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Dashboard diagnostics for wireless patient communicator

Dashboard diagnostics for wireless patient communicator description/claims

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos. 60/967,060, 60/967,061, 60/967,062, and 60/967,063 filed on Aug. 31, 2007, to which priority is claimed pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) and which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The present invention relates generally to systems, devices, and methods for transporting medical information over a wireless network.

Implantable pulse generators (IPGs) are medical devices commonly used to treat irregular heartbeats, known as arrhythmias. Cardiac pacemakers, for example, are designed to manage bradycardia, an abnormally slow or irregular heartbeat. Left untreated, bradycardia can cause symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, and fainting. Cardiac resynchronizers are a particular class of pacemaker that provide cardiac resynchronization therapy, such a bi-ventricular pacing, for patients suffering from heart failure. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), by way of further example, are designed to treat tachycardia, heart rhythms that are abnormally fast and life threatening. Some forms of tachycardia can result in sudden cardiac death, if left untreated.

Pacemakers and ICDs are increasingly being equipped with an on-board, volatile memory in which telemetered signals can be stored for later retrieval and analysis. The telemetered signals provide various types of patient device information, such as atrial electrical activity, ventricular electrical activity, time of day, activity level, cardiac output, oxygen level, cardiovascular pressure measures, pulmonary measures, and any interventions made on a per heartbeat or binned average basis. In addition, a growing class of cardiac medical devices, including implantable heart failure monitors, implantable event monitors, cardiovascular monitors, and therapy devices, are being used to provide similar stored device information. These devices are typically designed to store approximately thirty minutes of heartbeat data. Telemetered signals are also stored in a broader class of monitors and therapeutic devices for other areas of medicine, including metabolism, endocrinology, hematology, neurology, muscular, gastrointestinal, genital-urology, ocular, auditory, and the like.

Information stored in an implantable medical device is typically retrieved using a proprietary interrogator or programmer, often during a clinic visit or following a device event. The volume of data retrieved from a single device interrogation procedure can be large and proper interpretation and analysis can require significant physician time and detailed subspecialty knowledge, particularly by cardiologists and cardiac electrophysiologists. Present approaches to data interpretation and understanding, and practical limitations on time and physician availability, make such analyses impracticable.

Conventional systems for collecting and analyzing pacemaker and ICD telemetered signals in a clinical or office setting can be used to retrieve data, such as patient electrocardiogram and any measured physiological conditions, collected by the IPG for recordation, display and printing. The retrieved data may displayed in chronological order and analyzed by a physician. Conventional systems often lack remote communications facilities and must be operated with the patient present. These systems present a limited analysis of the collected data based on a single device interrogation and lack the capability to recognize trends in the data spanning multiple episodes over time or relative to a disease specific peer group.

The present invention is directed to systems, devices, and methods for transporting medical information over a wireless network. According to embodiments of the present invention, methods are implemented via a network for acquiring information about a plurality of medical devices (PIMDs) implanted in ambulatory patients. Methods of the invention involve acquiring first information for a plurality of patient portable communication devices (PPCs) about wireless connectivity between each PPC and its associated PIMD, wherein connectivity between each PPC and its associated PIMD is discontinuous. The first information is wirelessly transmitted from the PPCs to a remote location via the network. Methods further involve acquiring second information about wireless connectivity between each PPC and the network, wherein wireless connectivity between each PPC and the network is discontinuous. The second information is provided at the remote location.

In accordance with other embodiments, methods of the invention involve acquiring first information for a plurality of PPCs about wireless connectivity between each PPC and its associated PIMD, wherein connectivity between each PPC and at its associated PIMD is discontinuous. The first information is wirelessly transmitted from the PPCs to a remote location via the network. Methods further involve acquiring second information about wireless connectivity between each PPC and the network, wherein wireless connectivity between each PPC and the network is discontinuous. The second information is provided at the remote location. Methods also involve storing the first and second information at the remote location, providing access to the stored first and second information to a plurality of remote devices, and transmitting selected first and second information to one or more of the remote devices.

According to various embodiments, systems of the present invention are implementable via a network for acquiring information about a plurality of PIMDs implanted in ambulatory patients. Systems of the invention include a plurality of PPCs each comprising a first radio configured to communicate wirelessly with a PIMD associated with the PPC and a second radio configured to communicate wirelessly with the network. A memory of the PPC is configured to store at least first information about wireless connectivity between the PPC and its associated PIMD. A processor of the PPC is coupled to the memory and the first and second radios. A power source is configured to supply power to components of the PPC. The processor is configured to coordinate discontinuous communication between the PPC and its associated PIMD via the first radio and coordinate discontinuous communication between the PPC and the network via the second radio. The processor is configured to coordinate wireless transmission of the first information to a remote server via the network, and the remote server receives second information about wireless connectivity between each of the PPCs and the network.

In accordance with other embodiments, systems of the present invention includes a server system comprising a network interface configured to establish connectivity with a plurality of PPCs via the network. Each of the PPCs is configured to effect wireless communications with an associated PIMD and to establish wireless connectivity with the network. A server is coupled to the network interface and configured to receive information from the PPCs via the network interface. The information includes connection information about connectivity between each PIMD and its corresponding PPC and connectivity between each PPC and the network. A system remote from the server system includes a communications interface configured to provide connectivity with the server system via the network. The remote system further includes a user interface comprising a display, and a processor coupled to the communications interface and the user interface. The processor is configured to present PIMD-PPC connection information and PPC-network connection information on the display.

The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. Advantages and attainments, together with a more complete understanding of the invention, will become apparent and appreciated by referring to the following detailed description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1A is a system diagram of a life critical network implementation in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary automated or advanced patient management environment supported within a life critical network in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

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• Utility Patent

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