Heart monitoring device

• US 9,066,665 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2014
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jonathan M. Whitfield
• Original Assignee: Jonathan M. Whitfield
• Inventors: Whitfield, Jonathan M.
• Primary Examiner(s): MANUEL, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US14/189,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20140171814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 490 Days
• Field of Search: 600/528
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/06 Children, e.g. for attention deficit diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02444 Details of sensor A61B5/02427 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4839 combined with drug delivery
• 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 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/02 Stethoscopes acoustic details thereof G10K11/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R

Abstract

The present invention includes devices, methods and systems for reporting a heart rate comprising: an input device; a microprocessor coupled to the input device and a power supply, wherein the microprocessor is programmed with a predetermined heartbeat threshold and calculates the number of times the input device is actuated over a predetermined amount of time; and a display connected to the microprocessor that receives the calculated heart rate and displays whether the heart rate is below, at or above predetermined threshold, e.g., when a patient has less than 60 heartbeats per minute, between 60 and 100 heartbeats per minute and greater than 100 heartbeats per minute.

Claims

1. A device for reporting a heart rate comprising:

an input device actuated by an end user each time the end user detects a heartbeat of a patient;

a microprocessor coupled to the input device, the microprocessor is programmed with a first predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a first unique identifier, a second predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a second unique identifier, and a third predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a third unique identifier, the microprocessor including a central processing unit (CPU), a computer readable memory, a computer readable storage media, and a set of program instruction including,

first program instructions to generate a calculated heart rate based on a number of times the input device is actuated over an amount of time using received signals of each said actuation,

second program instructions to determine whether the calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third predetermined patient heartbeat thresholds,

third program instructions to generate a uniquely identified calculated heart rate by associating the corresponding first, second or third unique identifier to said calculated heart rate based on said determined threshold,

wherein the first, second and third program instructions are all stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory; and

a display connected to the microprocessor that receives and displays the uniquely identified calculated heart rate to indicate whether the calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third predetermined patient heartbeat threshold, said display outputs a numerical output that comprises uniquely identified average heartbeats per minute.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined heartbeat thresholds comprise predefined ranges of a newborn'"'"'s heartbeats per minute.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the display is activated once the input device has been actuated a predetermined number of times.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the input device is a component of a stethoscope.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the first, second and third unique identifiers are color coded indicators.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the input device is a manually actuated input device manually actuated by the end user by thumb, finger, foot, voice or other manual input.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the display outputs a different signal output that comprises average heartbeats per minute, whereby the different signal output changes depending on where the average heartbeats per minute fall within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the display outputs a combination of a numerical output and a different signal output of average heartbeats per minute, whereby the numerical output and the different signal output change depending on where the average heartbeats per minute fall within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.

9. A method for calculating a heart rate comprising the steps of:

providing an input device for inputting data each time a patient'"'"'s heart beat is auscultated;

providing a microprocessor coupled to the input device, the microprocessor is programmed with a first heartbeat threshold having a first unique identifier, a second heartbeat threshold having a second unique identifier, and a third heartbeat threshold having a third unique identifier;

actuating the input device each time the heart beat is auscultated to generate a signal for each said actuation, the signal being input into the microprocessor;

the microprocessor calculating a heart rate based on a number of times the actuated input device is actuated over an amount of time, and determining whether said calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third heartbeat thresholds;

the microprocessor generating a uniquely identified calculated heart rate by associating the first, second or third unique identifier based on said threshold the calculated heart rate resides

displaying the uniquely identified calculated heart rate to inform one or more users of whether the calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third predetermined newborn heartbeat threshold for taking any necessary medical action on said patient,

wherein the input device is a manually actuated input device coupled to a stethoscope for heart beat auscultation, the manually actuated input device being manually actuated by the end user by thumb, finger, foot, voice or other manual input.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the patient is a newborn, and the heart rate is a neonatal heart rate.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the display is activated once the input device has been actuated a predetermined number of times.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the stethoscope is positioned on a newborn immediately after birth and the uniquely identified calculated heart is generated and output to a medical team present at the birth before any mechanically generated heart rate readings are provided to the medical team.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the display is updated with a rolling-average of heartbeats calculated at a select number of heartbeats.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the display outputs a numerical output that comprises average heartbeats per minute, whereby the numerical output changes color depending on where the average heartbeats per minute fall within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined heartbeat thresholds are set at whether the patient has less than 60 heartbeats per minute, between 60 and 100 heartbeats per minute or greater than 100 heartbeats per minute.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the display outputs a different signal output that comprises average heartbeats per minute, whereby the different signal output changes depending on where the average heartbeats per minute fall within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the display outputs a combination of a numerical output and a different signal output of average heartbeats per minute, whereby the numerical output and the different signal output change depending on where the average heartbeats per minute fall within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.

18. A system for providing real-time medical information comprising:

a stethoscope having a manually actuated input device, the input device being manually actuated by an end user of the stethoscope each time the end user detects a heartbeat of a patient upon which the stethoscope is placed and generates actuation data;

a microprocessor coupled to the input device, the microprocessor is programmed with a first predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a first unique identifier, a second predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a second unique identifier, and a third predetermined patient heartbeat threshold having a third unique identifier, the microprocessor including a central processing unit (CPU), a computer readable memory, a computer readable storage media, and a set of program instruction including,

first program instructions to generate a calculated heart rate based on a number of times the input device is actuated over an amount of time using received signals of each said manual actuation,

second program instructions to determine whether the calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third predetermined patient heartbeat thresholds,

third program instructions to generate a uniquely identified calculated heart rate by associating the corresponding first, second or third unique identifier to said calculated heart rate based on said determined threshold,

wherein the first, second and third program instructions are all stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory; and

a display connected to the microprocessor that receives and displays the uniquely identified calculated heart rate at least to said end user thereby informing at least said end user of whether the calculated heart rate resides within the first, second or third predetermined heartbeat threshold for performing any necessary medical action on the patient; and

medically treating the patient based on where the calculated heart rate falls within the predetermined heartbeat thresholds.