ALARM SYSTEM THAT PROCESSES BOTH MOTION AND VITAL SIGNS USING SPECIFIC HEURISTIC RULES AND THRESHOLDS

摘要

The invention provides a body-worn monitor that measures a patient's vital signs (e.g. blood pressure, SpO2, heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature) while simultaneously characterizing their activity state (e.g. resting, walking, convulsing, falling). The body-worn monitor processes this information to minimize corruption of the vital signs by motion-related artifacts. A software framework generates alarms/alerts based on threshold values that are either preset or determined in real time. The framework additionally includes a series of ‘heuristic’ rules that take the patient's activity state and motion into account, and process the vital signs accordingly. These rules, for example, indicate that a walking patient is likely breathing and has a regular heart rate, even if their motion-corrupted vital signs suggest otherwise.

主权项

1. A method for continuously monitoring a patient, comprising the following steps:
detecting a first time-dependent physiological waveform indicative of one or more contractile properties of the patient's heart with a first sensor comprising a first detector configured to be worn on the patient's body; detecting a second time-dependent physiological waveform indicative of one or more contractile properties of the patient's heart with a second sensor comprising a second detector configured to be worn on the patient's body; detecting sets of time-dependent motion waveforms with at least two motion-detecting sensors positioned on locations selected from a forearm, upper arm, and a body location other than the forearm or upper arm of the patient, wherein each set of motion waveforms is indicative of motion of the location on the patient's body to which it is affixed; processing the first and second time-dependent physiological waveforms to determine a blood pressure for the patient; analyzing at least a portion of the sets of time-dependent motion waveforms with a motion-determining algorithm to determine a posture state for the patient; and generating an alarm by comparing the blood pressure to a predetermined alarm criterion that is regulated according to the patient's posture state, wherein if the patient has undergone a change in posture state that would result in an expected drop in blood pressure, the alarm criterion is altered to reflect the expected drop in blood pressure.