15876 results about "Medical staff" patented technology

A sensor adapter cable provides medical personnel with the convenience of utilizing otherwise incompatible optical sensors with multiple blood parameter plug-ins to a physiological monitor, where the plug-ins each have keyed connectors that mechanically lock-out incompatible sensors in addition readers that poll sensor identification components in each sensor so as to electrically lock-out incompatible sensors.

The invention provides an apparatus and system for ablation of body structures or tissue in the region of the rectum. A catheter is inserted into the rectum, and an electrode is disposed thereon for emitting energy. The environment for an ablation region is isolated or otherwise controlled by blocking gas or fluid using a pair of inflatable balloons at upstream and downstream locations. Inflatable balloons also serve to anchor the catheter in place. A plurality of electrodes are disposed on the catheter and at least one such electrode is selected and advanced out of the catheter to penetrate and ablate selected tissue inside the body in the region of the rectum. The electrodes are coupled to sensors to determine control parameters of the body structure or tissue, and which are used by feedback technique to control delivery of energy for ablation or fluids for cooling or hydration. The catheter includes an optical path disposed for coupling to an external view piece, so as to allow medical personnel to view or control positioning of the catheter and operation of the electrodes. The catheter is disposed to deliver flowable substances for aiding in ablation, or for aiding in repair of tissue, such as collagen or another substance for covering lesions or for filling fissures. The flowable substances are delivered using at least one lumen in the catheter, either from at least one hole in the catheter, from an area of the catheter covered by a microporous membrane, or from microporous balloons.

The invention discloses a two-bed duplex tube medical diagnosis X-ray high frequency high voltage generator, which comprises a power supply and a central control unit, and also comprises a high frequency inverter circuit, a pulse-width modulation drive circuit and a high voltage commutation circuit. The generator converts the industrial power supply into two way high frequency high voltage, and then obtains positive end DC high voltage and negative end DC high voltage after the rectification and the filter to supply an X-ray pipet for working. Because the frequency is high and the high voltage ripple after the rectification and the filter is minimum, causing the X-ray pipet of a radiographic table and the X-ray pipet of an electric perspective table to work in turn under the condition of arranging only one set of high voltage supply. The equipment investment is saved, and the work of using the X-ray diagnosis for the medical staff is convenient. Being served as the high voltage supply, the invention is also suitable for the safety detection fields such as the industrial fault detection, the civil aviation, the station, the custom, etc., and supplies the stable high quality high voltage for the equipment.

A method of alerting medical personnel of a problem during hemodialysis includes providing an active, fail-to-safe site sensor for a fistula needle at an access site during hemodialysis; and automatically alerting medical personnel of a problem during hemodialysis using the active, fail-to-safe site sensor during at least the following: failing of the active, fail-to-safe site sensor; insufficient powering to the active, fail-to-safe site sensor; partial fistula needle dislodging from the access site; and complete needle dislodging from the access site.

The invention discloses a medical diagnosis X-ray high frequency high pressure generator, comprising a power supply, a central control unit, a high frequency inverter circuit, a pulse width modulation driving circuit and a high pressure transform and high pressure output circuit. The generator transforms the industrial power to two ways of high frequency and high pressure, a positive direct current high pressure and a negative direct current high pressure are obtained through rectifying and wave-filtering to provide an X-ray ball tube to work. As the frequency is high, the ripple of the rectified and wave-filtered high electric pressure is tiny, and the X-ray quality projected by the X-ray ball tube is high, and the clearance of photos of the perspective and photograph is also high. The X-ray ball tube of a photograph bed or the X-ray ball tube of an electric perspective bed can work if allocated with the high pressure power. The invention is convenient for the medical staff to use the X-ray to do the work of diagnosing diseases. As the high pressure power supply, the invention is also suitable in the safety inspection fields such as industrial flaw detection, civil aviation, station and customs etc, and provides a stable and high qualified high pressure power supply for the equipments.

A vial adapter having a needle-free valve, a sharpened cannula used to perforate a vial's rubber stopper, and a circular array of claws of different lengths to engage vial closures of different diameters. The array of claws includes a first set of claws each having a first length extending inwardly from the periphery of the housing of the adapter and a second set of claws alternating with the first set of claws and each having a longer length. The second set of claws are mounted so that they deflect and plastically deform out of the way in the case where the adapter is engaged with a vial that exceeds a predetermined size. The housing includes a shroud that is at least as long as the sharpened cannula to protect medical personnel who use the adapter from inadvertent punctures. The needle-free valve includes a resiliently deformable piston element with a naturally open bore. The interior of the piston provides a fluid flow path through the adapter. In one embodiment, the first set of claws of the adapter may be used with a vial closure of at approximately 20 mm in diameter and the second set of claws may be used with a vial closure of approximately 13 to 17 mm in diameter.

An arrangement of equipment for the remote monitoring of bodily functions of a mammal under medical care, comprises: a function-measurement device to measure a physiological quantity relevant to bodily function; a first display unit disposed remotely from the function-measurement device and monitored by a responsible medical person, to display the measured values of the measured physiological quantity and a function characterization derived therefrom; an input unit disposed remotely from the function-measurement device, for the input of control commands for the function-measurement device, and to input warning signals; and a bi-directional public telecommunication-network connection with an outward channel between the function-measurement device and the first display unit and a return channel between the input unit and the function-measurement device, where, for each connected device, there is provided an interface adapted to a transmission protocol of the telecommunication network.

The present invention provides a system and method for remote patient monitoring and caring, wherein the system has a distributed architecture. The system comprises sensors for measuring real-time physiological parameters, such as ECG and SpO₂, from patients. The system also comprises a monitoring terminal for monitoring these parameters. A local processing station analyzes the real-time physiological parameters. A central processing system processes the real-time physiological parameters and their analysis, in combination with the relevant historical medical data, for each patient. The medical staff uses this processed data to provide required medical care to the patients. Further, the system provides remote access of patients' data, via remote access stations

A needle biopsy instrument for retrieving a tissue sample from an internal organ such as needle biopsy forceps, includes a pushing surface for safely dislodging a tissue sample from the needle after the instrument containing the sample is retrieved from the patient using mechanical control means operated from the proximal handle to thereby avoid the risk of accidental cuts, punctures and other injuries to medical personnel while trying to manually remove the sample. The instrument has a cam mechanism, or other mechanical links scissor links for operating the cups and producing relative movement between the pushing surface and axis of the needle to cause a tissue sample to be moved toward and eventually off of the tip of the needle into a sample receiving cup. An axial reciprocating control member attached to either the needle or the pushing surface produces the relative movement and is manually controlled by a handle or other grip at the proximal end of the forceps. The needle is either retracted axially from the distal toward the proximal end of the device, or a pushing member attached to the distal end of an actuating cable or cable is moved distally along the axis of a stationary needle. A latch mechanism can be provided on the proximal end to release a biasing force to provide the relative movement between the needle and pushing member to slide a tissue sample off the needle.

A hearing assist device is associated with an ear of a user. Health characteristics of the user are measured by sensors of the hearing assist device. The measured health characteristics may be analyzed in the hearing assist device, or transmitted from the hearing assist device for remote analysis. Based on the analysis, alerts, instructions, and other information may be displayed to the user in the form of text or graphics, or may be played by the hearing assist device in the form of sound/voice. Medical personnel may be alerted when problems with the user are detected by the hearing assist device. The user may provide verbal commands to the hearing assist device. The hearing assist device may be configured to filter sounds, and may be configured for a personal hearing frequency response of the user. The hearing assist device may be configured for speech recognition to recognize commands.

A self-inflating, intragastric balloon device is activated by addition of an activating liquid into an acid or water soluble vessel located within the balloon. After an approximately pre-determined time period post-activation, the activating liquid breaches the vessel wall and causes contact between an acid in liquid form and an emissive substance within the balloon, causing it to inflate. The device is conveniently provided to medical personnel as part of a kit that further contains a syringe and the activating liquid. The device also can have acid or pepsin degradable portions that cause it to deflate after residing in the stomach for a prolonged period of time during which it imparts a feeling of satiety in the patient.

A device for painlessly injecting medications, and a method for providing a substantially painless injection of medication into a patient that does not require the use of an anesthetic, that does not require the medical personnel to spend a substantial amount of time performing the injection procedure, that is relatively simple and inexpensive to perform and operate, and that provides a relatively high degree of safety for both the medical personnel and for the patient. The injection needle can have an outside diameter greater than 0.20 mm and less than about 0.38 mm. The medicament can be injected painlessly through the needle and into the patient at a substantially constant volumetric flow rate of about 0.05 μL/s to about 50 μL/s.

A system, electronic monitor and method are provided that utilize impulse radio technology to alert medical personnel when a patient needs medical assistance. In addition, the present invention includes a system, electronic monitor and method that utilize the communication capabilities and positioning capabilities of impulse radio technology to enable medical personnel to monitor one or more vitals signs of a patient and/or to enable medical personnel to determine a current a position of a patient in a building such as a hospital, nursing home or their home.

The systems methods described herein incorporate on teamwork in which all of the participants (patients, medical staff, and medical care providers), contribute to the medical visit, medical record generation, and billing for the visit. The systems and methods include three aspects, which are referred to herein as portals: 1) a patient portal 130, which allows patients to interact with the system; 2) a clinical portal 150, which serves as a medium in which medical staff and providers interact with the system; and 3) a billing portal 170, which serves as a medium in which the medical providers and billing personnel interact with the system.

The Electronic Compliance Promoter is a computer system for increasing a patient's compliance with medical post-care treatment instructions. The system permits the patient to review the treatment instructions that have been entered into a treatment instructions database by medical personnel at the time of the examination. The system includes a patient-client computer interface, a medical person-client interface, a treatment instructions database, and a compliance-server program. The database contains the post-visit care instructions and other types of information that the patient should have to understand and follow those instructions. The database also has treatment guideline information to assist the doctor in formulating the post-care treatment instructions. The patients client-computer interface provides a knowledge-based means for the patient to review interactively the Doctor's after care instructions, and measures compliance by tracking a patients' use of the specific designated diagnosis related resources. The medical personnel client-computer interface provides a knowledge-based means to designate the post-care medical visit instructions the patient is to follow. The compliance-server program tracks patients compliance and can send messages to patients reminding them to review the post-care treatment instructions. The Electronic Compliance Promoter system provides a means to significantly increase a patient's compliance with medical care instructions.

A mobile information gateway comprises: a wearable human interface module having an image delivery and display mechanism for presenting information overlaid upon a wide field of view, a computing and communication module adapted to send and receive information to and from the human interface module; and a backend service server coupled for processing medical data. The present invention also includes a method comprising: capturing information with a first mobile information gateway device; processing the captured information to determine an identity of a first user and authenticate the first user; processing the captured information to determine an identity of a patient and authenticate the patient; processing the identity of the first user and the identity of the patient to retrieve information of the patient; and resenting the retrieved information of the patient overlaid on a field of view by the first mobile information gateway device.

An improved outlet tube device for a urinary drainage bag is disclosed wherein an outlet valve mechanism is contained with a rigid housing fixed securely to the drainage bag, rather than just being clamped to the outlet tubing, and thus cannot become separated from the bag. The outlet valve can be opened only by positive action on the part of the medical care personnel, thereby assuring that urine will be discharged only in a controlled manner. Further, because the valve mechanism does not require that a substantial length of tubing with a freely movable end be used in conjunction with the outlet port, there is no need to engage the free end of the tubing with a keeper. Thus the possibility of the tubing springing back to its straight configuration and flicking residual urine on the attending medical personnel is eliminated. In one embodiment the outlet tube device comprises a pinchcock-type valve which is fixedly mounted to the bag and which is normally operative to clamp off the outlet tube. In a second embodiment the outlet tube device comprises a syringetype fitting which is fixedly mounted to the bag. Depressing the syringe plunger closes the valve, and retracting the plunger opens the valve to permit fluid to be discharged through the outlet tube. In a third embodiment, a hose clamp is contained within a rigid housing and is selectively operative to clamp a hose to prevent fluid flow therethrough.

Telemedicine systems and methods are described. In a telemedicine system operable to communicate with a remote operations center, communications can be transmitted/received using a transceiver having an antenna. The antenna can include first and second di-pole antenna elements, the first di-pole antenna element being vertically polarized and the second di-pole antenna element being horizontally polarized. A controller of the system can establish, using the transceiver, a telemedicine session with the operations center using a Transport Morphing Protocol (TMP), the TMP being an acknowledgement-based user datagram protocol. The controller can also mask one or more transient network degradations to increase resiliency of the telemedicine session. The telemedicine system can include a 2D and 3D carotid Doppler and transcranial Doppler and/or other diagnostic devices, and provides for real-time connectivity and communication between medical personnel in an emergency vehicle and a receiving hospital for immediate diagnosis and treatment to a patient in need.

A system for measuring at least one physiological parameter of the user, analyzing the parameter measured and providing feedback to the user. Analysis of at least one physiological parameter of the user may optionally and preferably be performed by a remotely located data processing server. The present invention enables such a measurement to preferably be used to directly generate medical information about the user, optionally performed by the sensing device or alternately by the remote server or alternately by the gateway. Such information may then optionally be sent to medical personnel, for example at a contact monitoring center and/or to any other location, through a gateway device. The gateway device is preferably a mobile gateway device and communicates with the preferred but exemplary wrist-mounted device of the present invention through a wireless communication channel.