System and method for determining a reference baseline record

Abstract

A system and method for determining a reference baseline record for use in automated patient care. One or more physiological measures are retrieved. Each of the measures relates to individual patient information recorded during an initial observation period from a patient care record. One or more reference measures are determined from the physiological measures. Each reference measure is representative of at least one of measured and derived patient information. The reference measures are stored into the patient care record indicating a reference baseline patient status.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 09 / 860,987, filed on May 18, 2001, pending, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,380, issued on Aug. 28, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,011, issued Apr. 24, 2001, the priority of filing dates of which are claimed, and the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates in general to automated data collection and analysis, and, in particular, to a system and method for determining a reference baseline record for use in automated patient care. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A broad class of medical subspecialties, including cardiology, endocrinology, hematology, neurology, gastroenterology, urology, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology, to name a few, rely on accurate and timely patient information for use in aiding health care providers in diagnosing and trea...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach enhances the accuracy of remote patient care by providing an objective baseline for health assessment, reducing physician bias, and enabling continuous monitoring of patient trends, thereby improving the chronicling of treatment efficacy and legal accountability.

Problems solved by technology

Bradycardia can cause symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, and fainting.

Tachycardia can result in sudden cardiac death (SCD).

In addition, automated remote patient care poses a further challenge vis-a-vis evaluating quality of life issues.

Unlike in a traditional clinical setting, physicians participating in providing remote patient care are not able to interact with their patients in person.

Consequently, quality of life measures, such as how the patient subjectively looks and feels, whether the patient has shortness of breath, can work, can sleep, is depressed, is sexually active, can perform activities of daily life, and so on, cannot be implicitly gathered and evaluated.

However, these measures are limited in their usefulness and do not provide the scope of detailed medical information made available through implantable and external medical devices.

Moreover, such measures are generally obtained through manual means and do not ordinarily directly tie into quality of life assessments.

Further, a significant amount of time generally passes between the collection of sets of these measures.

Images