Ambulatory monitoring system with real time analysis and telephone transmission
First Claim
1. A cardiac monitoring system for monitoring an ambulatory patient, comprising:
- a cardiac monitoring patient unit for the ambulatory patient comprising;
means operatively connectable with a patient'"'"'s body for providing an EKG signal indicative of electrical activity associated with a patient'"'"'s heart action;
means for sampling the EKG signal provided by the EKG signal providing means to provide a plurality of EKG signal samples;
signal processing means for analyzing the EKG signal samples in real time and according to predetermined criteria and generating, as a result of that analysis, processed data including a plurality of cardiac events and statistics related to all heartbeats occurring during a predetermined monitoring period, for inclusion in at least a portion of corresponding patient report intelligible to a person skilled in coronary care;
memory means for storing the processed data generated by the signal processing means;
portable housing means, suitable for being worn or carried out by the patient, containing the sampling means, signal processing means and memory means;
patient actuable transmitting means for causing data including the processed data stored in the memory means to be read from the memory means and to be transmitted over a communication channel; and
office unit means for cooperative use with said patient unit, said office unit means having means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator, receiving the processed data via the communication channel, means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator comparing the processed data with predetermined medical personnel notification criteria, and means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator notifying medical personnel if the predetermined medical personnel notification criteria is satisfied so that the medical personnel can intervene in an appropriate medical situation, said office unit means including means for preparing the corresponding patient report based upon the received processed data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A cardiac monitoring system for monitoring a plurality of patients including a plurality of patient-worn units and one or more office units. A patient unit detects a patient'"'"'s EKG and analyzes the EKG in real time (during the patient'"'"'s R-R interval). It provides morphology analysis, heart rate data, ST segment analysis, symptomatic and asymptomatic event recordings, and the counting of ectopic runs. The analyzed data is sent over a standard voice-grade telephone line or other suitable communication channel to an office which prepares a patient report for a physician. In addition, the office unit provides an interactive scheme by which various alarm and recording criteria are established for a particular patient at the time of hook-up. Also, the office unit automatically communicates with the physician under predetermined emergency circumstances so that a patient can get medical attention with a minimun time delay.
721 Citations
61 Claims
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1. A cardiac monitoring system for monitoring an ambulatory patient, comprising:
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a cardiac monitoring patient unit for the ambulatory patient comprising; means operatively connectable with a patient'"'"'s body for providing an EKG signal indicative of electrical activity associated with a patient'"'"'s heart action; means for sampling the EKG signal provided by the EKG signal providing means to provide a plurality of EKG signal samples; signal processing means for analyzing the EKG signal samples in real time and according to predetermined criteria and generating, as a result of that analysis, processed data including a plurality of cardiac events and statistics related to all heartbeats occurring during a predetermined monitoring period, for inclusion in at least a portion of corresponding patient report intelligible to a person skilled in coronary care; memory means for storing the processed data generated by the signal processing means; portable housing means, suitable for being worn or carried out by the patient, containing the sampling means, signal processing means and memory means; patient actuable transmitting means for causing data including the processed data stored in the memory means to be read from the memory means and to be transmitted over a communication channel; and office unit means for cooperative use with said patient unit, said office unit means having means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator, receiving the processed data via the communication channel, means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator comparing the processed data with predetermined medical personnel notification criteria, and means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator notifying medical personnel if the predetermined medical personnel notification criteria is satisfied so that the medical personnel can intervene in an appropriate medical situation, said office unit means including means for preparing the corresponding patient report based upon the received processed data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A cardiac monitor for an ambulatory patient comprising:
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means operatively connectable with a patient'"'"'s body for providing three EKG channel signals indicative of electrical activity associated with a patient'"'"'s heart action; means for sampling each of the three EKG channel signals to provide a plurality of EKG signal samples for each of the three channel signals; signal processing means for analyzing the EKG signal samples of each of the three channel signals in real time and according to predetermined criteria so as to more easily extract waveforms from a noisy background as a result of analyzation of the EKG samples of each of the three channel signals and generating, as a result of that analysis, processed data including a plurality of cardiac events and statistics related to all heartbeats occurring during a predetermined monitoring period to produce a corresponding patient report intelligible to a person skilled in coronary care; memory means for storing the processed data generated by the signal processing means; patient actuable transmitting means for causing the processed data stored in said memory means to be read from said memory means and to be transmitted over a communication channel; and portable housing means, suitable for being worn or carried by the patient, containing said sampling means, signal processing means, memory means, and transmitting means. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. A cardiac monitor for an ambulatory patient, comprising:
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means operatively connectable with a patient'"'"'s body for providing three EKG channel signals indicative of electrical activity associated with a patient'"'"'s heart action; means for sampling each of the remaining EKG signal channels provided by the EKG signal providing means to provide a plurality of EKG signal samples; signal processing means for substantially simultaneously analyzing the samples of each of the three EKG channel signals in real time and according to predetermined criteria so as to obtain enhanced waveform analysis by which a waveform is more easily extracted from a noisey background as a result of anlyzation of the EKG sample of each of the three channel signals and generating, as a result of that analysis, processed data including a plurality of cardiac events and statics related to all heartbeats occurring during a predetermined monitoring period to produce a corresponding patient report intelligible to a person skilled in coronary care; memory means for storing the processed data generated by the signal processing means; and portable housing means, suitable for being worn or carried by the patient, containing said sampling means, signal processing means and memory means. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A cardiac monitoring system for monitoring an ambulatory patient, comprising:
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a cardiac monitoring patient unit for the ambulatory patient comprising; means operatively connectable with a patient'"'"'s body for providing an EKG signal indicative of electrical activity associated with a patient'"'"'s heat action; means for sampling the EKG signal provided by the EKG signal providing means to provide a plurality of EKG signal samples; signal processing means for analyzing the EKG signal samples in real time and according to predetermined criteria and generating, as a result of that analysis, processed data including a plurality of cardiac events and statistics related to all heartbeats occurring during a predetermined monitoring period, for inclusion in at least a portion of a corresponding patient report intelligible to a person skilled in coronary care; memory means for storing the processed data generated by the signal processing means; portable housing means, suitable for being worn or carried by the patient, containing the sampling means, signal processing means and memory means; patient actuable transmitting means for causing data including the processed data stored in the memory means to be read from the memory means and to be transmitted over a communication channel; and an office unit means for cooperating with said patient unit, said office unit means having means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator, receiving the processed data via the communication channel, and means for automatically and without the necessity of any human operator preparing the corresponding patient report.
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Specification