Patent Application
20100049006
The present invention relates generally for health monitoring and more particularly to a health monitoring system that utilizes a medical signal processor with a wireless distributed sensor system.
Monitoring the health of people has always been important. As the population ages and more people advance in age health monitoring systems become more significant to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and disease management. Remote health monitoring makes it easier and cost effective to monitor the health of vast populations. Wireless systems are the most desired approach to enable remote health monitoring. Therefore, a variety of wireless health monitoring systems have been introduced over the years.
Conventional wireless health monitoring systems are bulky, expensive, have inadequate wireless link reliability and have high power dissipation which severely limits their applications, particularly to monitor wide ranging physiological parameters in high volumes for large populations. Accordingly, what is desired is a system that addresses the above-identified issues.
A wireless medical signal processing system for health monitoring is disclosed which achieves high wireless link reliability/security, low power dissipation, compactness, low cost and supports a variety of sensors for various physiological parameters. The system includes a medical signal processor which communicates with a wireless distributed sensor system as its peripheral for detecting physiological parameters of the person and for providing signals indicative thereof. The medical signal processor wirelessly receives the signals from the distributed wireless sensor system in a multiplexed fashion and processes the signals to provide an indication of the health of the person. The indication of health could relate to a disease state, general health or fitness level of a person. The system also includes a mobile device for receiving the indication of the health of the person to allow for a diagnosis or treatment of the person, and a secure server for securely storing the at least one indication of health. The core processing resources of the medical signal processor allows wireless distributed sensors to be ultra reliable/secure, ultra low power, ultra small and low cost. The peripheral wireless sensors can be a within a reasonable range of medical signal processor, such as within a typical home.
A distributed sensor based mobile/remote monitoring system for the management of various types of diseases is disclosed. The system is capable of continuously monitoring a variety of parameters relating to the state of various diseases. The parameter monitoring can be continuous, periodic or episodic. The system is capable of continuous monitoring of given parameters from a few seconds to many days. A system to manage a particular type of disease or meet a health objective can be defined by selecting the appropriate parameters for that disease.
The present invention relates generally to health monitoring and more particularly to a health monitoring system that utilizes a medical signal processor with a wireless distributed sensor system. The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments and the generic principles and features described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
To describe the feature of the medical signal processing system in more detail, refer now to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
The mobile device 108 could be, for example, a cellular telephone, laptop, notebook, a smart phone, a PDA, a custom medical device or any mobile device which can communicate with the server over a network. Each component of the health monitoring system 100 will now be described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
As discussed above, the medical signal processing system as shown in
Modes of Operation: By using the distributed sensor network, the system of
Patches 102 are integrated circuit technology driven miniature wireless devices that can be conveniently attached to the body. Patches can also be designed for implanting within the body of a person. To achieve compactness, the patches 102 are designed using custom ASIC and a compact multi-chip module. The patches can be further simplified by leveraging the resources of MSP 104. The patch 102 in a preferred embodiment has two main parts: sensor circuits, and a wireless radio core for the transmission of sensor data to other devices. In addition, it has a signal processor and power management circuits to achieve very low power dissipation. The sensor circuits can be directly incorporated in the custom ASIC and/or patch can also include a stand-alone sensor device whose data can be transmitted to other devices using the wireless radio or ASIC on the patch. In a preferred embodiment, a person can wear a patch 102 for several days for continuous monitoring without changing or recharging the power source. Patches 102 can have the ability to receive wireless signals from the MSP 104 to enhance its own power dissipation and improve its own wireless link reliability, based on the MSP's 104 monitoring of radio environment and application requirements. The patches 102 can also receive test/control signals from the MSP 104 to get authenticated and to check its own functionality.
Accordingly, by leveraging the information sent by MSP 104 via signal C, patches can dynamically alter the performance of their various functional blocks to choose trade off among high reliability, high security, low power and low cost for given applications of health monitoring.
In summary, the trade off is possible due to any of or any combination of the following features:
The medical signal processor (MSP) 104 collects and receives data from the one or more of the distributed sensors (internal or external), and aggregates and processes this data. In addition, the MSP 104 can reliably transmit it to mobile device 100 in such a way that mobile device 100 in turn can transmit the data to a remote server system over wireless, cellular, or any type of wide area network (WAN).
The MSP 104 may have one or more of the following features:
In addition to collecting and processing the data from all of its peripheral patches/sensors, the MSP 104 also has various means to wirelessly monitor and control all of its peripheral patches/sensors through a wireless uplink with them. Essentially, the MSP 104 becomes an integral part of the wireless medical signal processing system to achieve the overall requirements of the system—a major requirement being patches to be ultra reliable/secure, ultra low power, ultra small and low cost. The overall functionality of the system is asymmetrically partitioned between the patches 102 and MSP 104 to achieve these critical patch requirements.
Accordingly, MSP 104 may have the following features to achieve the system objectives:
The MSP 104 can control the functionality and performance of its peripheral/patches based on the requirement defined for the overall system. The system performance can be dynamically adjusted, for example, due to a change in radio environment or a change in person's condition as monitored by the MSP 104.
The smart signal combiner 306 includes a means for programming an algorithm for combining the signals to provide an indication of a state of the body. For example, certain sensor parameters taken together might indicate a disease state and/or heath state and/or fitness state of an individual.
The smart signal combiner 306 may also receive a signal Y from the local sensors 106′ in the MSP 104. The signal Y represents either one signal from one local sensor or a plurality of signals from a plurality of local sensors. The smart signal combiner 306 also provides a signal (X) that is a parameter, relating to a state that has been measured utilizing a single sensor output or by combining the outputs of multiple sensors. This state is a result of one or several physiological parameters of the body and the signal X may be a function, computed over time, of one, all or a set of those sensor outputs (signals A-N) and sensor signals.
These various signals (A, B, . . . N, Y, X) are provided to a storage element 308 by the smart signal combiner 306. The storage element 308 may be any type of memory that can be utilized in integrated circuits. The storage element 308 can be adapted to be coupled to a local display/alert device 311 via the sensor interface 313. The data can then be retrieved by the mobile device from the storage element 308 via a bus interface 310. As before mentioned, the MSP 104 can either be part of the mobile device 108 or a stand alone device.
All these resources enable MSP 104 to act as a stand-alone device to provide the needed information locally to concerned parties or it can transmit the information to a remote secure server for further processing and access. The information can be used locally, or remotely, to diagnose/treat a disease or for general health/fitness management of a person. As shown, MSP 104 also has a wireless path to communicate with patches/sensors to monitor and control their performance. In a control mode, radio 302 operates in an uplink mode by sending test/control data via signal P over the wireless link. This control mode is activated when the MSP 104 needs to test, monitor and/or control its peripheral patches/sensors via the processor 304. The processor 304 should be for example, a microprocessor with signal processing capability that executes the various functions.
The processor 304 can utilize other resources such as smart signal processor 306 and storage 308 to carry out its control/test related and general processing tasks. In the control mode, for example, the processor 304 can generate test signals and send to a patch 102, and analyze the signals received from the patch 102 to estimate its wireless link performance. If needed, the MSP 104 can then send control signals to alter the wireless link performance by changing certain parameters relating to radio functions of the patch 102, for example by instructing signal processor 208 and radio 210. In some implementations, some of the internal blocks of MSP 104, such as processor 304, smart signal processor 306 and storage 308 can be implemented in software. This implementation is likely when MSP 104 functionality is embodied within a mobile device, computer, a custom medical device, or any other device.
The functionality of MSP 104 allows its distributed sensors (patches) to maintain high wireless reliability, high security, low power and low cost. Furthermore, the versatility of MSP 104 allows it to create a variety of different types of medical systems. To allow this functionality and versatility, in summary, it can include any of or any combination of the following features:
The mobile device 108 could be, for example, a cellular telephone, laptop, notebook, a smart phone, a PDA, a custom medical device or any mobile device which can communicate with the server over a wide area network and/or Internet. The mobile device 108 can also be a regular cell phone handset, which has been modified to include the appropriate features and means to work with MSP 104. The mobile device 108 communicates with the MSP 104. In one embodiment, the MSP can be built within mobile device 108 as part of the mobile device design. In this mode, many internal functions of MSP can be implemented in software. In most cases, MSP's radio system and sensor interfaces will remain intact in hardware.
The secure server 110 receives data from distributed sensors over a cellular telephony network, any type of wide area network or Internet via MSP 104 and the mobile device 108. The server 110 further processes the received data from the mobile device and stores it in a secure location. The server 110 may also contain various types of software programs, including software to manage health information databases (such as electronic medical records, computerized purchase orders and computerized prescription systems). The secure server 110 may also have the middleware to process/link sensor data to such health information databases.
The data stored on the secure server 110 may be accessed by a healthcare provider, caregiver or patient via the Internet by using any type of terminal device such as computer, mobile device, cell phone, smart phone or personal data assistant (PDA).
The health monitoring system in accordance with the present invention supports many classes of sensors for physiological data collection, such as:
1. The health monitoring system supports many classes of sensors for physiological data collection, such as:
2. The health monitoring system in accordance with the present invention can support one of these sensors and/or patches or multiple sensors and/or patches from multiple classes.
3. The MSP 104 has the ability to collect data in real time from many such sensors and/or patches and to apply a chosen algorithm to combine signals from various sensors and/or patches to determine or predict a physiological or disease state.
4. The MSP 104 can store data for local use and/or transmit in real time to a remote server for use by clinicians and other parties. If desired, some of the MSP 104 functions can be implemented on a remote sensor.
5. As stated above, one function of the MSP 104 is physiological data processing.
6. The second function of MSP 104 is to manage all patches and/or sensors for optimal functionality—managing authentication/security functions, monitor and enhance the radio transmission performance of patches and/or sensors to increase link reliability, monitor and minimize power dissipation by patches and/or sensors.
The health monitoring system in accordance with the present invention can be utilized in a variety of environments. One example is the cardiac disease management system. To describe the features of such a system refer now to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
An embodiment of a cardiac disease care product in accordance with the present invention is described herein below.
The sensors for parameter monitoring may be distributed between the patches 102″″ and the mobile device 504 as follows:
The patches 102″″ have sensors to continuously monitor ECG, pulse, respiration and patient's physical movement. ECG function can be programmed to work in any mode as prescribed by a physician, such as:
Patient's physical movement data is recorded along with ECG data on a continuous basis. In addition, pulse and respiration are recorded as desired.
In a stand-alone mode, the mobile device 504 has the means to monitor a few different parameters as below:
A distributed sensor based mobile/remote monitoring system for the management of various types of diseases is disclosed. The system is capable of continuously monitoring a variety of parameters relating to the state of various diseases. The parameter monitoring can be continuous, periodic or episodic. Some of the parameters that can be monitored by the system are ECG (electrocardiograph), EEG (electroencephalograph), EMG (Electromyography), blood glucose, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, temperature, SpO2, body fluid density, blood density, patient physical movement and patient physical location. A system to manage a particular type of disease can be defined by selecting the appropriate parameters for that disease. The system can be applied to manage many type of diseases and conditions, such as—arrhythmia, heart failure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, seizures, asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), pregnancy complications, wound state, etc.
An innovative technology base is needed to address wide ranging applications and to meet critical requirements for the mass market—high reliability, high security, low power, small form factor and low cost. The technology disclosed meets this goal. The technology involves a medical signal processor (MSP) closely supervising all aspects of functionality of its peripheral wireless patches to help achieve the objectives. The patches are simple while the medical signal processor (MSP) has all the smarts to work with patches. It results in asymmetric processing load on MSP and patches—patches are simple and reconfigurable and MSP has the complexity to take the processing burden from them for wireless communication link, and processing load to supervise patches. Both the MSP and the patches have various resources to build complete self contained systems to determine a health state of a person from sensor physiological data and to display and/or send data to another device for further processing.
Although the present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and those variations would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
Under 35 U.S.C. 119, this application is a Non-Provisional application of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/776,590, filed Feb. 24, 2006 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/810,742, filed Jun. 1, 2006, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US07/62772 | 2/23/2007 | WO | 00 | 10/16/2009 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60776590 | Feb 2006 | US | |
| 60810742 | Jun 2006 | US |
