Patent Application
20140299486
The present invention relates to medical devices and, in particular, to a resilient sleeve for removably encasing a body fluid monitor, in which the sleeve includes a visually enhancing adornment.
In emergency medical situations, assessing a patient's condition quickly and accurately can make the difference between successful recovery and tragedy. When responding to an emergency call, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) must be able to quickly identify the instruments and equipment appropriate for the situation, and then deploy them to properly diagnose and stabilize the patient. Identifying the appropriate instruments and equipment can be challenging because of the amount of equipment carried in emergency vehicles and portable cases that EMTs use to carry that equipment.
In many cases, body fluid monitors must be utilized to assess a patient's conditions. Examples of body fluid monitors include, but are not limited to, devices that test an individual's blood for total cholesterol, HDL, triglyceride, ketone, glucose, and lipid panel levels, metabolic syndrome, and the individual's prothrombin ratio (PR) and international normalized ratio (INR). Other examples of body fluid monitors include portable AIDS and other disease detectors, many pregnancy tests and urine analyzers.
In particular, one of the body fluid monitors typically deployed in medical emergencies is a blood constituent meter, most commonly a blood glucose meter. Blood glucose meters are typically hand-held devices that accept insertable test strips into which a drop of blood from a patient is introduced. The insertable test strip promotes an electrochemical reaction with the blood that generates an electronic signal, which the blood glucose meter processes to calculate and display the concentration of glucose in the patient's blood. Knowing whether or not the blood glucose concentration is within a normal range can assist in the diagnosis of a patient's condition.
As the technology underlying body fluid monitors has advanced, the body fluid monitor have become more efficient, compact, and precise. Although more convenient to handle, the smaller sized monitor are more difficult to locate among the many other instruments and equipment carried to an emergency call. Up to now, body fluid monitors and their carrying cases, especially blood glucose meters, have been made in dark colors because of the occasional droplet of blood that can accidentally drip or be wiped on the surface of the meter and/or its carrying case. The dark color of the body fluid monitor and case masks the presence of such residual blood which, if readily visible, could be disturbing to patients and dirt stains which could signal that the body fluid monitor and case have not been properly cleaned or maintained. As a result, body fluid monitors and their carrying cases have not been made in highly visible and/or contrasting colors, but have instead been designed to render the body fluid monitors and carrying cases indistinguishable in color or appearance from bodily fluids, particularly blood and dirt.
The absence of visually enhancing color systems for body fluid monitors, while advantageous for masking the presence of residual blood and dirt, is disadvantageous in medical emergencies or otherwise urgent medical situations. In such time-sensitive situations, a visually enhancing color can make the body fluid monitor and/or its carrying case more readily recognizable and permit the EMT to save time in deploying the body fluid monitor to assist in diagnosing the patient. In these situations, the desire for a dark colored surface to mask the presence of residual blood or dirt is outweighed by the enhanced visibility and recognizability afforded by an optically distinguished surface.
Apart from emergency situations, body fluid monitors are also used routinely in less urgent medical settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living communities and in-home health care settings. For example, diabetes management professionals are often called in to assist patients in monitoring their blood sugar levels using blood glucose meters, and to assist patients in managing their blood sugar levels. If left uncontrolled, abnormal blood sugar levels can lead to a serious decline in a patient's health. Blood glucose meters are also widely available commercially and used by millions of consumers to monitor their blood sugar levels.
A resilient sleeve removably encases a body fluid monitor. The sleeve comprises visually enhancing adornment for promoting optical recognizability of the encased body fluid monitor.
In one embodiment of the body fluid monitor, the visually enhancing adornment comprises a color contrastable from the body fluid being tested. The visually enhancing adornment can also comprise indicia contrastable from the body fluid being tested. The indicia can comprise a visually recognizable pattern, which in turn can comprise at least one of a letter, a word, a phrase and a logo.
In one method of utilizing the visually resilient sleeve, a user has to measure one constituent in a body fluid in an emergency situation having a plurality of medical devices present for deployment to diagnose and stabilize a patient. The user, after assessing the patient's condition as warranting measurement of a body fluid constituent which is accomplished via the body fluid monitor encased in the removable resilient sleeve with the visually enhancing adornment, visually scans the plurality of medical devices in his vicinity. The user then identifies the body fluid monitor from among the plurality of medical device by recognizing the visually enhancing adornment and deploys the body fluid monitor to measure the body fluid constituent.
In one embodiment of the foregoing method, the visually enhancing adornment comprises a color contrastable from blood and/or dirt. The visually enhancing adornment can also comprise contrastable indicia. The indicia can be a visually recognizable pattern, which in turn can be a letter, a word, a phrase and/or a logo.
In one example the color of the sleeve and/or the indicia is a color contrastable from blood. In some embodiments, the body fluid monitor is configured to be used by a veterinarian with animals, such as dogs, cats and horses.
Turning first to
In at least some embodiments, sleeve 100 is configured to be easily removable so it can be cleaned and/or disinfected between uses. In other embodiments, sleeve 100 is configured to be tightly sealed so as to waterproof the back of body fluid monitor 120.
Sleeve 100 can be made of a highly visual color to improve the ability of individuals to recognize it. In some embodiments, that color is contrastable to blood and/or dirt. Sleeve 100 can also contain indicia 135, which can also be a highly visual color. In some embodiments the color is contrastable to blood and/or dirt. Indicia 135 can be, among other things, a pattern, symbol, letter, word, number, and/or logo.
As shown in
As specifically shown in
While particular elements, embodiments and applications of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be understood, that the invention is not limited thereto since modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings.
This application relates to and claims priority benefits from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/808,617 having a filing date of Apr. 4, 2013. The '617 provisional application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61808617 | Apr 2013 | US |
