PREVENTING FALLS USING POSTURE AND MOVEMENT DETECTION

• US 20150221202A1
• Filed: 02/02/2015
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Covidien LP (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Covidien LP (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: RUSSELL, BRIAN KEITH, WOODWARD, JONATHAN JAMES, RUEHLMANN, DIETRICH OTTO, OLSEN, MARJORIE JONES, MORRIS, BENJAMIN DAVID
• Granted Patent: US 9,691,253 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/043 detecting an emergency event, e.g. a fall
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and systems are described for associating remote physiological monitoring with an at-risk falling condition of a patient. The methods may include receiving movement data of a patient from one or more sensors. The methods may also include determining a patient posture and a patient activity level based, at least in part, on the received movement data, and determining that an at-risk condition is satisfied by the patient posture or the patient activity level. Once it is determined that the at-risk condition is satisfied, the methods may also include issuing an alert based, at least in part, on the determination that the at-risk condition is satisfied.

Claims

1. A method of issuing an alert, comprising:

receiving movement data of a patient from one or more sensors;

determining a patient posture and a patient activity level based, at least in part, on the received movement data;

determining that an at-risk condition is satisfied by the patient posture or the patient activity level; and

issuing an alert based, at least in part, on the determination that the at-risk condition is satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving movement data comprises:

receiving orientation, position, velocity, posture, or acceleration data from the one or more sensors.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating a posture timer to measure the patient posture for a predetermined period of time during which the at-risk condition is satisfied; and

issuing the alert when the posture timer meets or surpasses a predetermined posture timer threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

re-initializing the posture timer when the patient posture does not satisfy the at-risk threshold.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

setting the predetermined posture timer threshold based, at least in part, on patient physiological factors.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating an activity timer to measure the patient activity level for a predetermined period of time during which the at-risk condition is satisfied; and

issuing the alert when the activity timer meets or surpasses a predetermined activity timer threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

re-initializing the activity timer when the patient activity level does not satisfy the at-risk threshold.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

setting the predetermined activity timer threshold based, at least in part, on patient physiological factors.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the issued alert to a monitoring station.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the at-risk condition is satisfied by the patient activity level comprises:

correlating the patient movement data received with a vector magnitude (VMU).

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the at-risk condition is satisfied when the VMU reaches or surpasses a predetermined VMU threshold based, at least in part, on the activity level of the patient.

12. A remote patient monitoring device, comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive movement data of a patient from one or more sensors; and

a processor configured to;

determine a patient posture and a patient activity level based, at least in part, on the received movement data;

determine that an at-risk condition is satisfied by the patient posture or the patient activity level; and

issue an alert based, at least in part, on the determination that the at-risk condition is satisfied.

13. The device of claim 12, further comprising:

a posture timer configured to;

operate to measure the patient posture for a predetermined period of time during which the at-risk condition is satisfied; and

issue the alert when the posture timer meets or surpasses a predetermined posture timer threshold.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

re-initialize the posture timer when the patient posture does not satisfy the at-risk threshold.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

set the predetermined posture timer threshold based, at least in part, on patient physiological factors.

16. The device of claim 12, further comprising:

an activity timer configured to;

operate to measure the patient activity level for a predetermined period of time during which the at-risk condition is satisfied; and

issue the alert when the activity timer meets or surpasses a predetermined activity timer threshold.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:

re-initialize the activity timer when the patient activity level does not satisfy the at-risk threshold.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:

set the predetermined activity timer duration based, at least in part, on patient physiological factors.

19. The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

correlate the patient movement data received with a vector magnitude (VMU); and

determine that the at-risk condition is satisfied when the VMU reaches or surpasses a predetermined VMU threshold based, at least in part, on the activity level of the patient.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code, the code executable by a processor to:

receive movement data of a patient from one or more sensors;

determine a patient posture and a patient activity level based, at least in part, on the received movement data;

determine that an at-risk condition is satisfied by the patient posture or the patient activity level; and

issue an alert based, at least in part, on the determination that the at-risk condition is satisfied.