Wearable portable patient monitor

• US 9,795,300 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2017
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Inventors: Al-Ali, Ammar
• Primary Examiner(s): WINAKUR, ERIC FRANK
• Application Number:
  US15/499,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20170224216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 180 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0214 of power generation or supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/222 Electrical cables or leads therefor, e.g. coaxial cables or ribbon cables
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/227 Sensors with electrical connectors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0004 characterised by the type of physiological signal transmitted
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• 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 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0026 characterised by the transmission medium
• 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 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1455 using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14552 Details of sensors specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/30 Input circuits therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/332 Portable devices specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6826 : Finger
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 : Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6838 : Clamps or clips
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/72 : Signal processing specially adapted for physiological signals or for diagnostic purposes character recognition, recognising digital ink, document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00; recognition or understanding of postal images G06V30/424
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7228 : Signal modulation applied to the input signal sent to patient or subject; demodulation to recover the physiological signal modulation H03C
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7271 : Specific aspects of physiological measurement analysis A61B5/316, A61B5/349 and A61B5/374 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 : using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7425 : Displaying combinations of multiple images regardless of image source, e.g. displaying a reference anatomical image with a live image geometric transforms for image registration G06T3/14; enhancement using image fusion G06T5/50; algorithms for registration of images G06T7/30
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7445 : Display arrangements, e.g. multiple display units
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 : User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 : worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 : Radio telemetry

Abstract

A wearable, portable physiological monitor configured to wirelessly transmit real time information regarding a plurality physiological parameters. The portable monitor includes a plurality of sensor ports, where at least a first sensor port is positioned on a side of a housing of the portable monitor such that, when the portable monitor is attached to an arm of a patient, a wired connection extending from the first sensor port to a first physiological sensor positioned on a digit of the patient follows a path to the digit of the patient that avoids tangling of the wired connection. The portable monitor further includes one or more processing devices configured to cause display of parameter values, combine information indicative of the signals into a single word or bit stream, and encode and generate a baseband signal. Further includes a transmitter to modulate the baseband signal and wirelessly transmit.

Claims

1. A wearable, portable physiological monitor configured to wirelessly transmit real time information regarding a plurality physiological parameters, the portable monitor comprising:

a plurality of sensor ports positioned on a housing of the portable monitor and configured to provide respective wired interfaces with different respective physiological sensors of a plurality of physiological sensors, wherein;

at least a first sensor port of the plurality of sensor ports is positioned on a side of the housing of the portable monitor such that, when the portable monitor is attached to an arm of a patient, a wired connection extending from the first sensor port to a first physiological sensor positioned on a digit of the patient follows a path to the digit of the patient that is substantially perpendicular to the side of the housing and avoids tangling of the wired connection;

one or more processing devices configured to;

receive, via the plurality of sensor ports, a plurality of signals from the plurality of physiological sensors, at least some of the plurality of signals including digital information, and at least some of the plurality of signals including analog information;

cause to be displayed, on a display of the portable monitor, a plurality of physiological parameters values responsive to the plurality of signals;

combine information indicative of the plurality of signals into a single digital word or bit stream; and

encode the single digital word or bit stream to generate a baseband signal; and

a transmitter configured to;

modulate the baseband signal with a carrier to generate a transmit signal; and

wirelessly transmit the transmit signal to a remote patient monitoring device configured to decode the signal and display, on a remote display, the plurality of physiological parameters values responsive to the plurality of signals.

2. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured to:

process, at least in part in the analog domain, at least a first signal of the plurality of signals to determine at least a first one or more of the plurality of physiological parameters values; and

process, at least in part in the digital domain, at least a second signal of the plurality of signals to determine at least a second one or more of the plurality of physiological parameters values.

3. The portable monitor of claim 2, wherein the first signal is received via the first sensor port from the first physiological sensor.

4. The portable monitor of claim 3, wherein the first physiological sensor comprises a pulse oximetry sensor.

5. The portable monitor of claim 4, wherein the first one or more of the plurality of physiological parameters values comprises at least oxygen saturation and pulse rate.

6. The portable monitor of claim 2, wherein the one or more processing devices comprise:

a multiplexer configured to combine the information indicative of the plurality of signals into the single digital word or bit stream; and

an encoder configured to encode the single digital word or bit stream to generate the baseband signal.

7. The portable monitor of claim 6, wherein the baseband signal comprises a single signal.

8. The portable monitor of claim 6, wherein the baseband signal comprises multiple related signal components including at least one of:

in-phase signals or quadrature signals.

9. The portable monitor of claim 6, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit on multiple frequency channels.

10. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensor ports comprise at least:

a second sensor port configured to receive a signal from an EKG sensor arrangement; and

a third sensor port configured to receive a signal from a blood pressure sensor arrangement.

11. The portable monitor of claim 10 further comprising:

a plurality of sensor interfaces configured to receive the plurality of signals and initially process the plurality of signals, wherein;

each of the plurality of sensor interfaces is associated with a respective sensor port of the plurality of sensor ports, and

each of the plurality of sensor interfaces is configured to receive a signal from a respective physiological sensor of the plurality of physiological sensors.

12. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein a face of the housing comprises a single user interface, and the face of the housing is viewable by a user when the portable monitor is attached to the arm of the patient.

13. The portable monitor of claim 12, wherein the single user interface comprises the display.

14. The portable monitor of claim 13, wherein the display is positioned centrally on the face of the housing.

15. The portable monitor of claim 14, wherein the display positioned on the face of the housing is sized such that the display covers more than half of a length of a shortest dimension of the face of the housing.

16. A battery-powered wearable physiological monitoring device configured to communicate with multiple types of sensor arrangements via a plurality of sensor interfaces, the wearable physiological monitoring device comprising:

a plurality of sensor communication ports including;

a first sensor communication port configured to provide wired communication with a first type of physiological sensor arrangement, wherein the first sensor port is positioned on the device such that a wire extending from the first sensor communication port to the first type of physiological sensor arrangement extends from the device along an axis perpendicular to a face of the device upon which the first sensor port is positioned;

a second sensor communication port configured to provide wired communication with a second type of physiological sensor arrangement different from the first type of physiological sensor arrangement; and

a third sensor communication port configured to provide wired communication with a third type of physiological sensor arrangement different from both the first and second types of physiological sensor arrangements;

a plurality of sensor interfaces including;

a first sensor interface configured to receive a first signal from a first sensor arrangement of the first type, the first signal including analog information;

a second sensor interface configured to receive a second signal from a second sensor arrangement of the second type the second signal including digital information; and

a third sensor interface configured to receive a third signal from a third sensor arrangement of the third type;

wherein the plurality of sensor interfaces are configured to output one or more signals indicative of physiological parameters sensed by the first, second, and third sensor arrangements;

a display positioned on a face of the wearable physiological monitoring device configured to display information while the wearable physiological monitoring device is being worn by a patient;

a processor configured to;

responsive to the one or more signals indicative of the physiological parameters, cause to be displayed, on the display, physiological parameter measurements;

combine information indicative of the one or more signals into a single digital word or bit stream; and

encode the single digital word or bit stream to generate a baseband signal;

a transmitter configured to;

modulate the baseband signal with a carrier to generate a transmit signal; and

wirelessly transmit the transmit signal to a receiving patient monitoring device that is not wired to the wearable physiological monitoring device; and

a battery configured to provide power to at least the processor, the display, the transmitter, and the first sensor arrangement via the first sensor communication port such that the wearable physiological monitoring device is portable and wearable by a patient.

17. The wearable physiological monitoring device of claim 16, wherein:

at least one of the first, second, or third sensor interfaces is configured to process signals at least in part in the analog domain; and

at least at different one of the first, second, or third sensor interfaces is configured to process signals at least in part in the digital domain.

18. The wearable physiological monitoring device of claim 17, wherein the first sensor arrangement comprises a pulse oximetry sensor configured to be attached to a digit of a patient.

19. The wearable physiological monitoring device of claim 18, wherein the first sensor port is positioned on a side of the wearable physiological monitoring device that faces a hand of a patient when the wearable physiological monitoring device is attached to an arm of the hand of the patient.

20. The wearable physiological monitoring device of claim 19, wherein the face of the wearable physiological monitoring device comprises a single user interface, and the single user interface comprises the display.