1. Field
The present invention relates generally to cardiac sensors; and more particularly to a sensor patch for detecting and alerting of cardiac abnormalities.
2. Prior Art
Cardiac sensing devices are known in the art, such as those carried on a halter by a patient. Although such devices have utility they suffer from being cumbersome and bulky and the motions of everyday life interfere with their use, such as showering or other contact with water. Furthermore, motions of everyday like may act to disable their use, such as loosening a necessary contact with the skin or a contact with a wire and the contact or with a wire and the device body.
Accordingly, a sensor patch for adherence to a surface of the skin of a user is provided. The sensor patch comprising: a patch body having a surface and an adhesive disposed on the surface, the patch body further having a cavity; a sensor configured for detecting a characteristic useful in determining a cardiac abnormality disposed in the cavity; a transmitter operatively connected to the sensor for one of transmitting a signal or discontinuing transmittance of a signal upon an occurrence of the cardiac abnormality detected by the sensor; and a power source disposed in the cavity for powering the sensor and transmitter.
The sensor further comprises a release layer removably secured to the surface of the patch body to cover the adhesive.
The cavity can be sealed against moisture and other harmful contaminants.
The characteristic can be selected from a group consisting of R-waves, heart rate, blood oxygen and arrhythmia.
The sensor can be configured to operate with one or more conductive contacts to detect the characteristic. The one or more conductive contacts can comprise the adhesive, which is a conductive adhesive.
The sensor can be an ultrasound sensor which uses ultrasound to detect the characteristic. The adhesive can have ultrasound signal coupling characteristics corresponding to the ultrasound sensor.
The transmitter can comprise a transceiver.
The sensor patch can further comprise a memory for storing data and a processor disposed in the cavity for controlling one or more of the sensor, transmitter and memory.
Also provided is a system for monitoring for a cardiac abnormality in a user. The system comprising: a sensor patch for adherence to a surface of the skin of the user, the sensor patch comprising: a patch body having a surface and an adhesive disposed on the surface, the patch body further having a cavity; a sensor configured for detecting a characteristic useful in determining a cardiac abnormality disposed in the cavity; a transmitter operatively connected to the sensor for one of transmitting a signal or discontinuing transmittance of a signal upon an occurrence of the cardiac abnormality detected by the sensor; and a power source disposed in the cavity for powering the sensor and transmitter; and a receiver for receiving or monitoring the signal from the transmitter and outputting information associated with the occurrence of the cardiac abnormality.
The receiver can be a cellular phone having an application used to receive the signal from the transmitter and generate the information associated with the occurrence of the cardiac abnormality.
Still further provided is a method for monitoring for a cardiac abnormality in a user. The method comprising: adhering a sensor patch to a surface of the skin of the user; detecting a characteristic useful in determining a cardiac abnormality using a sensor disposed in a cavity of the sensor patch; and one of transmitting a signal or discontinuing transmittance of a signal from the sensor patch upon an occurrence of the cardiac abnormality detected by the sensor.
The can further comprise receiving or monitoring the signal from the transmitter and outputting information associated with the occurrence of the cardiac abnormality. The receiver can be a cellular phone having an application used to receive the signal from the transmitter and generate the information associated with the occurrence of the cardiac abnormality.
The one of transmitting a signal or discontinuing transmittance of the signal from the sensor can be repeated a plurality of times. The repeating of the one of transmitting a signal or discontinuing transmittance of the signal from the sensor can continue until the sensor patch receives a signal indicating that the transmitted signal has been received by a receiver.
The information can be selected from a group consisting of contacting emergency services, providing a canned message to emergency services, contacting one or predetermined persons of the cardiac abnormality, providing information of the type of cardiac abnormality detected, providing stored information about the user, providing location information to emergency services and providing instructions on how or where to treat the user for the cardiac abnormality.
The information can include location information, where the location information can be generated by one or more of a GPS receiver disposed in the receiver or based on triangulation of signals received by the receiver.
The occurrence of the cardiac abnormality can be determined by comparing the detected characteristic to a threshold value stored in a memory.
Still further yet provided is a system for monitoring a cardiac characteristic of a user. The system comprising: a sensor patch for adherence to a surface of the skin of the user, the sensor patch comprising: a patch body having a surface and an adhesive disposed on the surface, the patch body further having a cavity; a sensor disposed in the cavity and configured for detecting the cardiac characteristic; a transmitter operatively connected to the sensor for transmitting a signal representative of the cardiac characteristic detected by the sensor; and a power source disposed in the cavity for powering the sensor and transmitter; and a receiver for receiving or monitoring the signal from the transmitter and outputting information associated with the cardiac characteristic.
The receiver can be a cellular phone having an application used to receive the signal from the transmitter and generate the information associated with the cardiac characteristic.
The cardiac characteristic can be a cardiac abnormality.
The cardiac characteristic can be useful in monitoring or providing feedback to the user while exercising.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the apparatus of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
Referring now to
The patch body 102 includes a cavity 108 containing a sensor 110 configured to sense a characteristic useful in determining a cardiac abnormality. Such characteristics include those capable of detecting R-waves (i.e., EKG signal), heart rate, blood oxygen, arrhythmia and the like. The sensor 110 is powered by a power source 112, such as one or more cell batteries operatively connected to the sensor 110, such as through internal wiring or conductive contacts. The body 102 further has a transmitter 114 disposed therein or thereon for transmitting a signal from the sensor patch 100 to the outside for broadcast. The internal components disposed in the cavity 108 can also be mounted on an integral substrate, such as a flexible membrane, having integral wiring and/or contacts. Where the sensor operates together with conductive contacts, the adhesive 106a used to connect the sensor patch 100 to the patient's body can be electrically conductive to allow detection of such electrical signals, such as the EKG signals. Alternatively, contacts can be disposed on surface 106 and operatively connected to the sensor 110. Where the sensor 110 is an ultrasound type sensor, an adhesive with proper ultrasound signal coupling characteristics can be employed.
In a simplest configuration, when the sensor 110 detects a cardiac abnormality, such as an absence of heart rate, there is a resulting change in output at the transmitter 114, such as output of a signal or discontinuance of an output signal. For example, when the sensor 110 detects a cardiac abnormality, a signal, indicating the detected cardiac abnormality is transmitted from the transmitter 114. The transmitted signal can be transmitted multiple times. Furthermore, the transmitter 114 can be a transceiver, which could continue transmitting the aforementioned signal indicating the detected cardiac abnormality until it receives a signal indicating that the transmitted signal has been received by a receiving device, for example, the receiver 302 shown in
Referring now to
Referring now to
In addition to the components discussed with regard to
Of course, the sensor patch may be configured in other ways known in the art, such as with an RF tag that transmits an RF signal to the receiver, such as the cell phone. Bluetooth standard may also be established between the sensor patch and the receiver. Further multiple sensor patches can be used with a single receiver, in which case, the sensor patches can detect the same or different cardiac characteristics and the multiple sensor patches may be associated with the same user or multiple users. In the case of the latter, the application running on the receiver, can track the different users and have data stored therein associated with each of the multiple users. Similarly, each sensor patch may include more than one sensor, for either or both of providing a duplicate of the same sensor and/or for providing detection capabilities for more than one characteristic. Although described in regard to a mobile receiver, such as a cell phone, the receiver can also be associated with a location, such as a desktop computer having a software or internet application. The receiver can also be a device dedicated to operate with the sensor patch (or multiple sensor patches).
In another embodiment of the sensor patch 100, 200 discussed above, the same may be configured to interface with an exercise and/or dieting application running on the receiver 302 (i.e., cell phone). In such a configuration, the sensor 110 can monitor the heart rate or other cardiac characteristic (such as blood oxygen) and the application 304 can use the cardiac characteristic, for example, to determine if the user is exercising so as to burn fat or build stamina when used with an exercise application, or the number of calories being burned when used with a diet application. The receiver 302 can provide feedback, for example, to optimize the exercise for its intended use (e.g., to burn calories). Also, the receiver can double as described above, that is, the receiver 302 can monitor for a cardiac abnormality while the use exercises.
While there has been shown and described what is considered to be preferred embodiments of the invention, it will, of course, be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be not limited to the exact forms described and illustrated, but should be constructed to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.