Medical device for fall detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11308783-B2
Application number	US-202016879499-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2020
Priority date	May 29, 2019
Publication date	Apr 19, 2022
Grant date	Apr 19, 2022

Abstract

A medical device is configured to produce an accelerometer signal and detect a patient fall from the accelerometer signal. The device generates a body posture signal and a body acceleration signal from the accelerometer signal and detects a patient fall in response to determining that the body posture signal and the body acceleration signal meet fall detection criteria. The medical device is configured to receive a truth signal from another device that is not the medical device. The truth signal may indicate that the detected patient fall is a falsely detected patient fall and, responsive to receiving the truth signal, the medical device adjusts at least one fall detection control parameter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A medical device comprising:
an accelerometer circuit configured to produce an accelerometer signal and generate a body posture signal and a body acceleration signal from the accelerometer signal;
a control circuit configured to receive the body posture signal and the body acceleration signal and:
determine that the body posture signal and the body acceleration signal meet fall detection criteria by:
determining a first body posture vector from the body posture signal at a first time point;
determining a second body posture vector from the body posture signal at a second time point later than the first time point of the first body posture vector;
determining a directional change metric correlated to an angle between the first body posture vector and the second body posture vector;
determining that the directional change metric is greater than a threshold directional change;
detecting an acceleration signal spike from the body acceleration signal; and
determining that the acceleration signal spike and the second time point are within a fall time window of each other;

detect a patient fall in response to the body posture signal and the body acceleration signal meeting the fall detection criteria;
determine a third body posture vector at a third time point after the second time point determine a directional change metric between the third body posture vector and at least one of the first body posture vector and the second body posture vector;
determine that the directional change metric meets fall recovery criteria;
determine a fall recovery time as a time interval from the second time point to the third time point in response to the directional change metric meeting the fall recovery criteria; and
determine at least one of a trend in a frequency of fall detections and a trend in fall recovery time durations in response to detecting the patient fall; and

a telemetry circuit configured to:
transmit the determined trend;
receive a first truth signal transmitted from another device, the truth signal indicating that the detected patient fall is a falsely detected patient fall,
responsive to the telemetry circuit receiving the first truth signal, the control circuit being further configured to adjust at least one fall detection control parameter used to control at least one of: generating the body posture signal from the accelerometer signal; generating the body acceleration signal from the accelerometer signal; and

determining that the fall detection criteria are met.

2. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to determine the second body posture vector at a predetermined time interval later than the first body posture vector without verifying that the first body posture vector corresponds to an upright patient posture.

3. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein:
the telemetry circuit is further configured to receive a body posture confirmation signal from a personal device; and
the control circuit is configured to establish the first body posture vector from the body posture signal in response to receiving the body posture confirmation signal.

4. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein:
the control circuit is further configured to determine a plurality of body posture vectors from the body posture signal over time;
the medical device further comprises a memory configured to store each of the plurality of body posture vectors with a corresponding time and date stamp;
the telemetry circuit is further configured to receive a data log transmitted from another device, the data log comprising a time and date stamp that is associated with a reference body posture; and
the control circuit is configured to establish the first body posture vector by:
identifying from the stored plurality of body posture vectors at least one body posture vector having a time and date stamp that matches the time and date stamp of the data log that is associated with the reference body posture, and
establishing the first body posture vector based on the at least one body posture vector having the time and date stamp that matches the time and date stamp of the data log.

5. The medical device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a memory for storing fall detection data;
wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
determine that the fall recovery time is greater than a threshold recovery time; and
perform a prioritized fall detection response comprising at least one of generating a fall detection alert and storing fall detection data in the memory in response to the fall recovery time being greater than the threshold recovery time.

6. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
determine a plurality of body posture vectors from the body posture signal, each one of the plurality of body posture vectors comprising at least one body posture signal component determined over a predetermined time interval;
determine at least one directional change metric from the plurality of body posture vectors that is greater than a body posture change threshold, each one of the directional change metrics determined by determining a sum of weighted body posture signal component differences between two of the plurality of body posture vectors; and
detect one of the patient fall and a fall recovery in response to at least one of the determined directional change metrics being greater than a body posture change threshold.

7. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein:
the telemetry circuit is configured to receive a second truth signal indicating a missed fall detection; and
the control circuit is configured to adjust a fall detection control parameter in response to the second truth signal.

8. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein:
the telemetry circuit is configured to receive a signal from a personal device indicating a communication link is established between the personal device and an appliance; and
the control circuit is configured to disable fall detection in response to the signal from the personal device.

9. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein:
the accelerometer circuit is configured to generate a patient physical activity signal;
the control circuit is configured to adjust the fall detection control parameter by:
determining a patient physical activity metric from the patient physical activity signal;
determining that the patient physical activity metric is greater than a threshold activity level;
determining at least one of a directional change in a body posture vector from the body posture signal and a feature of the body acceleration signal corresponding to the patient physical activity metric; and
setting the fall detection control parameter based on one of the directional change in the body posture vector and the feature of the body acceleration signal corresponding to the patient physical activity metric.

10. The medical device of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to determine that the body posture signal meets the fall detection criteria by:
determining a first directional change metric from the body posture signal during a first portion of a twenty four hour period;
switching from determining the first directional change metric to determining a second directional change metric from the body posture signal during a second portion of the twenty four hour period, wherein the second directional change metric is determined differently than the first directional change metric and corresponds to a change from a first non-upright position to a second non-upright position; and
determining that the body posture signal meets the fall detection criteria in response to one of

Assignees

• Medtronic Inc

Inventors

• Galarneau Michelle M
• Lee Brian B
• Radtke Andrew
• Sharma Vinod

Classifications

• A61B5/746

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

• G08B29/185

  Signal analysis techniques for reducing or preventing false alarms or for enhancing the reliability of the system · CPC title

• A61B5/1116

  Determining posture transitions · CPC title

• A61B5/0031

  Implanted circuitry · CPC title

• A61B5/067 Primary

  using accelerometers or gyroscopes · CPC title