WO2013156633A1

WO2013156633A1 - Method for monitoring patients and providing remote assistance

Info

Publication number: WO2013156633A1
Application number: PCT/ES2012/070250
Authority: WO
Inventors: Begoña CATTANEO Villa
Original assignee: Bicave Consulting S.L.
Priority date: 2012-04-16
Filing date: 2012-04-16
Publication date: 2013-10-24

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for monitoring patients, especially chronic patients, and providing them with remote assistance. The method is based on natural interaction and comprises the performance of a remote assistance activity using the screen of a device for recognizing and capturing movement and replicating same in a virtual image, said activity being complemented with images and information from the device.

Description

Method for monitoring and telecare for patients

Technical sector

The present invention relates in general to a method for monitoring and telecare to patients, in particular chronic patients, based on natural interaction and in particular, to a method comprising performing a telecare activity using the screen of a device for recognition and capture of movement and replication in a virtual image, with interleaving this activity with images or device information.

A device for recognition and motion capture and replication in a virtual image should be understood throughout this memory a console based on PC / Intel technology, equipped with the "Kinect" system or similar.

Background of the invention

The continuous aging of the population and the consequent increase in chronic patients, the appearance of increasingly sophisticated drugs and medical treatments (and at the same time very expensive) and an increasingly demanding population are the factors that determine and / or condition the health care in developed countries that are calling into question the sustainability of health systems. It is therefore necessary to look for new models and make use of technological advances to optimize system resources and ensure quality assistance to citizens.

Undoubtedly, chronic diseases, those that require constant treatment over a long period of time, nowadays pose the greatest challenge for health systems, both due to the associated mortality rate and the high health costs involved. The prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing dramatically worldwide in recent years. In fact, it is estimated that by 2020 more than 60% of the world's population will live with a chronic disease (as defined by the WHO). As for the causes of mortality, noncommunicable diseases and mental disorders already account for 59% of total mortality and projections for the year 2020 indicate that 4 of the 5 leading causes of death on that date may be considered chronic diseases

In many chronic diseases, adequate control and continued treatment and / or follow-up reduce episodes of exacerbation, minimize disease progression significantly decreasing morbidity and increasing patient welfare.

Healthcare models have traditionally been oriented to the care of acute pathologies and isolated episodes. Such a model is not prepared to meet the demand of chronic patients, who require extensive use of health resources and need continued attention. The result is saturated hospitals, long waiting lists, and a high health expenditure at a time of economic situation in which the sustainability of health systems is in question.

In this context it is clear the need to evolve the care model to a new model focused on the chronic patient, where preventive medicine, personalized services, continuity of care, primary care and multidisciplinarity in care have a greater weight.

The cost of home care and follow-up of chronic patients according to the traditional model is very high and its large-scale application is complicated. It is in this aspect that information technologies and, in particular, telemedicine and telecare are called upon to play a fundamental role and become a catalyst for the change of model.

In this regard, it should be noted that the involvement of health personnel is key to guaranteeing the success of new developments. In fact, there are many failed experiences due to wrong strategies because they have not sufficiently involved healthcare personnel. It is not about creating new figures (tele-doctors or tele-nurses but integrating existing staff into new technologies for the provision of their services through new channels.

There are a large number of documents that describe the use of information technologies to facilitate the monitoring and control of patients such as, for example, direct interaction between healthcare staff and the patient through email, telephone, mobile devices, internet or systems of indirect communication (guides, questionnaires, etc.).

The most notable examples are the inventions described in US5544649

Ambulatory patient health monitoring techniques utilizing interactive visual communication by David, et al., Which describes a mechanism to monitor a patient through interactive television and audio. US7733224 Mesh Network Personal Emergency Response Appliance of Tran, Bao, proposes a wireless network mesh with multiple cameras and sensors to analyze elderly patients. These two inventions, unlike the present invention, do not use any device for recognition and motion capture to perform monitoring and telecare with natural interaction for patients.

The invention described in US7835926 Method for conducting a home health session using an integrated television-based broadband home health system Naido, et al., Presents a remote health management system although it does not specify the technical components used or the particular interaction of health personnel with the patient.

US0082363 On-Line Healthcare Consultation Services System And Method

Of Using Same, Habashi, Nader, refers to an assistance unit capable of conducting bidirectional audiovisual conferences to provide real-time medical care consultations to a patient remotely. This method does not include the use of the monitoring device to conduct said two-way conferences or the performance of exercises by the patient.

Brief Description of the Invention

From the above, it is clear that it is necessary to offer an alternative to the state of the art that allows monitoring and telecare to patients by performing contemporary supervision and guidance activities to patient exercises, by telecare,

Said monitoring should enable the care of these patients by the health personnel for which purpose physiological parameter values should be acquired before, during and after the exercise.

For this purpose, the present invention concerns a method for monitoring and remote assistance to patients, through the interaction of medical staff with a patient / user, with the help of a movement recognition and capture device, suitable for replication in an image virtual representative of the patient executing said movements (exercises scheduled among others), said method comprising:

- performing said patient / user a series of exercises with the help of instructions or guidelines provided by said movement recognition and capture device, which integrates at least one camera, and a screen in which images or graphic information of a computer program that provides the aforementioned virtual image (replica of the patient's activity) and which varies in response to the patient's movements reproducing them on a preset background of the image; The system will measure frequencies, angles, distances and other parameters that allow checking the quality of the exercises performed.

- acquire, during the performance of said exercises, data about physiological parameters (such as tension, lung capacity, oxygen saturation and blood pressure), at the same time or every period of time, by means of sensor devices capable of measuring physiological data;

- transmit said physiological parameter data acquired by said sensor devices to an external server; Y

- perform at least one remote assistance videoconferencing device using the same screen of the device as support, with the interleaving of this videoconference with the aforementioned images or information, so that the optional assistance staff is integrated into the scenario of the activity of the controlled patient (exercises) through the aforementioned multimedia provision.

In accordance with the proposal of this invention, in said cited recognition and motion capture device said acquired physiological parameters data and a series of values of particular predefined exercises of the patient are stored and, said exercises performed by the patient are compared with patterns of control.

The method includes issuing a warning, by said recognition and motion capture device, by means of an alarm, in case the values detected in said comparison are anomalous values.

The aforementioned external server remotely monitors said physiological parameter data and stores, in at least one database, a history of operations.

The method includes sending a series of particular exercises through an online connection, by the medical staff to said patient / user, based on the aforementioned physiological parameters data received by said external server.

For said videoconference for telecare, it is provided in an exemplary embodiment to carry out said videoconference or part thereof to several people simultaneously. Brief description of the figures

The foregoing and other advantages and features will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of some embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, which should be taken by way of illustration and not limitation, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of the basic functional architecture used in the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows the recognition and motion capture device, the PC equipment equipped with the "Kinect" sensor, for the interaction of the system with the patient as explained and the sending of data via the Internet used in the present invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of the screen of specific exercises to be performed by the patient.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a screen of messages sent by healthcare personnel who supervise patients.

Detailed exposition of the invention

In Fig. 1 the elements with which the method of the present invention is implemented are schematically shown and which comprise, together with the patient a screen associated with a console, a concentrating device of several sensors applied to the patient (for example pulse oximeter, glucometer , thermometer and blood pressure meter) capable of providing contemporary information to some exercises performed by the patient; a signal routing device connected to a network such as the internet and on the side of the healthcare staff a server of a monitoring system associated with a hospital management system.

The present invention seeks to integrate the data generated by a patient with the information available to him by the health service, all in a highly intuitive and totally bidirectional scenario. The two main actors are the patient and the healthcare professional. The use scenario of the solution object of this invention is as follows:

The patient is at home who is equipped with devices and sensors capable of measuring certain constants. This data is managed and transmitted over the internet to a "remote monitoring center". The patient can receive information from that center either by text, audio or video. The patient You can even hold a videoconference with the staff that monitors you from the "monitoring center". The patient can also hold videoconferences with other people.

The healthcare professional is in the "monitoring center" and receives and evaluates the information he receives from the monitored patient. From the "monitoring center" the healthcare professional can:

Send instructions to the patient

Communicate audiovisually with the patient

Evaluate the advisability of acting in line with the information received Share / consult with other professional partners a symptomatology, treatment, etc.

Likewise, the healthcare professional will decide to include the data received or the results of an inter-consultation in the Patient's History.

To achieve the described scenario, the present invention meets the following requirements:

The present invention, as seen in Fig. 1, consists of a set of data collection devices, a concentrator of the signals from said devices, a console equipped with the "Kinect" sensor (Fig. 2) for the interaction of the system with the patient and the sending of data over the Internet and a display screen as an element of interaction of the patient with the monitoring center.

The use of the Kinect peripheral will allow an absolutely intuitive and gestural handling of the different options presented to the patient. The Kinect peripheral does not need to use any control, with a body movement the system recognizes what the patient is doing. The device detects the movement of the entire body in 3D, thanks to the fact that it integrates a depth sensor, an RGB camera, a multi-matrix microphone and a custom processor with its own software. The device can perform facial recognition to show a profile and avatar (virtual character), being able to move around the interface with a simple hand movement. Therefore the interaction of the patient with the system will be totally intuitive, accessible and understandable for dependent people.

The great advantage that these capabilities provide is that older people, with reduced mobility or who are not accustomed to the management of digital devices can relate to health services and be involved in the self-care of their disease.

On the other hand, the healthcare professional will be in the Monitoring Center and will have a system based on a PC and connected to both the patient's equipment and the health management and Clinical History systems.

The invention is based on the integration of healthcare or medical assistance personnel in the scenario of performance and control of the activities (scheduled exercises) of the patient

Chronic High Impact Diseases

Among the main chronic diseases in terms of prevalence and socio-health impact that this invention can address are respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. The technological solution proposed in this invention is especially suitable for self-care, monitoring and control of these pathologies since similar strategies can be effective in the management of patients with asthma, COPD, diabetes or heart failure. The common elements to improve the treatment of these patients are the following:

Promote active self-care of patients. The patient must be well informed of his illness, have the greatest possible control over it (treatments, habits, etc.) and know when and how he should receive medical assistance.

Continuous monitoring and attention to chronic patients, to control compliance with treatments, and thus prevent crises, complications and hospital admissions due to poor treatment follow-up. Reduce unnecessary hospitalizations: for which it is necessary to reduce hospital stays and favor the early discharge of patients.

Advantages of the invention

Benefits for the patient: improved contact with health services, better control of their disease, possibility of rapid attention or intervention in case of alertness or worsening and in general improvement in their quality of life.

Benefits for healthcare professionals: reduction in the number of face-to-face visits and hospitalization episodes and the ability for the professional to have more frequent, simple, fast and reliable patient follow-up

Benefits for health systems: cost reduction (cost optimization, hospitalization costs, etc.) and optimization of health resources.

Claims

1. - Method for monitoring and telecare to patients, through the interaction of medical staff with a patient / user, with support in a device for recognition and capture of movement and replication in a representative virtual image of the patient, said method comprising:

- perform said patient / user a series of exercises with the help of instructions or guidelines of said movement recognition and capture device, which integrates at least one camera, and a screen in which images or graphic information of a program are displayed computer that provides the aforementioned virtual image and that varies in response to the patient's movements reproducing them on a preset background of the image;

- acquire, during the performance of said exercises, data on various physiological parameters, at one time or each period of time, by at least one multisensor device capable of measuring physiological data;

- transmitting said physiological parameter data acquired by said multisensor device to an external server; Y

- by means of said recognition and motion capture device, a video assistance teleconference using the same screen of the device, with this videoconferencing with the said images or information.

2. - Method according to claim 1, wherein said acquired physiological parameters data and a series of values of particular predefined exercises of the patient are stored in said recognition and movement capture and replication device.

3. - Method according to claim 3, characterized in that said acquired physiological parameter data is selected from tension, lung capacity, oxygen saturation and blood pressure.

4. - Method according to claim 2, characterized by comparing said exercises performed by said recognition and motion capture device by the patient, previously stored in said recognition and motion capture device with control patterns.

5. Method according to claim 4, characterized by issuing a warning, by said recognition and motion capture device, by means of an alarm, in case of detecting anomalous values in said comparison.

6. - Method according to claim 4, characterized by the intervention of said optional staff during said comparison or for evaluation.

7. - Method according to claim 1, wherein said external server remotely monitors said physiological parameter data and stores, in at least one database, a history of operations.

8. - Method according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises sending a series of particular exercises, by said optional staff for said patient / user, based on said physiological parameters data received from said external server to said recognition device and motion capture.

9. - Method according to claim 8, wherein said sending of said particular exercises is done through an online connection.

10. - Method according to claim 9, wherein said support or correction of said exercises is performed by said optional staff.

11. - Method according to claim 1, wherein said motion recognition and capture device is a video game console.

12. Method according to claim 1, wherein said videoconference for telecare is carried out with several people simultaneously.