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Systems and methods for remote patient monitoring and communication

Systems and methods for remote patient monitoring and communication description/claims

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/862,743, filed Oct. 24, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

Not applicable.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring the health and wellness of patients, and more particularly, to systems and methods for remotely monitoring patient health and providing health care services.

2. Background of the Invention

Historically, patient medical care was often provided for in the patient's home or some other environment apart from a clinical setting. Physicians, midwives, or other healthcare providers would make house calls, observe patient symptoms, formulate diagnoses, and provide treatment. As the state of the art of health care evolved over time, the number of house calls made by healthcare professionals diminished. In large part, health care providers conducted fewer and fewer house calls because it became impractical to bring bulky medical diagnosis and test equipment to the patient. Likewise, it was not cost effective or intellectually feasible for patients to purchase and operate the complicated and expensive medical machines in a home setting. Therefore, the health care model changed dramatically, emphasizing patient visits to health care facilities where an assortment of state-of-the-art test equipment would be available to assist doctors in more accurately assessing and treating patients. This meant that patients were now expected to come to the doctor, rather than the other way around.

Innovations in electronics in the last twenty years have made available a large number of more affordable and patient-operable medical devices that obviated, at least in part, the need for the patient to go to a facility each time a medical test or device checkup was required. Size and expense were not the only factors making this possible; since the new devices provided sophisticated processing in smaller form factors, the technical complexity required to operate the devices were reduced to a level that would not overwhelm a layperson's knowledge. Unfortunately, although portable medical devices such as blood glucose meters now allow patients to perform tests outside the context of medical facilities, patients still need to meet with health care providers to discuss the results obtained.

Some medical devices include wireless transmitters for the communication of data to and from the medical device. For medical devices implanted in a patient, such as a pacemaker, wireless communication allows a healthcare provider to monitor the operation of the medical device, and to optionally monitor a patient's biological and biometric information, the patient's behavior, and other information pertinent to the treatment of the patient. However, the manner in which medical devices communicate data varies depending on the type and manufacturer of the device, and therefore, proprietary equipment has been designed to wirelessly communicate with medical devices only on a specific frequency and using a particular data communication protocol based on the type of medical device being used.

To make patient monitoring more convenient, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) was developed. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) generally refers to monitoring one or more conditions of a patient without requiring the patient to visit a hospital, doctor's office, or other healthcare facility. RPM can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of providing care to patients while reducing costs. RPM can be particularly useful when a patient has a long-term or chronic disease that would otherwise require frequent visits to a healthcare facility and/or where a patient's treatment regimen should be modified based on changed patient conditions that are monitored by one or more medical devices, such as a pacemaker or glucose meter. For example, Type-I Diabetes patients (a lifelong condition) use glucose meters to monitor their blood sugar level to assist in determining when to take insulin—it would be desirable if such information could be quickly, easily, and effectively relayed to a heath care provider for review and analysis.

Conventional RPM generally involves the use of a specific monitoring device installed in a patient's home. The device collects data concerning the patient's condition and relays the data to a healthcare provider. Some conventional systems require a patient to manually enter the data. For example, a diabetes patient using a conventional system for RPM may be required to sample their blood sugar level using a glucose meter, take note of the reading, and then manually enter the level in the conventional system. There are drawbacks with these conventional devices. Because of their complexity and proprietary interfaces, many are very expensive, which reduces the cost-savings benefit of RPM. Additionally, they often require a land-line connection (such as phone or VPN) to transmit data and/or are physically bulky/heavy and therefore difficult to transport. Furthermore, conventional systems are often unable to provide data to healthcare providers quickly where data must be manually entered by a patient, which can reduce the level of benefit the patient receives from RPM.

Conventional remote health care approaches such as RPM systems also lack the capability to provide an integrated remote patient care environment, allowing remote monitoring to be seamlessly combined with analysis of patient information and feedback from health care providers. What is needed, then, is a system to allow health care providers to freely access patient-related health data, enabling the provider to conduct a virtual house call. What is also needed is a system that can receive medical data from a broad range of medical devices and provide for the quick and efficient management and transport of that data to a healthcare provider. What is also needed is a system that provides for transport of patient information as well as communication information between patients, health care providers, and an automated service.

Methods and systems according to the present invention may operate in conjunction with any number of medical devices and healthcare providers. Data can be received in any format and from any medical device, and processed and directed to any suitable healthcare provider. A method according to one aspect of the present invention includes receiving patient information (such as from a medical device or the patient), analyzing the patient information to identify a condition for the patient, and formatting a report based on the patient information and the patient condition. The method further includes contacting the patient when the patient condition satisfies a predetermined threshold condition, such as when a patient is (or is not) in compliance with a prescribed medical treatment. This allows healthcare providers to closely (and remotely) monitor patients to ensure they are properly following their treatment regimens. The patient condition can be any state, ranking, condition, diagnosis, classification, categorization, or conclusion that can be identified (implicitly or explicitly) from the patient information. The patient condition can be identified from the patient information alone, or in combination with data from other sources. The report can include some or all of the patient information, as well as any other information useful to the patient or another user (such as a healthcare provider). Multiple reports can be formatted to include any desired amount of information.

A system according to another aspect of the present invention includes a processor, a patient interface, a user interface, and a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions. The processor executes the instructions in the memory to receive patient information using the patient interface, analyze the patient information to identify a condition for the patient, format a report based on the patient information and the patient condition, provide the report to one or more users using the user interface, and automatically contact the patient when the patient condition satisfies a predetermined threshold condition. Both the patient interface and user interface can include human operators, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and other systems and devices to allow patients, doctors, nurses, and other users to quickly and efficiently provide and retrieve information remotely. The system allows users such as doctors and nurses to quickly and efficiently view the reports to assess the patient's condition, prescribe treatments for the patient, and ensure the patient is in compliance with those prescribed treatments—all without requiring that the patient visit a healthcare facility.

Embodiments of the present invention may be used to monitor any appropriate medical device from essentially any location from which a communications signal can be sent and received. This enables patients to enjoy an active lifestyle by not being tied to medical device monitoring equipment that is difficult or impossible to transport or having to routinely visit health care facilities. The present invention can be used to monitor, process, and transport any amount and type of data from any medical device to any suitable user, such as a healthcare provider.

The present invention can also be used for a variety of other monitoring purposes. For example, the present invention can be used to monitor a blood alcohol monitor, alcohol breathalyzer, or alcohol ignition interlock device to help insure a driver does not operate a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or other substance.

The present invention can also be used in conjunction with a Global Positioning System (GPS) or other geolocation device to monitor the position of a patient. The present invention may also be used in a wide variety of military applications, such as remotely monitoring devices tracking the health status of soldiers on a battlefield in real-time in order to quickly dispatch aid to wounded soldiers. The present invention may be used to remotely monitor a chemical, biological agent, or radiation sensor carried by a soldier to detect an attack by unconventional weaponry.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide for processing of the medical data received from patients, such as analysis of patient medical data to identify historical trends and alert a patient and/or health care provider when a certain threshold condition is reached, indicating that action or intervention is required. Other embodiments determine whether patients are in compliance with home health care directives such as operating medical devices or administering prescribed treatments of medications. Still other embodiments relate to determining whether patients are at risk for certain heath issues arising based on interactions of medications with other drugs, supplements, or foods.

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• Utility Patent

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