Abstract: A cardiorespiratory alert system is described which comprises a patient unit which communicates with a caregiver unit, via an optional central base station in a Hospital Configuration, or via a base station in an Alternate Site/Home Configuration. A number of techniques are employed, including 1) withholding an alert in the presence of an apparent alert condition on some channels when a satisfactory signal condition exists on a different channel, and 2) correlating the conditions found in the signals for one parameter with those found for other parameters to confirm or discount the significance of the signals, so as to result in a system which provides alerts to the caregiver unit when life-threatening conditions are detected in the patient, yet is tolerant to the presence of artifact so that false positives are reduced. The present invention utilizes patient cooperation as well as a number of artifact reducing mechanisms to provide increased immunity to artifact.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 19, 1992
Date of Patent:
September 20, 1994
Assignee:
Somnus Corporation
Inventors:
Robert Bornn, Jeff L. Levinsky, Robert D. Ricks, Laura A. Worth