Biological signal management

• US 20050171448A1
• Filed: 02/02/2004
• Published: 08/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Braemar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cardionet Incorporated
• Inventors: Korzinov, Lev, Baumann, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 7,587,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/515
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/316 Modalities, i.e. specific diagnostic methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/361 Detecting fibrillation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/363 Detecting tachycardia or bradycardia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/364 Detecting abnormal ECG interval, e.g. extrasystoles, ectopic heartbeats

Abstract

Systems and techniques for managing biological signals. In one implementation, a method includes receiving a cardiac biological signal that includes information describing events, determining a merit of each event based on one or more of a severity of a cardiac condition associated with the event and a quality of the event, and handling a subset of the events that meet a merit criterion. The subset can be handled for medical purposes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a cardiac biological signal that includes an event relevant to a medical purpose;

determining a merit of the event for the medical purpose;

associating the event with a time span in which the event occurred if the event'"'"'s merit is among a certain number of the most meritorious events that occurred in the time span; and

handling the association of the time span and the event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the merit of the event comprises:

determining a severity of the event; and

determining an quality of the event.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the quality of the event comprises determining the noise in the event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the cardiac biological signal comprises receiving the event after the event has been separated from another portion of the cardiac biological signal.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the event within the received cardiac biological signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying the event comprises identifying one or more of an asystole event, a tachycardia event, a bradycardia event, and an atrial fibrillation/flutter event based on identifying characteristics of these events.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the event comprises identifying the event based on a frequency of heart beats.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the method further comprises determining a category of the event; and

associating the event with the time span comprises associating the event with the time span when the event merit places the event within the certain number of the most meritorious events of the category.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the event with the time span comprises associating the event with the time span when the event merit is among a predetermined number of the most meritorious events.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein handling the association comprises generating a data structure having a time stamp associated with the event.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein handling the association comprises transmitting the association to a remote receiver.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the event has a greater relevance to a medical diagnostic purpose than an average relevance of the biological signal.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving a cardiac biological signal that includes information describing events;

determining a merit of each event based on one or more of a severity of a cardiac condition associated with the event and a quality of the event; and

handling, for medical purposes, a subset of the events that have merits meeting a merit criterion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein handling the subset of events comprises handling the subset of events meeting a merit criterion that is based on merits of other events.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the merit of each event comprises determining the merit based on both the severity and the quality.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein handling the subset comprises handling the events that have merits among a certain number of the most meritorious.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein handling the subset of the events comprises handling the subset of the events that occur within a certain time span.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein handling the subset of the events comprises handling the subset of the events that occur within a predetermined time span.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein handling the subset of the events comprises transmitting the subset of events to a remote medical receiver.

20. A method comprising:

receiving a biological signal;

identifying an event in the biological signal, the event of greater relevance for a certain purpose than an average relevance of the biological signal;

determining a merit of the event for the certain purpose;

comparing the merit of the event with a second merit of a second event to identify a more meritorious event;

creating an episode describing the more meritorious event;

associating the episode with a time span in which the events occurred; and

transmitting the association of the episode and the time span to a remote receiver.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein associating the episode with the time span comprises creating a data structure including the episode and a time stamp indicating when the event occurred.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein creating the episode comprises:

redacting the more meritorious event.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein:

the method further comprises determining a category of the event; and

comparing the merit of the event with the second merit of the second event comprises comparing the merit of the event with the second merit of the second event of the same category.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising associating the association of the episode and the time span with a collection of associations of episodes and time spans.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein transmitting the association comprises transmitting the collection of associations of episodes and time spans.