Surgery: light – thermal – and electrical application – Light – thermal – and electrical application – Electrical therapeutic systems
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-30
2001-11-20
Kamm, William E. (Department: 3762)
Surgery: light, thermal, and electrical application
Light, thermal, and electrical application
Electrical therapeutic systems
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321113
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to medical emergency event management and, in particular, relates to a computer-based communications network and database for management of emergency medical events such as sudden cardiac arrest rescue events.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cardiac arrest, exposure to high-voltage power lines, and other trauma to the body can result in ventricular fibrillation which is the rapid and uncoordinated contraction of the myocardium. The use of external defibrillators to restore the heartbeat to its normal pace through the application of electrical shock is a well-recognized and important tool in resuscitating patients. External defibrillation is used in emergency settings in which the patient is either unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate.
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are used by first responders such as police officers, paramedics, and other emergency medical technicians to resuscitate cardiac arrest patients. The AED must be used quickly and properly by the first responder, since the chance of successfully resuscitating the patient decreases approximately 10 percent-per-minute following cardiac arrest.
With the advent of emerging technologies such as AEDs, emergency medical systems (EMS) have greater opportunities for saving lives. However, because of increasing health care costs, an elevated standard of care, and competitiveness in the health care provider market, EMS directors must improve their management of cardiac rescue events with AEDs.
Unfortunately, current attempts at managing performance of sudden cardiac arrest rescues suffer from a lack of coordination and cohesiveness that is necessary to accurately and comprehensively track and evaluate out-of-hospital cardiac arrest rescues. For example, data regarding a cardiac rescue attempt typically arrives to the EMS director from several sources, occurring at different points in time, and commonly in different formats which must be integrated away from the cardiac rescue site. Moreover, current techniques of reviewing cardiac rescue events lack the appropriate data to make significant strides in improving the quality of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Finally, conventional computer-based tools for integrating and reviewing cardiac rescue data inflexibly require separate review and analysis of the incident, the AED and AED operator performance, and the ECG.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method and system of the present invention manages cardiac rescue events. Unlike prior systems, this method and system uses a rescue scene computer to obtain patient and incident data at the rescue scene and then marry that data with ECG rescue data and automated external defibrillator (AED) rescue data. All of these data are then simultaneously transmitted to a base computer at an emergency medical center for review. Accordingly, a reviewer at the base computer can immediately review the ECG and AED performance in context with patient and incident data.
The method and system includes a Windows®-based single screen graphical user interface for entering and reviewing the data, and particularly includes a window for viewing ECG data simultaneously with entry and review of all other data available in the single screen user interface.
In addition, as data (e.g., ECG, patient, incident, AED, etc.) are placed in the system, these data are instantly registered by the system with corresponding NHSTA codes. This feature automatically readies the cardiac rescue data for reporting to national authorities. In addition, the NHSTA codes are embedded in the background of the active data fields to permit selective activation, deactivation, modification, and/or initialization. Moreover, appropriate data fields are supplied to insure all data for UTSTEIN-style reporting is obtained to permit UTSTEIN-style reporting of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Finally, the system and method uses open database connectivity (ODBC) to permit any desired data from a cardiac rescue event that are logged into other types of systems and methods to be imported into the method and system of the present invention. Similarly, data from the system and method of the present invention can be exported to other ODBC-compatible data management systems and methods for further review, revision, or publication.
The system and method comprises one or more of the following elements including a base computer, a portable rescue scene computer, an automated external defibrillator (AED), and a communication link for linking the rescue scene computer to the base computer and/or the AED. The system and method further includes software that is programmed in the base computer and rescue scene computer to operate the single screen user interface and database.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3925762 (1975-12-01), Heitlinger et al.
patent: 4216462 (1980-08-01), McGrath et al.
patent: 4281330 (1981-07-01), Warrick
patent: 4290114 (1981-09-01), Sinay
patent: 4319241 (1982-03-01), Mount
patent: 4715385 (1987-12-01), Cudahy et al.
patent: 4895161 (1990-01-01), Cudahy et al.
patent: 5243975 (1993-09-01), Alferness et al.
patent: 5345552 (1994-09-01), Brown
patent: 5456261 (1995-10-01), Luczyk
patent: 5549115 (1996-08-01), Morgan et al.
patent: 5549659 (1996-08-01), Johansen et al.
patent: 5593426 (1997-01-01), Morgan et al.
patent: 5680864 (1997-10-01), Morgan et al.
patent: 5716380 (1998-02-01), Yerkovich et al.
patent: WO 96/14620 (1996-05-01), None
Bradley Matthew G.
Lindseth Sarah M.
Parker William S.
Splinter Patrick J.
Kamm William E.
Patterson Thuente Skaar & Christensen P.A.
SurVivaLink Corporation
LandOfFree
Automatic external defibrillator first responder and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Automatic external defibrillator first responder and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic external defibrillator first responder and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2571033