Therapy Parameter Evaluation Using Activity and Posture Metrics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical devices lack an effective method to evaluate the efficacy of therapy delivery based on patient activity and posture, making it difficult to identify optimal therapy parameter sets for conditions like chronic pain, movement disorders, and psychological disorders.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a medical device that delivers therapy, sensors to monitor activity and posture, and computing devices to determine and analyze activity and posture metric values, allowing for the evaluation of different therapy parameter sets and identification of potentially efficacious sets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If therapy parameters are changed over time to treat different conditions, then treatment versatility is improved, but it becomes difficult to evaluate the relative efficacy of different parameter sets
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring patient activity levels and posture metrics, then using this information to evaluate which therapy parameter sets produce the most beneficial outcomes. The medical device collects data on patient response to different parameter sets and feeds this information back to clinicians for evaluation, enabling evidence-based selection of optimal therapy parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces activity metrics and posture metrics as intermediary measurements that bridge the gap between therapy delivery and clinical evaluation. These metrics serve as objective intermediaries that quantify patient response to therapy, allowing clinicians to evaluate efficacy without relying solely on subjective patient reports.
2Measurement precision
If activity metrics and posture metrics are collected for each therapy parameter set, then therapy evaluation accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The medical device is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a therapy delivery system and an activity/posture monitoring system. By integrating these functions into a single device, the patent reduces overall system complexity compared to using separate devices for therapy delivery and metric collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the therapy delivery functionality with activity monitoring and posture detection capabilities into an integrated system. The medical device combines parameter control for therapy delivery with sensors and processing for collecting activity and posture metrics, eliminating the need for separate monitoring equipment.
3Ease of operation
If clinicians manually evaluate therapy parameter sets, then flexibility in treatment planning is maintained, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by automatically collecting and organizing activity and posture metric data associated with each therapy parameter set. The medical device autonomously monitors patient response, stores metrics with corresponding parameter set identifiers, and prepares evaluation data for clinician review, reducing the manual effort required for therapy evaluation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by continuously collecting and pre-processing activity and posture metrics in the background during therapy delivery. This preliminary data collection and organization is performed before clinician evaluation is needed, so that when clinicians review parameter sets, the evaluation data is already prepared and readily available.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical device, programmer, or other computing device may determine values of one or more activity and, in some embodiments, posture metrics for each therapy parameter set used by the medical device to deliver therapy. The metric values for a parameter set are determined based on signals generated by the sensors when that therapy parameter set was in use. Activity metric values may be associated with a postural category in addition to a therapy parameter set, and may indicate the duration and intensity of activity within one or more postural categories resulting from delivery of therapy according to a therapy parameter set. A posture metric for a therapy parameter set may indicate the fraction of time spent by the patient in various postures when the medical device used a therapy parameter set. The metric values may be used to evaluate the efficacy of the therapy parameter sets.