Patent Application
20140275848
1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to monitoring physiological parameters of a patient and more specifically to the monitoring of such parameters in patients who are geographically remote from a medical facility.
2. Description of Related Art
Monitoring of a patient's physiological parameters in a medical environment is an important element of patient diagnosis and treatment. Within a modern medical facility, such as a hospital, such monitoring is relatively easy to perform. The environment is controlled. The staff, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants and technicians, is qualified. Such facilities have equipment resources for enabling the monitoring of one or more patients for a variety of physiological parameters.
Unfortunately the advantages of a hospital environment with its resources and personnel do not exist at many trauma sites, for example, those at typical accident scenes or at battlefield sites. First responders to an accident scene generally include an emergency medical technician (EMT). The EMT assesses the patient and, in conjunction with advice from medical personnel established by radio contact, initiates treatment. Typically the EMT stays with the patient during transport to a medical facility. The EMT can transfer his or her observations to personnel at the facility by interview and/or by written record.
An entirely different situation exists on a battlefield. In a battlefield environment a medic attached to a particular unit treats a wounded patient. When that medic completes treatment at the battlefield site, the wounded patient is transported to another facility. However, the medic stays behind to attend to other patients. The medic's initial treatment protocol will be based on certain readings taken at the site and related procedures for identifying the actions that were taken at the site. For example, if a sedative is administered, the medic may pin the syringe to the patient. Typically no interview occurs between the personnel at the medical facility, such as a field hospital, and the attending medic. Moreover, typically no information is recorded about the patient during initial treatment and transport to a field hospital.
Previous proposals have been made for personal monitoring systems for use in a battlefield environment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,394 (2001) to Jacobsen et al. discloses one such system for remote monitoring of personnel. This system utilizes a harness with a number of sensors to be worn continuously by a soldier. The sensors monitor a number of parameters including physiological variables. The harness carries a transmitting unit for transferring data to a central site.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,708 (2002) to Ferguson et al. discloses a portable remote patient telemonitoring system using a memory card or a smart card. This system includes a multi-parameter sensor array applied to a patient's chest by means of a sensor band. The smart card or memory card stores measured data. Alternatively, a data logger carried by the patient receives the data. A base station receives the recorded information and transmits it to a remote monitoring site over a telecommunications link. The sensor band is disposable and has a limited life. For long-term monitoring, sensor bands may be replaced periodically.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0147818 (2004) to Levy et al. discloses a portable system for monitoring and processing patient parameters in multiple operational modes. Specifically a data acquisition processor receives data from sensors on a patient and processes that data. The processed data is communicated to a docking station with a portable monitoring unit in one operational mode or to a network access point in a wireless network in another operational mode.
Each of these proposals requires the use of bulky equipment so it is difficult to maintain an inventory for multiple patients. The Jacobsen et al. patent requires a soldier to wear a harness at all times. First, the soldier must carry extra weight and take precautions to avoid damaging the equipment during normal use. It is not likely that such a harness would be an acceptable alternative for application to a trauma patient on a battlefield or at another trauma site. In addition, medical personnel may have the additional burden of placing the harness on a trauma patient under adverse circumstances.
Each of these systems depends upon the availability of sophisticated communications links, such as those available in a hospital environment. They are not always available at a trauma site or on the battlefield. The use of smart cards or memory cards as suggested in the Ferguson et al. patent present problems because such devices are prone to being lost at a trauma site or during patient transport to a hospital or other central site. Further, only the data measured at the trauma site is recorded.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0036137 to Lewicke and assigned to the same applicant as this invention discloses a patient monitoring system that includes a sensing-recording device that is clipped to a patient and a probe utilized by a medic at a trauma site. After an initial interview, the medic initializes the probe and the sensing-recording device. The sensing-recording device samples one or more physiological parameters for storage in a first memory for the time it is attached to the patient. The probe is reusable and enables the medic to take other measurements, download data from the sensing recording device memory, manipulate the collective data and return data to memory in the sensing recording device. This system allows an EMT to triage patients and ensure an appropriate patient evacuation. The sensing recording device continues to accumulate data in its memory during transport of the patient from a trauma site to a medical facility.
The amount of data about a patient that is conveyed from the trauma site to a medical facility with this patient monitoring system, although increased over information available by prior apparatus, is somewhat limited. For example, when the medic is treating a patient at a trauma site, the medic makes visual observations. However, often time constraints imposed by a particular situation prevent a medic from recording such observations in a form that is easily conveyed to a remote medical facility. Consequently the information resulting from a medic's visual observation is lost because it is not communicated to other medical personnel at a remotely located medical center.
What is needed is a patient monitoring apparatus that enables medical personnel at a trauma site to obtain and record medical information including visual observations, that facilitates the transfer of information about a patient from the trauma site to a remote medical facility and that provides a continuum of data for use by personnel at a medical facility.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide patient monitoring apparatus that is adapted for use in a variety of environments including battlefield environments.
Another object of this invention is to provide apparatus for continuously monitoring certain physiological parameters of a patient from the arrival of a first responder or medic at a site to the arrival of the patient at a medical facility.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide economical patient monitoring apparatus that is easy to use and facilitates the measurement of physiological parameters and enables the recording of visual observations for transfer to a medical facility
In accordance with one aspect of this invention, apparatus for monitoring a patient includes three basic elements, namely: a probe, a sensing-recording device and a computer-based tablet or equivalent device. The tablet includes application programs available to the medical personnel at the trauma site. Wireless communications establish communications with the tablet, the probe and the sensing-recording device.
The appended claims particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of this invention. The various objects, advantages and novel features of this invention will be more fully apparent from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
As described in the above-identified U.S. Pat. Pub. 2006/0036137, the sensing-recording device 11 includes a base unit 13, a clip having a transfer portion and a clip arm 15 spaced and essentially parallel to the housing 13. The housing 13 also carries an on/off button 16 and an interface and wireless communications module 17 that typically is located within the housing 13. Different communication protocols can be utilized including Bluetooth® technology. The sensing-recording device 11 can include a dermal phase meter (DPM) electrode assembly, a temperature sensor and a light source and complementary photocell. These sensors provide moisture measurements, patient temperature measurements and pulse oximetry measurements. Other sensors that provide other measurements could augment or replace the above-identified sensors.
The probe 12 in
Now referring to
Assuming the medic has applied the sensing-recording device to the patient and turned it on, step 52 enables communications between the tablet 40 and the sensing-recording device 11 through the wireless communications modules 41 and 17 respectively. When this occurs, step 53 can record the sensing-recording device 11 identification, if not previously recorded, and can create a log file for recording of data in the sensing-recording device memory in step 54.
While this occurs, the medic can use step 55 to photograph the patient with the tablet 40 and record each photograph. Such photographs might include close-ups of injury sites. This is advantageous when a patient suffers from burns, particularly when an imaging device has a photo-temperature capability.
At step 56 the medic, through interaction with the tablet 40, enables communications with the probe 12. In step 57 the medic takes probe measurements and those measurements are relayed back to the tablet 40 for storage in the memory 43. Software will combine collected data with the respective digital photographs for later transmission to a hospital.
At step 60 the application program formats the probe measurement data and sensing-recording device data for output. There are several output alternatives.
This invention has been disclosed in terms of certain embodiments. As will be apparent, a specific implementation of the measurement system 10 can take many forms that are well within the purview of the persons of ordinary skill in the art.
What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:
Reference is made to U.S. app. Ser. No. 11/161,688 filed Aug. 12, 2005 for a Patient Monitoring Device and published Feb. 16, 2006 as U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0036137 which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/791,900 filed Mar. 15, 2013 for an Improved Patient Monitoring System which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61791900 | Mar 2013 | US |
