Health monitoring appliance

• US 8,425,415 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2012
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Bao Tran
• Inventors: Tran, Bao
• Primary Examiner(s): Gedeon, Brian T
• Application Number:
  US13/490,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20120245464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 321 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 600/485, 600/509, 600/513, 128/903
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/08 Elderly
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0412 Low-profile patch shaped housings
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02108 from analysis of pulse wave characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/242 Detecting biomagnetic fields, e.g. magnetic fields produced by bioelectric currents
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4806 Sleep evaluation A61B5/4821 takes precedence; devices for inducing sleep A61M21/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4833 Assessment of subject's compliance to treatment
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6808 Diapers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7214 using signal cancellation, e.g. based on input of two identical physiological sensors spaced apart, or based on two signals derived from the same sensor, for different optical wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 : using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/726 : using Wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 : Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 : involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 : Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 : Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7405 : using sound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 : Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 : Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 : Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 : Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/565 : involving data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 : for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 : Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A heart monitoring system for a person includes one or more wireless nodes; and a wearable appliance in communication with the one or more wireless nodes, the appliance monitoring vital signs. Other implementations can monitor heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, fluid status, posture and activity.

Claims

1. A wireless system for a person, comprising:

a wearable appliance monitoring one or more vital signs;

a plurality of wireless nodes in communication with the wearable appliance; and

patient monitoring equipment coupled to the wireless nodes; and

a web server coupled to the wireless nodes to provide information to an authorized remote user.

2. The system of claim 1, comprising an accelerometer to detect a dangerous condition and to generate a warning when the dangerous condition is detected.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the appliance is wirelessly coupled to a hospital monitoring equipment.

4. The system of claim 1, comprising one of:

EKG detector, ECG detector, electromagnetic detector, ultrasonic detector, optical detector, a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) recognizer, a dynamic time warp (DTW) recognizer, a neural network, a fuzzy logic engine.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the appliance monitors patient movement.

6. The system of claim 1, comprising an in-door positioning system coupled to one or more network appliances to provide location information.

7. The system of claim 1, comprising a call center coupled to the appliance to provide a human response.

8. The system of claim 1, comprising a heart disease recognizer to detect stroke symptom or heart attack symptom.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising code to store and analyze patient information.

10. The system of claim 1, comprising code to store medicine taking habits, eating and drinking habits, sleeping habits, or exercise habits.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless nodes are embedded inside patient monitoring equipment or the wireless nodes are external to the patient monitoring equipment.

12. A monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes coupled to hospital monitoring equipment and a mesh network coupled to the wireless nodes; and

a wearable appliance in communication with the wireless nodes, the appliance monitoring heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, fluid status, posture and activity.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein data to hops from node to node.

14. The system of claim 12, comprising code to store medicine taking habits, eating and drinking habits, sleeping habits, or exercise habits.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the appliance transmits and receives voice from a person over the network.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the appliance continuously monitors key vital signs to help physicians track the person'"'"'s health status and detect potential health risks or worsening conditions.

17. A monitoring system for a person, comprising:

one or more wireless nodes including mesh network nodes; and

a wearable appliance in communication with the one or more wireless nodes, the appliance monitoring heart rate, heart rate variability, and patient activity.

18. The system of claim 17, comprising wherein the wireless nodes communicate with redundant data transmission.

19. The system of claim 17, comprising code to capture ECG when arrhythmias are detected.