Patent Application
20060122579
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to treatment apparatuses and, more particularly, to a treatment apparatus having a number of treatment protocols stored therein, and an associated method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous different types of treatment apparatuses are known. Examples of such treatment apparatuses would include chiropractic adjustment equipment, ultrasound equipment, iontophoresis equipment, and the like, in addition to numerous other types of equipment. Such treatment apparatuses typically are employed to perform some type of an action on a human or animal recipient. Such actions can include, for example and without limitation, actions that are therapeutic in nature, actions that supply things to the recipient, actions that take measurements, and numerous other types of actions.
The use of some treatment apparatuses can be extremely complex based upon the complexity of the desired action and the complexity of the equipment, as well as other factors. For instance, the equipment may be capable of numerous types of treatments, such as might include treatments to different regions of the body, treatments to provide various types of therapies in response to various types of problems, and the like. A treatment apparatus may, for example, may be operable in accordance with a number of operating parameters, one or more of which can be varied by a user. Equipment can additionally or alternatively include a number of implements that may be employed in various circumstances. While known treatment apparatuses have been generally effective for their intended purposes, such treatment apparatus have not, however, been without limitation.
Depending upon the configuration of the treatment apparatus, the nature of the actions desired to be performed using the treatment apparatus, and other factors, the use of such treatment apparatus can require significant skill, experience, and judgment from the practitioner. This is the case in, for example, the field of chiropractic science and chiropractic treatment due to the complexity of the human body, the wide variety of chiropractic procedures that can be performed on the body, and the complexity of each such treatment, as well as other factors. It thus would be desirable to provide a treatment apparatus and an associated method that enable complex treatments to be provided without requiring the high level of experience, skill, and judgment that otherwise might be required to provide such complex treatments. Such treatment apparatus and method desirably could be employed in conjunction with chiropractic science or in other fields.
An improved treatment apparatus includes a processor apparatus, an input apparatus, and an output apparatus having a therapeutic appliance, with the processor apparatus having a plurality of treatment protocols stored therein, and with the treatment protocols being usable in conjunction with the therapeutic appliance to provide treatment to a recipient. When the exemplary device is employed in conjunction with chiropractic science, each protocol may include, for instance, a number of treatment positions where the therapeutic appliance will be applied to the recipient, and may additionally include a number of predetermined operating parameters for each of the treatment positions. The protocol may alternatively and/or additionally include a specification of a particular configuration of the therapeutic appliance, such as including one or more implements that are desired to be employed in conjunction with performing the protocol. The treatment apparatus can output a plurality of indicators that can be selected by a practitioner and that are representative of anatomical locations and/or related afflictions. The indicators are associated with particular treatment protocols. Upon selecting an indicator, the device obtains from memory the treatment protocol and outputs a map of the various treatment positions. The protocol also includes specifications for various operating parameters for each of the treatment positions.
Accordingly, an aspect of the invention is to provide an improved treatment apparatus having a plurality of stored treatment protocols that can be employed by a practitioner in performing an action with the treatment apparatus.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide on a treatment apparatus a plurality of treatment protocols that simplify operation of the treatment apparatus by a practitioner.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved treatment apparatus having a user interface that enables a practitioner to interact with predetermined treatment protocols to perform actions with the treatment apparatus.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved treatment apparatus that can instruct a practitioner where to apply a therapeutic appliance and that can control the adjustment of various operating parameters of the therapeutic appliance.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved method of directing a number of applications of a therapeutic appliance of a treatment apparatus, wherein the treatment apparatus includes a plurality of treatment protocols stored therein.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved machine readable medium that provides instructions that cause the treatment apparatus to enable a user to perform a treatment action with the treatment apparatus.
Accordingly, an aspect of the invention is to provide an improved treatment apparatus, the general nature of which can be stated as including a processor apparatus including a processor and a memory, an input apparatus, and an output apparatus including a display and a therapeutic appliance. The display is adapted to display a plurality of indicators. The memory has a plurality of treatment protocols stored therein, with each treatment protocol of at least a portion of the plurality of treatment protocols being associated with at least a first indicator from among the plurality of indicators. Responsive to detecting a selection input with respect to an indicator from among the plurality of indicators, the processor is adapted to retrieve from the memory from among the plurality of treatment protocols a treatment protocol that is associated with the indicator, and to output to the display an output representative at least in part of at least a portion of the treatment protocol. The processor and the therapeutic appliance are connected together and, responsive to detecting a predetermined input, the processor is adapted to actuate the therapeutic appliance to operate in accordance with at least a portion of the treatment protocol.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved method of directing a number of applications of a therapeutic appliance of a treatment apparatus, the treatment apparatus including a processor apparatus, an input apparatus, and an output apparatus. The processor apparatus includes a memory having a plurality of treatment protocols stored therein. The output apparatus includes a display and the therapeutic appliance. The general nature of the method can be stated as including outputting on the display a plurality of indicators, detecting a selection input with respect to an indicator of the plurality of indicators and, responsive to detecting a selection input, retrieving from the memory a treatment protocol of the plurality of treatment protocols that corresponds with the indicator. The treatment protocol includes a number of treatment positions, with each treatment position of at least a portion of the number of treatment positions being a position on a recipient where an operation of the therapeutic appliance is specified by the protocol to occur. The method further includes outputting on the display an output including at least a first portion of the treatment protocol.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved machine readable medium that provides instructions which, when executed on a treatment apparatus of a type including a processor apparatus, an input apparatus, and an output apparatus, with the output apparatus including a display and a therapeutic appliance, cause the treatment apparatus to perform operations. The general nature of the operations can be stated as including outputting on the display a plurality of indicators, detecting a selection input with respect to an indicator of the plurality of indicators and, responsive to detecting a selection input, retrieving from a memory a treatment protocol from among a plurality of treatment protocols. The treatment protocol corresponds with the indicator and includes a number of treatment positions, with each treatment position of at least a portion of the number of treatment positions being a position on a recipient where an operation of the therapeutic appliance is specified by the protocol to occur. The operations further include outputting on the display an output including at least a first portion of the treatment protocol.
A full understanding of the invention can be gained from the following Description of the Preferred Embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the specification.
An improved treatment apparatus 4 in accordance with the invention is depicted generally in
As can be understood from
The exemplary therapeutic appliance 24 that is depicted in
The actuator 28 is, in the present example, an electrically operated device that provides a reciprocating motion to whichever application member 32 is mounted at a tip 38 of the actuator 28. The actuator 28 operates according to a number of operating parameters such as frequency, intensity and duration. As employed herein, the expression of “a number of” and variations thereof shall refer broadly to any nonzero quantity, including a quality of one. The frequency operating parameter can, for example, refer to the frequency of reciprocation of the actuator 28. The intensity operating parameter can, for example, refer to the energy of each reciprocation. The duration operating parameter can refer to the total quantity of reciprocations of the actuator 28. In the present example, all three of these operating parameters can be varied. Other operating parameters may be provided. The therapeutic appliance 24 may, for instance, be a device such as that described generally in U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,328 to Cremonese, et al. the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
As can be seen from
The input apparatus 8 includes a keypad 40 that includes a plurality of keys 44, a touch sensitive overlay 48 that is disposed adjacent the display 20, and the aforementioned sensor 36 that is mounted to the actuator 28. The touch sensitive overlay 48 is any of a wide variety of known devices and is configured to provide an input to the processor apparatus 12 upon being touched, for example, by a practitioner. The particular input provided by the touch sensitive overlay 48 in response to a touch input varies in a known fashion based upon the location of the touch input on the touch sensitive overlay 48.
The sensor 36 can be any of a wide variety of sensors that detect motion and/or vibration, and potentially can be a piezoelectric sensor. The sensor 36 additionally or alternatively could be a load sensor that detects loading on the application member 32.
When the application member 32 experiences a load of, for example, six pounds, such as if the application member 32 were applied to a recipient and the actuator 28 pressed toward the recipient with a force of six pounds, the therapeutic appliance 24 sends a predetermined input to the processor apparatus 12 indicating that the therapeutic appliance 24 is properly positioned on the recipient and is ready for initiation of an operation of the actuator 28.
As can be understood from
In using the treatment apparatus 4, the display 20 outputs a plurality of anatomical categories 64 which, in the present exemplary embodiment describe major physical regions or systems such as, for example, “Head-Neck”,“Spine-Rib-Pelvis”, and the like, as are depicted in
Each of the indicators 68 is associated with at least one of the protocols 60. By providing an input such as a selection input with respect to one of the indicators 68, a corresponding protocol 60 is retrieved from the memory 56 and is generally made operative on the treatment apparatus. A selection input can, for example, be provided with respect to one of the indicators 68 by, for instance, touching the touch sensitive overlay 48 at a location that corresponds with the position at which the desired indicator 68 is depicted on the display 20, such as is indicated by the box 72 in
An exemplary protocol 60, such as the protocol 60 that is associated with the indicator 68 labeled “Headaches”, is schematically depicted in
It is noted that the routines and protocols 60 can be stored on a machine readable medium 96 along with other instructions which, if executed on a machine such as the treatment apparatus 4, will cause the treatment apparatus 4 to execute instructions such as are described herein in accordance with the method of the invention which will be set forth in greater detail below. The machine readable medium 96 may have been employed to initially load the protocols 60, routines, and other instructions in the memory 56. Thereafter, the memory 56 can itself serve as a machine readable medium upon which instructions are stored. It is noted that the machine readable medium 96 can be any of a wide variety of media such as, for example, various ROM devices, tape, various types of memory, and the like without limitation.
The method of the invention can be generally described as follows in reference to
Upon activating the protocol 60 on the treatment apparatus 4, for example, the processor apparatus 12 may output to the display 20 a visual output 204 such as is depicted generally in
The map of treatment positions 276 is output in a fashion superimposed over a depiction of an exemplary recipient 208 and includes a plurality of treatment positions 212 along with a corresponding sequence reference 216 for each such treatment position 212. That is, the exemplary treatment positions 212 indicate the positions at which the therapeutic appliance 24 will be applied, and the sequence references 216 describe the order of the treatment positions 212 for application by the therapeutic appliance 24.
The display 20 also depicts one of the treatment positions 212 as being a current treatment position 220. In the present example, the current treatment position 220 is indicated in
In accordance with the invention, the exemplary visual output 204 and
The exemplary visual output 204 additionally depicts these operating parameters. That is, the visual output 204 includes a visual depiction of the frequency parameter at 224, along with a cursor 228 which indicates the current setting of the frequency parameter 224. The intensity parameter is indicated at the numeral 232 and includes a cursor 236 that depicts the current setting of the intensity parameter 232. The duration parameter is depicted at the numeral 240 and includes a cursor 244 which visually depicts the current setting of the duration parameter 242. The depicted parameters 224, 232, and 240, along with the corresponding cursors 228, 236 and 244, provide to a practitioner a visual indication of the operating parameter values that are being employed in the current operation of the therapeutic appliance 24.
Once the current operation of the treatment apparatus 24 at the current treatment position 220 has been completed, the display 20 outputs an updated visual output 204A, such as is depicted generally in
It is noted that the depiction of the operating parameters 224, 232, and 240, along with their cursors, 228, 236, and 244, depict to the practitioner the current settings for such operating parameters. It is noted, however, that the practitioner can provide an override input with respect to any of the operating parameters, with the override input being representative of an alternate value for such operating parameter that is different than the value that is stored in the protocol 60. This enables the practitioner to depart from the protocol 60 if desired.
The treatment apparatus therefore advantageously enables a practitioner to select an indicator 68 which activates an associated protocol 60 on the treatment apparatus 4. The protocol 60 provides a visual indication of the various treatment positions 212 and corresponding sequence references 216 which detail the successive positions on the recipient 208 where the therapeutic appliance 24 will be applied in performing the protocol 60. The various operating parameters for each treatment position 212 are also stored in the protocol 60 and are used in setting the operating parameters of the therapeutic appliance 24 at each such treatment position 212. Advantageously, therefore, numerous treatments can be provided by the practitioner based upon the protocols 60 and the selection thereof based upon the display indicators 68 without requiring the high level of skill, experience, and judgment that would be required of the practitioner in the absence of protocols 60. That is, the protocols establish the treatment positions 212, the sequence references 216, and the various operating parameters for each such treatment position 212, and these are depicted to the practitioner, along with the depiction of the application member 280, which facilitates the provision of a treatment by the practitioner.
While specific embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the particular arrangements disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the claims appended and any and all equivalents thereof.
