Patient initiated on-demand remote medical service with integrated knowledge base and computer assisted diagnosing characteristics

• US 8,827,905 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2006
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Roehm, Steven, Liu, Ray, Avinash, Gopal B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomson, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Archer, Marie
• Application Number:
  US11/324,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20070156626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,170 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 600/301, 128903-905, 128/920
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse, heart rate, blood pressure or blood flow; Combined pulse/heart-rate/blood pressure determination; Evaluating a cardiovascular condition not otherwise provided for, e.g. using combinations of techniques provided for in this group with electrocardiography or electroauscultation; Heart catheters for measuring blood pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/74 Details of notification to user or communication with user or patient indicating measured values G01D7/00; user input means input or output arrangements for computers G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/902 Application using ai with detail of the ai system
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/924 Medical

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method of remote patient monitoring to allow a patient to initiate and activate sensing systems. In the system and method, standard parameters can be sensed, and the information can then be processed and sent to the physician or clinician. The clinician then has the ability to remotely configure or reconfigure the parameters of the sensing system so as to probe for more targeted information based on the initial sensed data.

Claims

1. A system for remotely monitoring patient healthcare characteristics, the system comprising:

a plurality of sensors in a home environment of a patient, wherein the plurality of sensors collect a set of patient health characteristics from a patient;

a central hub located in the home environment, wherein the central hub controls the collection of the set of patient health characteristics and receives the set of patient health characteristics from the plurality of sensors, wherein the central hub determines whether the set of patient health characteristics is in a pre-determined range, send a patient status and generates a report and an alarm according to the determination;

a wireless network, wherein the wireless network couples the plurality of sensors and the central hub;

a clinician hub coupled with the central hub, wherein the clinician hub receives the patient status, the set of patient health characteristics, and any of the report and alarm generated from the central hub and sends the patient status and the set of patient health characteristics to an appropriate clinician, further wherein the clinician hub is configured to communicate with a plurality of central hubs in a plurality of home environments;

a graphical patient interface in the home environment, wherein the graphical patient interface allows the patient to activate the plurality of sensors, and further allows the patient to communicate with the clinician; and

a graphical user interface at the appropriate clinician, wherein the graphical user interface allows the clinician to access the clinician hub and reconfigure the central hub, wherein the reconfiguring of the central hub allows the clinician to utilize a sensing application selection portion of the graphical user interface to select the set of patient health characteristics to be collected and further wherein reconfiguring includes, reconfiguring the graphical patient interface, and further allows the clinician to communicate with the patient.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the size of the plurality of sensors are in a range from micro-scale to millimeter-scale.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the plurality of sensors are any of a number of sensor types including:

invasive implantable;

non-invasive, portable device embeddable; and

, non-invasive, home device embeddable.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clinician hub is located outside of the home environment.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the patient status includes the report when the set of patient health characteristics is within a predetermined normal range, and the patient status includes the report and the alarm when the set of patient health characteristics are not in the predetermined normal range.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the central hub is further configured to evaluate the set of patient health characteristics.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is directly coupled with the central hub through the wireless network.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors are coupled with the central hub through the wireless network in an ad-hoc fashion.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a sensing sub-system configured to receive the set of patient health characteristics from the plurality of sensors, and further configured to relay the set of patient health characteristics to the central hub.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the central hub is configurable by the clinician to change the set of patient health characteristics collected by the plurality of sensors.

11. A method of remotely monitoring patient healthcare characteristics, the method comprising:

activating a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors are activated with a graphical patient interface by a patient in a home environment;

collecting a set of patient healthcare characteristics from the patient with the plurality of sensors;

processing the set of patient healthcare characteristics in a central hub, wherein the plurality of sensors and the central hub are located in a home environment and the central hub controls the collection of the set of patient healthcare characteristics, and the central hub sends a patient status and the set of patient healthcare characteristics from the central hub to a clinician hub, further wherein the clinician hub is configured to communicate with a plurality of central hubs in a plurality of home environments;

directing the patient status with the clinician hub to an appropriate clinician; and

accessing the patient status by the clinician with a graphical user interface wherein the graphical patient interface and the graphical user interface are configured to communicate with one another, and reconfiguring the central hub through the graphical user interface to choose the set of patient healthcare characteristics for collection, and reconfigure the graphical patient interface,

wherein the central hub determines whether the set of patient health characteristics is in a pre-determined range and generates a report and an alarm according to the determination, and the patient status includes the report when the set of patient health characteristics is within a predetermined normal range, and the patient status includes the report and an alarm when the set of patient health characteristics are not in the predetermined normal range.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the size of the plurality of sensors are in a range from micro-scale to millimeter-scale.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of sensors are any of a number of sensor types including:

invasive implantable;

non-invasive, portable device embeddable; and

, non-invasive, home device embeddable.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the clinician hub is configured outside of the home environment.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising evaluating the set of patient health characteristics.

16. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is directly coupled with the central hub through the wireless network.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the plurality of sensors are coupled with the central hub through the wireless network in an ad-hoc fashion.

18. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising receiving the set of patient health characteristics from the plurality of sensors with a sensing sub-system, and further comprising relaying the set of patient health characteristics to the central hub with the sensing sub-system.

19. A remote monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors in a home environment of a patient, wherein the plurality of sensors collect a set of patient health characteristics from a patient;

a central hub in the home environment, wherein the central hub controls the collection of the set of patient health characteristics and receives the set of patient health characteristics from the plurality of sensors, wherein the central hub determines whether the set of patient health characteristics is in a pre-determined range, sends a patient status and generates a report and an alarm according to the determination;

a wireless network, wherein the wireless network couples the plurality of sensors and the central hub;

a clinician hub coupled with the central hub, wherein the clinician hub receives the patient status and the set of patient health characteristics from the central hub and sends the patient status and the set of patient health characteristics to an appropriate clinician, wherein the patient status includes the report when the set of patient health characteristics is within a predetermined normal range, and further wherein the patient status includes the report and an alarm when the set of patient health characteristics are not in the predetermined normal range, further wherein the clinician hub is configured to communicate with a plurality of central hubs in a plurality of home environments;

a graphical patient interface in the home environment, wherein the graphical patient interface allows the patient to activate the plurality of sensors, and further allows the patient to communicate with the clinician; and

a graphical user interface at the appropriate clinician, wherein the graphical user interface allows the clinician to access the clinician hub and reconfigure the central hub, and further utilizes a sensing application selection portion of the graphical user interface to reconfigure the central hub to alter the set of patient health characteristics collected by the plurality of sensors, reconfigure the graphical patient interface and further allows the clinician to communicate with the patient.