MEDICAL ACCESSORY PROXIMITY TESTING, DETECTION, AND ALERTING SYSTEM

• US 20110313493A1
• Filed: 06/17/2010
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Angel Medical Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Angel Medical Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: KEENAN, DAVID, JOHN, MICHAEL SASHA
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/60
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0271 using a remote monitoring unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/333 Recording apparatus specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7221 Determining signal validity, reliability or quality A61B5/7207 and A61B5/7217 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37252 Details of algorithms or data aspects of communication system, e.g. handshaking, transmitting specific data or segmenting data
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37254 Pacemaker or defibrillator security, e.g. to prevent or inhibit programming alterations by hackers or unauthorised individuals
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Disclosed is a system having an implanted component and external component which are configured to provide a test of wireless communication in order to assess the success or failure of such communication and to store attributes related to such test in a memory log. To provide the communication test the implantable and external components can attempt wireless communication according to communication test parameters which relate to number of times to retry communication, duration of sending communication test signals, durations of waiting for communication test signals and the schedule of the communication tests. The schedule of tests may be period or may change over time in order to become more or less frequency according to a programmable schedule that may also decrease if the communication tests are successful and indicate patient compliance in keeping the external components close by. The communication tests can assist in determining if the patient is maintaining external components within a suggested proximity (e.g. 6 feet) of the patient and may assist to determine if transmission or reception difficulties are the source of communication failure. A physician programmer can provide for programming, conducting, summarizing and assessing the results of communication tests.

Claims

1. A medical device system for monitoring a condition of a patient the system comprising:

an implantable medical device comprising a transceiver, a random access memory, and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the random access memory, wherein the processor is configured to;

cause circuitry to wirelessly transmit a plurality of proximity test signals as part of a proximity test;

for each of the plurality of proximity test signals, determine whether a response has been received from an external device within a certain time after sending the corresponding proximity signal, thereby generating a plurality of proximity test results;

apply a test to the plurality of proximity test results to determine whether a proximity failure condition exists;

operative when a proximity failure condition exists, store time information regarding the proximity failure in the random access memory.

2. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the test is whether a predetermined number of consecutive proximity test results indicate test failure.

3. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to issue notification if the number of proximity failures in the random access memory meets a selected first proximity test criterion.

4. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to perform the proximity test at selected intervals.

5. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to perform the proximity test at programmable intervals.

6. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to perform the proximity test at programmable intervals which are adjusted according to a schedule which varies over a selected interval.

7. The medical device system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to perform the proximity test at programmable intervals which are adjusted in accordance with proximity test results.

8. A medical device system for monitoring a condition of a patient that has an implanted medical device, the system comprising:

an external device comprising a transceiver, a random access memory, and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the random access memory, wherein the processor is configured to;

periodically activate the wireless communication circuitry in an attempt to receive a plurality of proximity test signals from the implanted medical device;

for each of the plurality of activations, determine whether a proximity signal has been received from the implanted device within a certain time after the activation, thereby generating a plurality of proximity test receipt results;

apply a test to the plurality of proximity test receipt results to determine whether a proximity failure condition exists;

operative when a proximity failure condition exists, take at least one of the following actions;

store information regarding the proximity failure in the random access memory or send a proximity test failure condition notification.

9. The medical device system according to claim 8 wherein the processor is further configured to send notification to the patient if the proximity failures in the random access memory meet a selected first proximity test criterion.

10. The medical device system according to claim 8 wherein the processor is further configured to send notification to a remote station if the proximity failures in the random access memory meet a selected second proximity test criterion.

11. The medical device system according to claim 8 wherein the periodic activation occurs every 24 hours.

12. The system of claim 8 further including a proximity test module which operates upon the random access memory to provide a log of proximity test results including the time of each test and a quantitative value related to the strength of the communication signal.

13. The system of claim 8 further including a proximity test module which operates upon the random access memory to provide along of proximity test results including the time of each test and a qualitative value related to the quality of the communication signal.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the system further comprises the implantable medical device, and wherein the implantable medical device is configured to provide a proximity test and derive proximity test results.

15. The system of claim 14 further including a programmer device configured for downloading the proximity test results of the implanted and external devices and processing these test results to provide a test result profile.

16. The system of claim 14 further including a programmer device configured for downloading the proximity test results of the implanted and external devices and presenting the test results graphically to a user.

17. The system of claim 8, further including a programmer configured for running a diagnostic protocol which causes the implanted device and external device to perform selected proximity tests according to a diagnostic protocol, and to evaluate the proximity test results.