Wearable device obtaining audio data for diagnosis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10229754-B2
Application number	US-201615552383-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2016
Priority date	Mar 9, 2015
Publication date	Mar 12, 2019
Grant date	Mar 12, 2019

Abstract

Systems, devices, and methods for providing audio database for health systems that may utilize wearable devices that monitor wearable sensor readings for symptoms associated with a disease and that may prompt a user of the wearable device to place a microphone from the wearable device on a specific location on the user's body for recording an audio file that may be sent to a health professional for diagnosis of the disease.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of diagnosing a disease using a wearable device worn by a user, the wearable device having a display and wearable sensors, the wearable sensors including at least one microphone, the method comprising:
monitoring, with the wearable device, wearable sensor data generated by the wearable sensors;
analyzing, with the wearable device, the wearable sensor data to determine whether the user is exhibiting symptoms of a disease, the analyzing comprising comparing at least one portion of the wearable sensor data to at least one disease-specific alert setting, wherein a match of the at least one portion of the wearable sensor data to the at least one disease-specific alert setting is indicative of the user exhibiting symptoms of the disease;
instructing the user in response to the analysis indicating that the user is exhibiting symptoms of a disease, to place the at least one microphone on a specific location on the user's body for obtaining audio data for auscultation for diagnosing whether the user has the disease, wherein the instructing includes providing a representation of a human body on the display with an indicator corresponding to the specific location on the body where the at least one microphone should be placed; and
after instructing the user, capturing the audio data via the microphone.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying, on the wearable device display, a disease-selection user interface (UI) for displaying a plurality of diseases the wearable device may be configured to monitor for;
receiving a user selection, via the disease-selection UI, of at least one disease for monitoring and diagnosis; and
configuring the wearable device, based on the user selection, with the disease-specific alert settings for executing said analyzing.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
transmitting the user selection from the wearable device to a network having a server alert database having a plurality of disease-specific alert settings corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of diseases; and
receiving, from the server alert database, the disease-specific alert settings.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, with the wearable device, the audio data to a third party diagnostician device;
receiving, with the wearable device, a diagnosis message from the third party diagnostician device; and
displaying, on the wearable device display, the diagnosis message.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said instructing includes displaying, on the wearable device display, a user alert UI, the user alert UI having:
at least one triggering data field for displaying the wearable sensor data that meets or exceeds the one or more disease-specific alert settings; and
an alert message field for displaying an alert message for notifying the user of the disease the user is exhibiting symptoms of.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said instructing includes providing at least one of visual, audio, and haptic feedback with the wearable device for indicating when the at least one microphone is getting closer or getting farther away from the specific location on the user's body.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the wearable sensor data includes at least one of user respiration rate, user heart rate, user temperature, user blood pressure, user movement, user audio, user blood oxygen level, and user blood glucose level.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further including processing, with the wearable device, the wearable sensor data to generate processed sensor data, wherein said comparing further includes comparing the processed sensor data to the one or more disease-specific alert settings.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said processing includes processing the user audio to identify user disease symptom sounds.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said processing includes generating cumulative sensor data from the sensor data and the processed data.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said processing includes:
selecting an algorithm of a plurality of audio processing algorithms based on the step of analyzing, wherein the selected algorithm is associated with at least one of the disease and the specific location of the user's body; and
applying the selected algorithm to process the user audio.

12. A wearable device for diagnosing a disease comprising:
a display;
wearable sensors including at least one microphone; and
a machine-readable storage medium for storing machine executable instructions designed and configured to cause the wearable device to:
monitor wearable sensor data generated by said wearable sensors;
analyze the wearable sensor data to determine whether the user is exhibiting symptoms of a disease by comparing at least one portion of the wearable sensor data to at least one disease-specific alert setting, wherein a match of the at least one portion of the wearable sensor data to the at least one disease-specific alert setting is indicative of the user exhibiting symptoms of the disease;
instruct the user, in response to the analysis indicating that the user is exhibiting symptoms of a disease, to place the at least one microphone on a specific location on the user's body for obtaining audio data for auscultation for diagnosing whether the user has the disease, wherein instructing the user includes providing a representation of a human body on the display with an indicator corresponding to the specific location on the body where the at least one microphone should be placed; and
after instructing the user, capturing the audio data via the microphone.

13. The wearable device according to claim 12 , wherein said machine executable instructions are further designed and configured to:
display, on said wearable device display, a disease-selection user interface (UI) for displaying a plurality of diseases the wearable device may be configured to monitor for;
receive a user selection, via the disease-selection UI, of at least one disease for monitoring and diagnosis; and
configure the wearable device, based on the user selection, with the disease-specific alert settings for executing said analyzing.

14. The wearable device according to claim 12 , wherein said machine executable instructions are further designed and configured to:
transmit a user selection from said wearable device to a network having a server alert database having a plurality of disease-specific alert settings corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of diseases; and
receive, from the server alert database, said disease-specific alert settings.

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Cronin John E
• Philbin Steven M

Classifications

• G16H50/20

  for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems · CPC title

• G16H70/60

  relating to pathologies · CPC title

• G16H40/67

  for remote operation · CPC title

• A61B5/746 Primary

  Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms · CPC title

• A61B2560/0242

  adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution · CPC title