Patent Application
20130109927
This disclosure relates generally to patient monitors for monitoring a plurality of physiological parameters of a patient.
Patient monitors may be used to analyze and display physiological parameters obtained from one or more sensors attached to a patient. The physiological parameters may include, for example, pulse, temperature, respiration, blood pressure, blood oxygen, electrocardiogram, etc. Physiological parameters of a patient may be displayed as a waveform or as a numerical value. A waveform may show the physiological parameter over a period of time, while a numerical value may show the present value of the physiological parameter. Patient monitors may be used by medical practitioners to monitor the condition of patients and to identify alarm conditions based upon monitored physiological parameters of a patient. Upon the detection of an alarm condition, an alarm may alert medical practitioners to the condition of a patient requiring immediate attention.
A medical practitioner is often responsible for the care of several patients, many of whom may be in different rooms or wards. Accordingly, it may be difficult or impossible for a single medical practitioner to constantly observe the condition of each patient. Patient monitors may be configured to sound an alarm when certain conditions occur; however, simply broadcasting alarms is not a complete solution. For example, the medical practitioner might not be aware that a remote patient monitor has malfunctioned or become disconnected and is no longer transmitting alarms. In addition, medical practitioners may be occupied with one patient for a period of time during which time it may be difficult for the medical practitioner to remain apprised of the condition of other patients in the care of the medical practitioner.
These and other problems may be addressed by the present disclosure. In one embodiment, a local patient monitor may display a plurality of physiological parameters for a local patient. In addition, the local patient monitor may display a remote monitoring interface along with the local patient's physiological parameters. The remote monitoring interface may include physiological parameters for a plurality of remote patients in addition to displaying physiological parameters for a local patient.
According to various embodiments, a primary display area may be provided in which a plurality of waveforms relating to a local patient may be displayed. A secondary display area may also be provided in which a plurality of numerical values relating to a group of remotely located patients may be displayed. According to various embodiments, a medical practitioner may be able to select one of the remotely located patients in order to display a plurality of patient parameter waveforms associated with the remotely located patient in the primary display area.
The embodiments of the disclosure will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like elements are designated by like numerals throughout. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided for a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, those of skill in the art will recognize that one or more of the specific details may be omitted, or other methods, components, or materials may be used. In some cases, operations are not shown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring more important aspects of the disclosure.
Furthermore, the described features, operations, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It will also be readily understood that the order of the steps or actions of the methods described in connection with the embodiments disclosed may be changed as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, any order in the drawings or detailed description is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to imply a required order, unless specified to require an order.
Embodiments may include various steps, which may be embodied in machine-executable instructions to be executed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer or other electronic device. Alternatively, the steps may be performed by hardware components that include specific logic for performing the steps or by a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.
Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product including a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that may be used to program a computer or other electronic device to perform the processes described herein. The computer-readable medium may include, but is not limited to: hard drives, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, solid-state memory devices, or other types of media/computer-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.
Secondary display area 150 includes a plurality of patient information display tiles 151-160, each of which displays a plurality of patient parameters in a numerical format. In order to protect patient privacy, patient information displayed in the secondary display area 150 may only be identified using anonymous indicators, such as a room number or a bed number. Patient privacy may be a concern, since the patient physiological parameters may be displayed in a number of other patient's rooms. In contrast, the primary display area 110 may include a patient's name 114 or other personally identifying information in addition to a bed or room number 112.
According to various embodiments, a patient monitoring system operable to generate the patient monitor interface 100 may be configured to monitor a plurality of physiological parameters of a local patient and a plurality of remotely located patients. Specifically, the physiological parameters may comprise one or more of a patient pulse, temperature, respiration, blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and electrocardiogram. According to alternative embodiments, more or fewer physiological parameters may be monitored or displayed by a patient monitor.
As illustrated in
In certain embodiments, a patient monitor (e.g., patient monitor 240) may be connected to the network 230 through a docking station 232. The docking station 232 may allow a patient monitor to be removed and transported between different locations in a hospital or other medical facility. In the embodiment illustrated in
For illustrative purposes, the patient monitor 240 is shown as being coupled to docking station 232. In certain embodiments, the docking station 232 provides the respective patient monitor 240 with power and/or a connection to the network 230. Accordingly, the docking station 232 is illustrated as including a power interface 234 and a network interface 235. The power interface 234 may be configured to convert an alternating current (AC) power signal to a direct current (DC) power signal and/or provide power signal conditioning for the coupled patient monitor 240. The network interface 235 may include, for example, an Ethernet communication controller to allow the coupled patient monitor 240 to communicate to the network 230 through the docking station 232.
The patient monitor 240, according to the illustrated embodiment, includes a processor 241, a display device 242, a memory 243, a networking device 250, a power module 248, a parameter acquisition unit 249, a user interface module 247, and an alarm module 254. The processor 241 is configured to process patient data signals received through the parameter acquisition unit 249 and to display the patient data signals (e.g., as waveforms and/or numerical values) on the display device 242. The parameter acquisition unit 249 receives the patient data signals from one or more patient parameter sensors 280. The parameter acquisition unit 249 may be configured to process the acquired patient data signals in cooperation with the processor 241. The patient monitor 240 may store the patient data signals in the memory 243 along with other data. For example, the patient monitor 240 may store a current set of configuration settings in the memory 243.
According to the illustrated embodiment, patient monitor 240 is configured to communicate with the network 230 through the network interface 235 of the docking station 232, while patient monitor 270 is configured to wirelessly connect to the network 230. The networking device 250 may be configured to determine whether the patient monitor 240 is connected to the docking station 232, and whether the patient monitor 240 may utilize the network interface 235 of the docking station 232, or whether a wireless connection should be established to the network 230.
The power module 248 receives a power signal from the power interface 234 of the docking station 232. The power module 248 provides any necessary power conversions and distributes power throughout the patient monitor 240. The power module 248 may include a battery 246 that is charged through the power interface 234 while the patient monitor 240 is coupled to the docking station 232.
The user interface module 247, in cooperation with the processor 241 and the display device 242, may be configured to process and format the acquired physiological parameters associated with the patient for display in a graphical user interface (GUI). The user interface module 247 may also be configured to display physiological parameters associated with patient 2 that are received from another monitor (e.g., patient monitor 270).
An alarm module 254 may be configured to detect an alarm condition of a local patient. Upon the detection of an alarm condition, alarm module 254 may be configured to communicate alarm information to other patient monitors. Upon receipt of the alarm information, patient monitor 270 may display the alarm information in order to alert medical practitioners that patient 1 may require immediate attention.
A server 210 may be connected to network 230 via a network interface 212. The server 210 may be configured to facilitate the communication of patient data within system 200. The server 210 comprises a processor 211, a memory 213, and a network interface 212. A data bus 223 may provide a communication link between the processor 211, the memory 213, and the network interface 212. The processor 211 may operate using any number of processing rates, and/or architectures, and may be implemented using a general purpose or application specific processor. The processor 211 may be configured to perform various algorithms and calculations described herein. The processor 211 may be embodied as a general purpose integrated circuit, an application specific integrated circuit, a field-programmable gate array, and other programmable logic devices. The illustrated modules (reference nos. 214, 215, 216, and 217) are executable by the processor 211.
The memory 213 may be implemented using a variety of computer-readable storage media, including hard drives, RAM, solid-state memory devices, and other storage media suitable for storing electronic instructions and other data. Certain embodiments may be provided as a computer program product, including a computer-readable storage medium having stored instructions thereon that may be used to program a computer (or other electronic device) to perform processes described herein.
Although the embodiment illustrated in
The patient information module 214 may be configured to store patient information and pair that information with information regarding other patients in the care of the same group of medical practitioners. In other words, the monitor communications module 217 may identify which patient data is displayed on each patient monitor in order to maximize the availability of patient information for medical practitioners. For example, in a large hospital ward, multiple teams of medical practitioners may work simultaneously. Accordingly, it may be helpful to customize system 200 to display information about patients who are in the care of the same group of medical practitioners in specified rooms or areas that correspond to those patients in the care of the group of medical practitioners. The monitor communication module 217 may allow for patient information to be displayed in order to maximize the availability of patient data by displaying the data in the rooms of other patients in the care of the same group of medical practitioners.
A security module 215 may be configured to maintain the confidentiality of patient information. For example, the security module 215 may be configured to format information that is displayed in another patient's room so as to display only anonymous information. In addition, security module 215 may be configured to seek authentication from a user who seeks to display additional information of a remotely located patient.
An alarm module 216 may be configured for setting alarm conditions that may be detected by the patient monitor 240 or patient monitor 270. In one embodiment, a medical practitioner may specify safe ranges for various physiological parameters, outside of which an alarm should be triggered. For instance, the user may specify that an alarm should be triggered if a patient's systolic pressure exceeds 180 or drops below 80, or if the patient's diastolic pressure is greater than 100 or less than 50. For certain parameters, the term “range” may be represented as a single value, such as an upper or lower limit. Some alarms may be triggered by a combination of parameters being within particular ranges and/or exceeding or being lower than particular thresholds. When one of the patient monitors (e.g., patient monitor 240) detects an alarm condition, alarm information may be transmitted to one or more connected patient monitors (e.g., patient monitor 270). Alarm module 216 may facilitate the communication of alarm information from patient monitor 240 to patient monitor 270.
The monitor communications module 217 may be configured to facilitate communication among patient monitors 240 and 270. For example, monitor communications module 217 may format information for display on other patient monitors. The monitor communications module 217 may also facilitate communication of patient data to other systems, such as a central monitoring station 290. To the extent that conversion of patient data is needed for use of the patient data by multiple systems, the monitor communications module 217 may be configured to perform the conversion.
The central monitoring station 290 may also be in communication with the network 230. The central monitoring station 290 may display patient information for the patients in a hospital ward. The central monitoring station 290 may be located, for example, at a central nursing station.
According to some embodiments, a patient monitoring system may be implemented using a peer-to-peer architecture, rather than the client-server architecture, as shown in
A patient monitoring system implementing the method 300 may display medical parameters of the local patient in a primary display area and may display medical parameters of the reality of remote patients in a secondary display area, at 306.
After receiving input from a medical practitioner to display a selected remote patient's parameters in the primary display area, the medical practitioner may be required to satisfy authentication criteria, at 310. The authentication criteria may include a password, PIN number, biometric authentication, or other forms of authentication. The authentication criteria may help to ensure that remote patient information is only available to medical practitioners who are caring for the patient, and thus, can provide appropriate authentication credentials. If the authentication criteria are not satisfied, method 300 may return to 302, and method 300 may continue without displaying patient parameters for the selected remote patient in the primary display area. If the authentication criteria are satisfied, at 312, patient parameter waveforms for the selected remote patient may be displayed in the primary display area. A time limit may be specified that limits the amount of time that patient parameters for the selected remote patient are displayed in the primary display area. At 314, it may be determined whether the time limit has passed. If so, method 300 may return to 302. If not, method 300 may return to 312.
At 408, a patient monitor implementing method 400 may receive alarm information from a remote patient monitor indicating that one or more physiological parameters for a remote patient are outside of a determined range. The alarm information may include location information (e.g., bed or room number), as well as an indication of an alarm condition (e.g., tachycardia). At 410, the patient monitor may display the alarm information on the local patient monitor.
The patient monitor 522 may include one or more gripping regions 510, 512 that are configured to aid in coupling and decoupling the patient monitor 522 from the docking station 530. For example, a medical practitioner 514 can firmly grasp with his or her hands 516, 518 the gripping regions 510, 512 during removal of the patient monitor 522 from the docking station 530. When the patient monitor 522 is separated from the docking station 530, the full weight of the patient monitor 522 can be supported by a grip of the medical practitioner 514 on the gripping regions 510, 512.
The patient monitor 500 may include one or more actuators (not shown) which, when actuated, permit release of the patient monitor 522 from the docking station 530. The actuators can be integrated into the gripping regions 510, 512 or other portions of the patient monitor 522, so as to permit for convenient and continuous-movement dismounting of the patient monitor 522. For example, in some embodiments, a practitioner 514 can actuate an actuator using a hand 516, 518 while that hand 516, 518 is simultaneously holding a respective gripping region 510, 512.
In
The patient monitor 522 may include one or more ports for receiving or delivering information, which can include one or more serial ports, USB ports, Ethernet ports, DVI ports, or any other suitable variety of ports, interfaces, or connectors. In some embodiments, information received via one or more of the ports can be displayed on the display device 542.
At least a portion of the information displayed by the patient monitor 522 may represent information received from a patient or that otherwise relates to the patient. For example, in some embodiments, one or more sensors (not shown) are connected to the patient to sense a particular parameter, and information obtained via the one or more sensors. The sensors may deliver information to the patient monitor 522 via one or more cables (not shown) connected to one or more ports.
The patient monitor 522 may be configured to both mechanically and electrically couple with the docking station 530. The patient monitor 522 may receive power from the docking station 530, which itself can receive power from a power source (not shown) via a power line or cord. The power source may include, for example, the AC wiring of a hospital.
The docking station 530 may be mounted in a substantially fixed position. For example, the docking station 530 may be rigidly mounted to a wall within a hospital room in a single position by one or more plates, brackets, screws, bolts, or other mounting hardware and attachment devices. As another example, the docking station 530 may be configured to transition among multiple fixed positions. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the docking station 530 is coupled to a mounting strip 524, which is in turn mounted to a wall (not shown) of a hospital room. The docking station 530 is capable of being adjusted upward or downward along a path constrained by one or more channels defined by the mounting strip 524 so as to transition among a variety of positions. In each such position, the docking station 530 can be fixed relative to the mounting strip 524. In some embodiments, the docking station 530 is coupled with the mounting strip 524 via a mounting plate or a mounting bracket (not shown), the position of which can be adjusted upward or downward within the channels in any suitable manner.
In other embodiments, the docking station 530 may be secured to a hospital bed (not shown), a mechanical arm (not shown), or any other suitable object. In some embodiments, a bottom surface of the docking station 530 is positioned at a height of from about five feet to about six feet above a floor of a hospital room, so as to allow the patient monitor 522 to be viewed easily and/or to avoid interference with other objects in the room.
It will be understood by those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. The scope of the present invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.
