Biological information monitoring apparatus and alarm control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9398884-B2
Application number	US-89968410-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2010
Priority date	Oct 7, 2009
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A biological information monitoring apparatus operable to measure biological information of a patient by detecting a biological signal of the patient, and operable to output an alarm, includes an alarm controller which changes the alarm. The alarm includes a first alarm of a first priority and a second alarm of a second priority. When a first condition is satisfied, the first alarm is output. When a second condition is satisfied after the first alarm is output, the alarm controller changes from the first alarm to the second alarm to be output.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A biological information monitoring apparatus operable to measure biological information of a patient by detecting at least one biological signal of the patient, and operable to output an alarm, the biological information monitoring apparatus comprising:
an alarm controller configured to change an outputted alarm from a first alarm of a first priority to a second alarm of a second priority,
wherein, when a first condition is satisfied, the first alarm is output, and when a second condition is satisfied after the first alarm is output, the alarm controller changes the outputted alarm from the first alarm to the second alarm,
wherein the outputted alarm is designated by the alarm controller as a vital alarm when outputted due to an abnormality in the detected at least one biological signal,
when the detected at least one biological signal passes beyond a second condition threshold indicating a dangerous state, or the abnormality in the detected at least one biological signal is continued for a time period, the second condition is satisfied, and
an alarm level, which corresponds to a priority selected from among at least the first priority and the second priority, is selected by a user for each kind of the at least one biological signal; and
wherein the outputted alarm is designated by the alarm controller as a technical alarm when outputted due to an abnormality in at least one technical parameter associated with at least one of the biological information monitoring apparatus, a sensor for measuring the biological information, and a measurement environment of the biological information monitoring apparatus,
when the abnormality in the technical parameter is continued for a time period, the second condition is satisfied, and
an alarm level, which corresponds to a priority selected from among at least the first priority and the second priority, is selected by a user for each kind of the at least one technical parameter.

2. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an inputting unit, wherein after the alarm controller changes the outputted alarm from the first alarm to the second alarm, the user operates the inputting unit to change the outputted alarm from the second alarm to the first alarm.

3. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the alarm controller further changes the outputted alarm from the second alarm to the first alarm when the second condition ceases to be satisfied, and
the second condition ceases to be satisfied when the detected at least one biological signal no longer meets the second condition threshold.

4. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first condition is a condition that the detected at least one biological signal passes beyond a first condition threshold, and selection of the second condition threshold is based at least in part on the first condition threshold.

5. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second condition threshold is set from a plurality of candidate values.

6. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first alarm includes at least one of a first visual alarm and a first auditory alarm and the second alarm includes at least one of a second visual alarm and a second auditory alarm,
a blinking rate of the second visual alarm when present is faster than a blinking rate of the first visual alarm when present, and
a volume of the second auditory alarm when present is louder than a volume of the first auditory alarm when present.

7. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first alarm includes at least one of a first visual alarm and a first auditory alarm and the second alarm includes at least one of a second visual alarm and a second auditory alarm,
a blinking rate of the second visual alarm when present is slower than a blinking rate of the first visual alarm when present, and
a volume of the second auditory alarm when present is quieter than a volume of the first auditory alarm when present.

8. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first alarm includes at least one of a first visual alarm and a first auditory alarm and the second alarm includes at least one of a second visual alarm and a second auditory alarm,
a display color of the second visual alarm when present is different from a display color of the first visual alarm when present, and
a sound of the second auditory alarm when present is different from a sound of the first auditory alarm when present.

9. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the outputted alarm is designated as a technical alarm when outputted due to an abnormality of (i) the biological information monitoring apparatus, (ii) a sensor for measuring the biological information that includes at least one of an oxygen saturation, a blood pressure, an electrocardiogram, and respiration, (iii) an interface between the sensor and the patient, or (iv) a communication of a wireless signal between components of the biological information monitoring apparatus.

10. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second priority is higher in priority than the first priority.

11. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first priority is higher in priority than the second priority.

12. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first alarm is output from a speaker, and the second alarm is output from the speaker.

13. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first priority and the second priority are different from each other in priority, and
the first priority and the second priority are each one of a high priority, a medium priority and a low priority, which are alarm condition priorities in an alarm standard for a biological information apparatus.

14. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first priority and the second priority are preset based on degree of a risk resulting from the abnormality.

15. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of an auditory output or a visual output characterizing the second alarm changes as the dangerous state changes between a low priority state, a medium priority state and a high priority state.

16. The biological information monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the time period and the second condition threshold are each independently set from a plurality of candidate values.

17. A method of controlling an alarm outputted from a biological information monitoring apparatus operable to measure biological information of a patient by detecting at least one biological signal of the patient, the method comprising:
outputting an alarm as a first alarm of a first priority when a first condition is satisfied, and
changing the outputted alarm from the first alarm to a second alarm of a second priority when a second condition is satisfied after outputting the first alarm,
wherein the outputted alarm is designated as a vital alarm when outputted due to an abnormality in the detected at least one biological signal,
when the detected at least one biological signal passes beyond a second condition threshold indicating a dangerous state, or the abnormality in the detect

Assignees

• Tanishima Masami
• Echigo Masahiro
• Oyagi Rie
• Tezuka Shinji
• Enomoto Yoshinori
• Nihon Kohden Corp

Inventors

• Tanishima Masami
• Echigo Masahiro
• Oyagi Rie
• Tezuka Shinji
• Enomoto Yoshinori

Classifications

• A61B5/746 Primary

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

• A61B5/1455

  using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters · CPC title

• A61B2560/0276

  Determining malfunction · CPC title