prompt from the at least one device for prompting a response; and (d) an electronic controller in communication with the device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs, the at least one device for prompting a response and the at least one device for sensing a patient'"'"'s response, wherein the controller generates an assessment of the patient'"'"'s responsiveness based upon a latency period between a prompt by the at least one device for prompting a response and the patient'"'"'s response to the prompt, wherein the latency period is compared with a predetermined patient response period to determine if the latency period is greater than the predetermined patient response period, thus requiring an adjustment in the quantity of drug to be delivered, and further, where said electronic controller may automatedly determine the quantity of drug to deliver to the patient based on the assessment of the patient'"'"'s responsiveness, and controls the device for delivering or monitoring one or more drugs to modify the supply rate of said one or more drugs to deliver said quantity of drug to the patient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for providing care to a patient before and during a medical procedure comprising the steps of:
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(a) querying the patient with at least one stimulus; (b) sensing a latency period between the querying step and the patient'"'"'s response to the at least one stimulus; (c) automatically assessing the patient'"'"'s level of responsiveness based upon the step of sensing a latency period between the querying step and the patient'"'"'s response; (d) comparing the latency period with a predetermined patient response period to determine if the latency period is greater than the predetermined patient response period, thus requiring an adjustment in the quantity of drug to be delivered, (e) determining a quantity of one or more drugs to deliver to the patient based on the assessment of the patient'"'"'s responsiveness; and (f) managing the delivery rate of one or more drugs to the patient based on the assessment of the patient'"'"'s level of responsiveness. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification