System and method for remote expert-system medical device programming

• US 8,755,897 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2007
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cardiac Pacemakers Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cardiac Pacemakers Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Spinelli, Julio C., Zhu, Qingsheng
• Primary Examiner(s): EVANISKO, GEORGE ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US11/985,995
• Publication Number:
  US 20080077031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,402 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 607/27, 607/30, 607/59, 607/60, 706/45, 706/924
• US Class Current: 607/59
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37282 characterised by communication with experts in remote locations using a network
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

One embodiment includes a system for prescribing therapeutic treatment for a patient via communications over a network, including an implantable medical device (IMD) to be implanted in the patient to record a patient characteristic, the implantable medical device being programmable and configured to communicate via wireless communications with the IMD and to communicate securely over the network, the medical device programming computer including a user interface. The embodiment includes a server to communicate securely over the network with the medical device programming computer, the server including at least a first expert prescription system comprising at least one physician'"'"'s prescription and at least one expert-system to compare the at least one patient characteristic to the at least one physician'"'"'s prescription to issue a parameter to be programmed into the IMD based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A system configured for use with a computer network for prescribing therapeutic treatment for a patient using a computer network, comprising:

an implantable medical device (IMD) adapted to be implanted in the patient to record at least one patient characteristic of the patient, the implantable medical device being programmable and including an IMD communications circuit adapted to communicate via wireless communications;

a medical device programming computer including a communications system adapted to wirelessly communicate with the IMD via the IMD communications circuit to program the IMD, the medical device programming computer adapted to communicate securely over the computer network; and

a server to communicate securely over the network to the medical device programming computer, the server comprising;

a plurality of prescriptions stored on the server as data structures, each prescription to program the IMD, each of the prescriptions including at least one prescribed parameter to be programmed into the IMD;

a plurality of expert-systems hosted by the server, each of which is adapted to compare the at least one IMD recorded patient characteristic to information associated with each of the plurality of prescriptions, to select one of the plurality of prescriptions and to communicate the at least one programmable parameter associated with the selected prescription to the medical device programming computer for programming into the IMD based on the comparison; and

programs hosted by the server for querying a user of the medical device programming computer which of the plurality of expert-systems is to be selected and for executing the selected expert system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the IMD communications circuit is adapted to transmit radio frequency (RF) communications.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the expert-system includes an artificial intelligence (AI) engine that compares the at least one patient characteristic to the at least one prescription of the plurality of medical prescriptions and issues a parameter to be programmed into the IMD based on the comparison.

4. The system of claim 1, with the server further comprising:

a custom medical prescription system adapted to store at least one custom parameter securely in association with a user credential stored on the server and the selected medical prescription.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer network includes the internet.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server includes a plurality of physician'"'"'s prescriptions of the plurality of medical prescriptions, wherein the expert-system compares the at least one patient characteristic to the plurality of physician'"'"'s prescriptions of the plurality of medical prescriptions to issue the parameter.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a user interface coupled to the medical device programming computer, wherein the expert-system presents a plurality of parameter choices, associated with respective unique medical prescriptions, for selection via the user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the expert-system ranks the plurality of parameter choices.

9. The system of claim 1, with the server further comprising a custom medical prescription system adapted to store at least one of the plurality of unique medical prescription in association with a patient class stored on the server, with the patient class being associated with a programmed patient class of the medical device programming computer.

10. A method for prescribing therapeutic treatment from a physician for a patient via communications over a network, comprising:

measuring and recording at least one patient characteristic with an implantable medical device (IMD);

wirelessly communicating with the IMD using a medical device programming computer to receive the at least one patient characteristic with the medical device programming computer;

securely communicating the at least one patient characteristic to a server in networked communication with the medical device programmer;

storing a medical prescription data structure associated with at least one physician'"'"'s medical prescription in the server;

hosting a plurality of expert-systems on the server;

querying a user of the medical device programming computer for a selection of one of the plurality of hosted expert-systems;

comparing the at least one patient characteristic to the physician'"'"'s medical prescription data structure using the selected expert-system hosted on the server, the expert-system adapted for outputting at least one parameter to be programmed into the IMD; and

securely communicating the at least one parameter to the medical device programming computer.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising wirelessly programming the IMD with the at least one parameter.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising collecting patient data via a user interface coupled to the medical device programmer, and communicating the patient data to the server, wherein the expert-system compares the at least one patient characteristic to the collected patient data and bases the output on that comparison.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising regularly updating the server by prompting a physician to modify the physician'"'"'s medical prescription.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the physician'"'"'s medical prescription is a first physician'"'"'s medical prescription, and further comprising storing a second physician'"'"'s medical prescription.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising comparing the at least one patient characteristic to the first and second physician'"'"'s medical prescription using the expert-system and outputting a first parameter option and a second parameter option to a user interface of the medical device programming computer for parameter selection.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing the user interface with a first physician profile associated with the first physician'"'"'s medical prescription and a second physician profile associated with the second physician'"'"'s medical prescription.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the server hosts a custom medical prescription system including at least one user selected parameter.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the server hosts the expert-system and the custom medical prescription system and further comprising querying the user to determine which of the hosted systems to use.

19. A system configured for use with a computer network for prescribing therapeutic treatment for a patient comprising:

a cardiac rhythm management device to be implanted in the patient to record at least one patient characteristic of the patient, the implantable medical device being programmable and adapted to communicate via radio frequency (RE) communications;

a medical device programming computer including a communications system adapted to communicate with the cardiac rhythm management device via the RF communications to program the cardiac rhythm management device, the medical device programming computer adapted to communicate securely over the internet, the medical device programming computer including a user interface;

a server to communicate securely over the internet to the medical device programming computer, the server comprising;

a plurality of physician'"'"'s medical prescriptions stored on the server as data structures and a plurality of patient-specific fields to be defined via the user interface;

a plurality of artificial intelligence (AI) engines hosted by the server, each of which is adapted to compare the at least one patient characteristic to the plurality of patient-specific fields and to the plurality of physician'"'"'s medical prescriptions and to select a parameter based on the comparison, the parameter adapted to be programmed into the cardiac rhythm management device; and

programs hosted by the server for querying a user of the medical device programming computer which of the plurality of AI engines is to be selected and for executing the selected AI engines.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the server includes at least one custom medical prescription system adapted to store a user selected parameter, wherein the custom medical prescription system selects the parameter based on the user selected parameter.