Patent Application
20210038156
Technology has contributed to improvements in healthcare. Some examples include healthcare related devices that may be mobile and personal. Mobile and personal healthcare devices may include Wearable Medical Devices (WMDs). Some WMDs may include medical devices that facilitate monitoring of various health related activities of a person. For example, a WMD may include a medical device that may be used to monitor a person's heart activity. The heart activity monitored by the WMD may be in the form of electrical signals (i.e., electrocardiogram or ECG). The WMD may be in a form factor capable of being worn by a person, who's heart activity is to be monitored. Monitoring of a person's ECG may facilitate intervention of heart related issues.
An example of a WMD that may be used to monitor and facilitate intervention of a person's heart activity may be a cardioverter defibrillator type medical device (i.e., wearable cardioverter defibrillator or WCD). In order to help facilitate monitoring and intervention, a WCD may be configured to adhere to a person's body (i.e., adhere to the skin of the person).
In an example of WCD, a WCD may include various components to facilitate monitoring and treating of a person's heart (the wearer). In order to help facilitate monitoring of the person's heart, the WCD may be attachable on the person. The WCD may be attachable on the person by adhesive techniques. For example, the WCD may have an adhesive surface to attach on a surface of the skin of the person (e.g., location around the waist). Additionally, the WCD may be coupled to an electrode that may be attached to another surface of the skin of the person (e.g., location around the person's heart). How well the WCD is attached to the person may be of consideration in the monitoring and treating of the person (e.g., the adhesion of the WCD on the person's skin).
Maintaining attachment of a WCD on a person may be have its challenges because a common method of attachment may be on the skin of the person. The skin of a person may vary from person to person. For example, some people may have skin (e.g., in the areas where the WCD may be attached), that may be covered with body hair, prone to sweating, loose or excessive, dry or moist, etc. Additionally, movement of the person may affect the attachment of the WCD on the person. For example, movements such as “jiggling”, rippling, folding, rolling, and undulating movement of skin underneath the adhesion may affect the attachment of the WCD (e.g., separation of the WCD from the skin of the person). Ordinary movements such as rolling over in a lying position, sitting up, bending over, sitting down, coughing, sneezing, etc. may affect the adhesion of the WCD on the person's skin. Further, the weight, formfactor, and bulkiness of the WCD may affect the adhesion of the WCD on the person's skin. The above described factors and others that may affect adhesion of the WCD to the person can be referred to herein as adhesion factors. Accordingly, maintaining attachment of a WMD on a person may be affected by various considerations including adhesion factors.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
Described herein are various illustrative systems for improved attachment of a wearable medical device (WMD). Example systems may include a WMD and a support structure. The WMD may be configured to have one or more components that are adhesively attachable to a person. The support structure may be configured to couple with the WMD. Additionally, the support structure may have a length or dimension that is changeable (also referred to herein as length changeable) to facilitate attachment and/or maintenance of attachment of the WMD to the person.
The present disclosure also describes an apparatus for improved attachment of a wearable medical device (WMD). The apparatus may include a support structure. The support structure may be configured to couple with a WMD and be length changeable. The apparatus may include a length changeable control module communicatively coupled to the support structure. The length changeable control module may be configured to change a length or dimension of the support structure responsive to a received signal indicating an attachment issue from the WMD.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
Subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. The foregoing and other features of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings.
In the drawings:
The following description sets forth various examples along with specific details to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. It will be understood by those skilled in the art after review and understanding of the present disclosure, however, that claimed subject matter may be practiced without some or more of the specific details disclosed herein. Further, in some circumstances, well-known methods, procedures, systems, components and/or circuits have not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring claimed subject matter.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the Figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are explicitly contemplated and make part of this disclosure.
This disclosure is drawn, inter alia, to apparatus, and systems related to a providing an improved attachment of a wearable medical device (WMD).
Wearable medical devices (WMD) may be used to facilitate monitoring and treatment of various medical conditions of a person. In order to facilitate monitoring and treatment of medical conditions of a person, a WMD may be attachable on the person. A WMD that may be attachable to a person to help facilitate monitoring and treatment of a person may include a WMD configured to facilitate monitoring and treatment of potential issues with a person's heart. For example, a person may have a health condition, where the person may require a defibrillator (i.e., Arrhythmia). The defibrillator may be in the form of a cardioverter defibrillator (e.g., wearable cardioverter defibrillator or WCD), which may help facilitate prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD). The WCD may be attachable on the person using adhesive methods, where the WCD may include a WCD module and/or one or more electrodes. The WCD module may be attached to the body proximate the waist of the person, while the one or more electrodes may be attached proximate to the heart of the person. If the person experiences a heart condition requiring treatment, the WCD module may facilitate detection of the heartbeat issue, and responsive to the detected heart best issue, the WCD module may facilitate treatment of the person's heart via the one or more electrodes.
Before turning to the figures, a non-limiting example application of the various embodiments of the present disclosure is described. In the non-limiting example, a wearable medical device (WMD) may be utilized to facilitate monitoring and treatment of a person. An example of a WMD to facilitate monitoring and treatment of a person may be a WMD to monitor and treat a person's heart such as, but not limited to, a wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD). In one example, the WCD may be made up of two parts, a WCD or an electronics module having majority of the electronic components to facilitate monitoring and/or treatment of the heart and one or more electrodes to facilitate reading of the activities of the heart and administration of the treatment (e.g., an electric shock for defibrillation, cardioversion and/or pacing). In order to describe the disclosed subject matter, this example WCD may have a single electrode. However, it is understood that the claimed subject matter may include one or more electrodes. Further, the one or more electrodes may be different combinations of adhesive and non-adhesive electrodes in various embodiments. Still further, the one or more electrodes may be part of the electronics module in some embodiments, while in other embodiments the one or more other electrodes various combinations of electrodes that are separate from and/or part of the electronics module.
Each of the parts of the WCD may include an attachable surface such as, but not limited to, an adhesive surface. For example, the electrode may have an adhesive surface to attach the electrode on the skin near the person's heart. The electrode may help facilitate monitoring of the electrical activity of the person's heart. Commonly, the electrode may comprise of a relatively thin membrane having an electrical contact. On the other hand, WCD module may include the various electronic components to facilitate monitoring and treatment of the person's heart (e.g., power supply) resulting in some added bulk and weight as compared to the weight of the electrode. In some embodiments, the WCD module may have an adhesive surface to attach on the skin on some other part of the person's body such as, but not limited to, the person's waist. The WCD module and the electrode may have a cable coupling each other. Together, the WCD module and the electrode may be attached to the body of the person via the adhesive surfaces.
In accordance with the present disclosure, a support structure may be coupled to the WCD module attached around the waist. The support structure may help facilitate consistent attachment of the WCD module. As used herein, consistent attachment includes attachment so that the WCD module is in contact with the patient's skin sufficiently for accurate physiological signal sensing and/or effective therapy delivery, despite one or more of the aforementioned adhesion factors. In one example, the support structure may be in the form of a strap structured for fitting to the WCD module. For example, the strap may include a portion sized or configured to be positioned over the WCD module to help hold the WCD module against the patient's skin when the WCD module and support structure are being worn by the patient. In some embodiments, the strap portion may include a stretchable or elastic material. The strap may be attachable to the WCD module and its length may be changeable (e.g., a belt like strap having a buckle to facilitate adjustment of the strap). Accordingly, the strap may be adjusted to tighten around the waist of the person to firmly hold the WCD attached to the skin of the person (i.e., facilitate consistent attachment of the WCD on the person). In another example, the support structure may be in the form of a mesh. The mesh may be configured to wrap around the WCD (i.e., one or more of the WCD module or separate electrodes) and around the waist of the person. As will be described in detail, the mesh may be length changeable in a variety of manners to facilitate consistent attachment of the WCD on the person (e.g., made of stretchy, elastic, and/or resilient material, stimuli modifiable material, and the like). In a further example, the support structure may be controllable by mechanical and/or electrical stimuli responsive to a sensor included in the WCD or external to the WCD. Accordingly, the WCD may be consistently attached to the person in accordance with the various embodiments disclosed.
Turning now to
In
In some examples, the changeable methodology 108 may be in the form of a module (similar to some examples described later). For example, the changeable methodology 108 may not have the center bar buckle 110 with holes 112, but instead, the ends of the support structure 104 may be coupled at the module (i.e., a strap around the waist meeting at the module). In this example, the module may include mechanical components such as, but not limited to pins and rollers. The pins and rollers may be controlled by mechanical gears, where these gears may be actuated either by a small motor or manually. Actuating the pins and rollers may facilitate consistent attachment of the WMD 102 (e.g., tighten and/or loosen the support structure 104). Additionally, the actuation may be facilitated responsive to some form of stimulus as will be described below.
In
In the example of
In
In another example, the support structure 204 of
Continuing to refer to
In other examples, the electronic control module 206, may be in the form as an application configured to communicate with the length changeable control module 208. As shown in
It should be appreciated that the electronic control module 206 may include a variety of sensors such as, but not limited to, photonic sensors (e.g., ambient light sensor), contact sensors including inductive sensors, electrical contact including capacitive and resistive, etc. Accordingly, a variety of sensors are contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure.
As shown in
It should be appreciated that the example shown in
The system, the WMD 302 and the support structure 310, may be configured as previously described with respect to
After review of the present disclosure, it should be appreciated that it is contemplated within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure that the claimed subject matter may include a wide variety of support structures, WMDs, materials, configurations, etc. Accordingly, the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.
In some portions of the description, illustrative implementations of the disclosure may have been described with reference to the elements of the components described with respect to
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
Reference in the specification to “an implementation,” “one implementation,” “some implementations,” or “other implementations” may mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with one or more implementations may be included in at least some implementations, but not necessarily in all implementations. The various appearances of “an implementation,” “one implementation,” or “some implementations” in the preceding description are not necessarily all referring to the same implementations.
While certain exemplary techniques have been described and shown herein using various methods and systems, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various other modifications may be made, and equivalents may be substituted, without departing from claimed subject matter. Additionally, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation to the teachings of claimed subject matter without departing from the central concept described herein. Therefore, it is intended that claimed subject matter not be limited to the particular examples disclosed, but that such claimed subject matter also may include all implementations falling within the scope of the appended claims, and equivalents thereof.
This application claims benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/883,544, filed on Aug. 6, 2019, titled STRAP ACCESSORY FOR AN ADHESIVE WEARABLE MEDICAL DEVICE, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62883544 | Aug 2019 | US |
