System for monitoring physiological characteristics

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods for medical monitoring physiological characteristic values such as blood glucose levels for the treatment of diabetes, are presented. The apparatuses and methods provide advanced alarm and reminder functions, as well as advanced data presentation tools to further facilitate convenient and efficient management of various physiological conditions. For example, an alarm repeat delay can be used to prevent redundant alarms for a specified period and an alarm snooze function can be used to prevent alarms generally for a specified period.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This continuation-in-part application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 034,139, filed Dec. 27, 2001, and entitled “SYSTEM FOR MONITORING PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS,” which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates generally to medical monitoring systems. More specifically, this invention relates to methods and systems for monitoring physiological characteristics in individuals including those associated with physiological conditions (e.g. monitoring blood glucose levels in diabetics). [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] A variety of electrochemical sensors have been developed for detecting and / or quantifying specific agents or compositions in a patient's blood. Notably, glucose sensors have been developed for use in obtaining an indication of blood glucose levels in a diabetic patient. Such rea...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] The invention as embodied and disclosed herein pertains to apparatuses and methods for monitoring physiological characteristics such as blood glucose levels. Embodiments of the invention include dynamic monitoring functions that can perform predictive analyses to anticipate harmful conditions, such as hyperglycemic (or hyperglycemic) incidents, before they occur. These dynamic functions can be used to monitor normal physiological functions, as well as in a variety of other contexts including the optimization of athletic performance. Other embodiments of the invention include advanced alarm and reminder functions, as well as advanced data presentation tools. Embodiments of the invention disclosed herein facilitate the convenient and efficient management of diseases such as diabetes.

Problems solved by technology

Conventional glucose monitoring systems are somewhat limited in features that they provide to facilitate the monitoring of blood glucose levels.

However, by the time the warning occurs, the user may already be experiencing negative symptoms.

Furthermore, it may be unacceptable to address this by simply reducing (or raising) the value which triggers an indicator (e.g. a display, an alarm or the like) of an unsafe condition, because this may prompt a user to take “remedial” action (such as administering an additional bolus) when no unsafe condition would have actually materialized.

Such an approach merely increases the occurrence of false positive alarms.

As a consequence, the unnecessary “remedial” action can actually provoke an unsafe condition.

As described above, although existing glucose monitors adequately detect blood glucose levels upon entering the hyperglycemic (or hypoglycemic) range, they do not anticipate these conditions.

Disorientation is a particular risk to the patient.

If the patient becomes disoriented while operating machinery, the patient could harm himself or others.

One cause of IFG is an inadequate nocturnal insulin basal infusion rate.

This can be problematic in contexts of varying physiological states because a user is not made aware of the specific condition and / or the appropriate degree of urgency.

Furthermore, the alarm settings and features for many monitoring systems are very limited.

Such systems can provide duplicative warnings that can frustrate users and become ignored if they are excessive.

Thus, conventional glucose monitoring systems are somewhat limited in features they provide to facilitate the monitoring of blood glucose levels.

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