System for the remote monitoring of patients

• US 20030069481A1
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Published: 04/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Etienne Petitjean, Francois Charpillet, Jacques Chanliau, Jean-Marie Pierrel, Jean-Pierre Thomesse, Laurent Jeanpierre, Laurent Romary, Pierre-Yves Durand, Robert Hervy
• Original Assignee: Etienne Petitjean, Francois Charpillet, Jacques Chanliau, Jean-Marie Pierrel, Jean-Pierre Thomesse, Laurent Jeanpierre, Laurent Romary, Pierre-Yves Durand, Robert Hervy
• Inventors: Pierrel, Jean-Marie, Romary, Laurent, Petitjean, Etienne, Charpillet, Francois, Durand, Pierre-Yves, Hervy, Robert, Jeanpierre, Laurent, Chanliau, Jacques, Thomesse, Jean-Pierre
• Granted Patent: US 6,746,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

System for monitoring patients at home comprising interface means at the patient'"'"'s home, interface means at a doctor'"'"'s surgery, a server linked by a network such as a telephone network to the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home and to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery, the said server receiving from the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home, values of physiological parameters measured by the patient or by sensors and comprising means for storing a history, corresponding to a certain period of time, regarding the values of physiological parameters which are transmitted thereto, the said server furthermore comprising means for implementing a processing on the values of physiological parameters transmitted by the patient with a view to their presentation and to the presentation of their changes on the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery, characterized in that the said means implement on the latest values of physiological parameters which are transmitted to the server a processing comparing the state defined by these various values of physiological parameters with alert states defined as a function of the stored history of the patient and comprise means for transmitting the results of this processing to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery.

Claims

1. System for monitoring patients at home comprising interface means at the patient'"'"'s home, interface means at a doctor'"'"'s surgery, a server linked by a network such as a telephone network to the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home and to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery, the said server receiving from the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home, values of physiological parameters measured by the patient or by sensors and comprising means for storing a history, corresponding to a certain period of time, regarding the values of physiological parameters which are transmitted thereto, the said server furthermore comprising means for implementing a processing on the values of physiological parameters transmitted by the patient with a view to their presentation and to the presentation of their changes on the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery, characterized in that the said means implement on the latest values of physiological parameters which are transmitted to the server a processing comparing the state defined by these various values of physiological parameters with alert states defined as a function of the stored history of the patient and comprise means for transmitting the results of this processing to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery.

2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the said processing means compare the values of physiological parameters or values of other parameters determined as a function of the latter values with threshold values which are determined as a function of the stored history and, when such a threshold value is exceeded, transmit an alert message to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery and/or at the patient'"'"'s home.

3. System according to claim 2, characterized in that the processing means determine values of parameters referred to as trend parameters which are dependent on the latest values of physiological parameters transmitted via the interface at the patient'"'"'s home and on a part of the stored history which just precedes in time the transmission of these latest values of physiological parameters, compare these values of trend parameters with threshold values and, when such a threshold value is exceeded, transmit an alert message to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery and/or at the patient'"'"'s home.

4. System according to claim 3, characterized in that at least a part of the latest values of physiological parameters transmitted by the interface at the patient'"'"'s home are furthermore compared with other threshold values which is independent of the history and in that the value of at least one trend parameter is modified when one of these threshold values is exceeded.

5. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the processing means determine with regard to the latest value which is transmitted for at least one of the physiological parameters to the server, and as a function of the history of the patient, a probability of occupying a given state, the probabilities thus determined for the various possible states for the patient being transmitted to the interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery.

6. System according to claim 5, characterized in that the processing means determine the probability of occupying a given state for a given physiological parameter value as a function of the ratio between on the one hand the difference between this physiological parameter value and a normal reference value for this parameter and on the other hand a tolerance.

7. System according to claim 6, characterized in that at least one physiological parameter, the reference value is dependent on the history of the patient.

8. System according to one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that interface means at the doctor'"'"'s surgery enable the latter to propose modifications with regard to the probability values calculated by the processing means and in that the said processing means comprise means for modifying the processing as a function of the modified values proposed by the doctor.

9. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the server comprises means for, when a patient seeks to connect up, identifying the said patient, interrupting the communication and connecting up to the interface means of the said patient.

10. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home enable the latter to transmit information to the doctor only when the patient has filled in a chart of daily parameters.

11. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the interface means at the patient'"'"'s home comprise means for checking the consistency of the physiological parameter values measured and transmitted by the patient.