Systems and methods of determining location using a medical device

• US 10,376,169 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2016
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaib, Thomas E., Johnson, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): Stice, Paula J
• Application Number:
  US15/077,995
• Publication Number:
  US 20160278652A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/25 Bioelectric electrodes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4088 Diagnosing of monitoring cognitive diseases, e.g. Alzheimer, prion diseases or dementia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6804 Garments; Clothes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/046 Specially adapted for shock therapy, e.g. defibrillation
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0484 Garment electrodes worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3904 External heart defibrillators [EHD]
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3925 Monitoring; Protecting
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 : for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 : for collecting sensor information

Abstract

According to at least one aspect, a wearable medical device is provided. The wearable medical device may include a sensing electrode to sense an electrocardiogram signal of a patient, a therapy electrode to provide treatment to the patient, a garment to be worn about a torso of the patient and receive the sensing electrode and the therapy electrode, and a controller operatively coupled to the sensing electrode and the therapy electrode. The controller may be configured to determine a current location of the wearable medical device based on a previous position of the medical device and at least a speed and a direction of movement of the wearable medical device.

Claims

1. A wearable medical device comprising:

a plurality of sensing electrodes to sense an electrocardiogram signal of a patient;

a plurality of therapy electrodes to provide treatment to the patient;

a garment to be worn about a torso of the patient and receive the plurality of sensing electrodes and the plurality of therapy electrodes;

a motion detector;

a processor coupled to the plurality of sensing electrodes, the plurality of therapy electrodes, and the motion detector; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and comprising instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

receive movement information comprising at least acceleration information and heading information from the motion detector;

detect a movement of the wearable medical device from the movement information received from the motion detector, wherein the movement of the wearable medical device comprises a distance traveled by the wearable medical device and a direction traveled by the wearable medical device; and

estimate a current location of the wearable medical device relative to a previous location of the wearable medical device using dead reckoning based at least in part on the distance traveled by the wearable medical device and the direction traveled by the wearable medical device.

2. The wearable medical device of claim 1, wherein the motion detector includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer, or a magnetometer.

3. The wearable medical device of claim 1, comprising an antenna coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to transmit, via the antenna, the location of the wearable medical device to an external system.

4. The wearable medical device of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the processor to track the location of the wearable medical device at least in part by identifying a starting location of the wearable medical device, determining an estimated movement of the wearable medical device based on the detected movement of the wearable medical device, and determining the location of the wearable medical device based on the starting location and the estimated movement.

5. The wearable medical device of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the processor to administer a physical activity test to the patient and measure a distance traveled by the patient during the physical activity test.

6. The wearable medical device of claim 5, wherein the instructions cause the processor to monitor a gait of the patient during the physical activity test and determine a likelihood of the patient developing a form of dementia based on the gait of the patient.

7. The wearable medical device of claim 5, wherein the physical activity test includes a six minute walk test.

8. The wearable medical device of claim 5, comprising an antenna coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to generate a patient report based on the administered physical activity test and transmit, via the antenna, the patient report to an external system.

9. The wearable medical device of claim 1, comprising a memory coupled to the processor to store building map information and wherein the instructions cause the processor to track the location of the wearable medical device within a building based on the detected movement of the wearable medical device and the building map information.

10. The wearable medical device of claim 1, comprising an antenna coupled to the processor to receive location information.

11. The wearable medical device of claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the processor to determine whether the location information is available from the antenna, determine the location of the wearable medical device based on the location information responsive to the location information being available, and determine the location of the wearable medical device based on the detected movement of the wearable medical device responsive to the location information being unavailable.

12. The wearable medical device of claim 10, comprising a switch to control a capability of the wearable medical device to receive the location information from the antenna and wherein the instructions cause the processor to determine, based on a state of the switch, the location of the wearable medical device from one of:

the detected movement of the wearable medical device and the location information.

13. The wearable medical device of claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the processor to attempt to determine the location of the wearable medical device based on the location information within a predetermined period of time and determine the location of the wearable medical device based on the detected movement of the wearable medical device responsive to failing to determine the location of the wearable medical device based on the location information within the predetermined period of time.

14. The wearable medical device of claim 10, wherein the location information includes a signal from a global positioning system, a BLUETOOTH beacon, a WLAN access point, or a radio frequency identification tag.

15. The wearable medical device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to estimate the current location of the wearable medical device relative to the previous location of the wearable medical device using dead reckoning in response to at least one of detecting a loss of consciousness of the patient and detecting that the patient has fallen.

16. A wearable medical device comprising:

a plurality of sensing electrodes to sense an electrocardiogram signal of a patient;

a plurality of therapy electrodes to provide treatment to the patient;

a garment to be worn about a torso of the patient and receive the plurality of sensing electrodes and the plurality of therapy electrodes; and

a processor operatively coupled to the plurality of sensing electrodes and the plurality of therapy electrodes; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and comprising instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

detect a movement of the wearable device comprising a speed of the wearable medical device and a direction of movement of the wearable medical device; and

estimate a current location of the wearable medical device by dead reckoning relative to a previous location of the wearable medical device based at least in part on the speed of the wearable medical device and the direction of movement of the wearable medical device.

17. The wearable medical device of claim 16, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify an elapsed time since the wearable medical device was at the previous location.

18. The wearable medical device of claim 17, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify a distance traveled by the wearable medical device based on the elapsed time and a previous speed of the wearable medical device.

19. The wearable medical device of claim 18, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify the current location based on the distance traveled by the wearable medical device and the previous location.

20. The wearable medical device of claim 16, comprising a motion detector coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify the previous speed of the wearable medical device based on detected motion of the wearable medical device.

21. The wearable medical device of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to estimate the current location of the wearable medical device by dead reckoning relative to a previous location of the wearable medical device in response to at least one of detecting a loss of consciousness of the patient and detecting that the patient has fallen.

22. An ambulatory medical device comprising:

a plurality of sensing electrodes to sense an electrocardiogram signal of a patient;

a memory to store building map information including a layout of a building; and

a processor coupled to the plurality of sensing electrodes and the memory;

wherein the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

monitor cardiac events of the patient,

detect a movement of the ambulatory medical device comprising at least acceleration information and heading information;

estimate a current location of the ambulatory medical device within the building using dead reckoning based at least in part on the acceleration information and the heading information; and

generate a building map with a location history of the ambulatory medical device based on the building map information and the estimated current location of the ambulatory medical device.

23. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, comprising a display coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to display, via the display, the building map with the location history of the ambulatory medical device.

24. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, comprising an antenna coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to transmit, via the antenna, the building map with the location history of the ambulatory medical device to an external system.

25. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, wherein the instructions cause the processor to administer a physical activity test to the patient and track the location of the ambulatory medical device during the physical activity test.

26. The ambulatory medical device of claim 25, wherein the physical activity test includes a six minute walk test.

27. The ambulatory medical device of claim 25, wherein the instructions cause the processor to generate a patient report based on the administered physical activity test including a building map with a location history of the ambulatory medical device during the physical activity test.

28. The ambulatory medical device of claim 27, comprising an antenna coupled to the processor and wherein the instructions cause the processor to transmit, via the antenna, the patient report to an external system.

29. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, wherein the ambulatory medical device is one of:

a wearable defibrillator, an in-hospital defibrillator, and a mobile cardiac telemetry monitor.

30. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, further comprising:

a motion detector;

wherein the instructions cause the processor to detect, using the motion detector, a movement of the ambulatory medical device, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to

estimate the current location of the ambulatory medical device at least in part by identifying a starting location of the ambulatory medical device in the building, determining an estimated movement of the ambulatory medical device based on the detected movement of the ambulatory medical device from movement information received from the motion detector, and determining the tracked location of the ambulatory medical device based on the starting location and the estimated movement.

31. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, further comprising:

an antenna coupled to the processor to receive location information; and

a motion detector;

wherein the instructions cause the processor to detect a movement of the ambulatory medical device, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine whether the location information is available from the antenna, determine the tracked location of the ambulatory medical device based on the location information responsive to the location information being available, and estimate the current location of the ambulatory medical device based on the detected movement of the ambulatory medical device responsive to the location information being unavailable.

32. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify an elapsed time since the ambulatory medical device was at a previous location.

33. The ambulatory medical device of claim 32, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify a distance traveled by the ambulatory medical device based on the elapsed time and a previous speed of the ambulatory medical device.

34. The ambulatory medical device of claim 33, wherein the instructions cause the processor to determine the tracked location based on the distance traveled by the ambulatory medical device and the previous location.

35. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, further comprising a motion detector coupled to the processor, and wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify a previous speed of the ambulatory medical device based on detected motion of the ambulatory medical device.

36. The ambulatory medical device of claim 22, wherein the processor is configured to estimate the current location of the ambulatory medical device within the building using dead reckoning in response to at least one of detecting a loss of consciousness of the patient and detecting that the patient has fallen.