EP-4739208-A1 - SYSTEM FOR DETECTING EXTERNAL IMPACT ON A PATIENT

EP4739208A1EP 4739208 A1EP4739208 A1EP 4739208A1EP-4739208-A1

Abstract

An implantable medical device (IMD) configured to be implanted within a patient, the IMD comprising: a plurality of sensors comprising an accelerometer; communications circuitry; and processing circuitry coupled to the plurality of sensors and to the communications circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to: determine, based on sensed data from the accelerometer, a change in acceleration experienced by the patient and a change in posture of the patient; determine that the change in acceleration satisfies a first threshold condition; and that the change in posture satisfies a second threshold condition; and based on a determination that the change in acceleration satisfies the first threshold condition and that the change in posture satisfies the second threshold condition, cause the communications circuitry to transmit a notification to a computing device, wherein the notification is configured to cause the computing device to contact a medical care provider.

Inventors

YOON, HYUN J.
WYSZYNSKI, Ryan D.
REILAND, Jerry D.

Assignees

Medtronic, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20240610

Claims (15)

1. An implantable medical device (IMD) configured to be implanted within a patient, the IMD comprising: a plurality of sensors comprising an accelerometer; communications circuitry; and processing circuitry coupled to the plurality of sensors and to the communications circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to: determine, based on sensed data from the accelerometer, a change in acceleration experienced by the patient and a change in posture of the patient; determine that the change in acceleration satisfies a first threshold condition; and that the change in posture satisfies a second threshold condition; and based on a determination that the change in acceleration satisfies the first threshold condition and that the change in posture satisfies the second threshold condition, cause the communications circuitry to transmit a notification indicating the occurrence of an external impact.
2. The IMD of claim 1, wherein the first threshold condition comprises a threshold change in acceleration experienced by the patient.
3. The IMD of claim 2, wherein to determine that the change in acceleration satisfies the threshold change in acceleration, the processing circuitry is configured to: compare a current acceleration detected by the accelerometer to an average acceleration detected by the accelerometer prior to the current acceleration; and determine that a difference between the current acceleration and the average acceleration satisfies the threshold change in acceleration.
4. The IMD of any of claims 1-3, wherein the second threshold condition comprises a change from a first posture to a second posture within a threshold time period.
5. The IMD of claim 4, wherein to determine the change in posture, the processing circuitry is configured to: determine, based on the sensed data, that the patient is in the first posture at a first time; and determine, based on the sensed data, that the patient is in the second posture at a second time, wherein the second time is different from the first time, and wherein to determine that the change in posture satisfies the second threshold condition, the processing circuitry is configured to: determine a time difference between the first time and the second time; compare the time difference against the threshold time period; and determine that the change in posture satisfies the second threshold condition based on a determination that the time difference is less than or equal to the threshold time period.
6. The IMD of any of claims 1-5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: determine, based on the sensed data, values for one or more other physiological parameters; compare, based on the determination that the change in acceleration satisfies the first threshold condition and that the change in posture satisfies the second threshold condition, each of the one or more physiological parameter values against a corresponding threshold condition; and in response to a determination that the one or more physiological parameter values satisfy one or more threshold conditions, cause the communications circuitry to output the notification.
7. The IMD of claim 6, wherein the one or more physiological parameters comprises one or more of: a heart rate of the patient; a stress hormone level of the patient; a respiration rate of the patient; a body temperature of the patient; a blood pressure of the patient; an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal of the patient; a glucose level of the patient; impedance within tissue of the patient; or a blood oxygen saturation level of the patient.
8. The IMD of any of claims 6 and 7, wherein a plurality of physiological parameters comprises the change in acceleration, the change in posture, and the one or more physiological parameters, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: assign for each of the plurality of physiological parameters, a respective weight; determine, for each of the plurality of physiological parameters, in response to satisfaction of a corresponding threshold condition and based on the respective weight, a weighted score; determine an aggregate score based on a summation of a plurality of weighted scores; compare the aggregate score against a threshold score; and based on a determination that the aggregate score satisfies the threshold score, cause the communications circuitry to output the notification.
9. A system comprising: an implantable medical device (IMD) configured to be implanted within a patient, the IMD comprising: a plurality of sensors comprising an accelerometer; an external computing device comprising a user interface; and processing circuitry configured to: receive, from the IMD, sensed data corresponding to values for a plurality of physiological parameters of the patient, the plurality of physiological parameters comprising an acceleration detected by the accelerometer of the IMD; determine, based on the received sensed data, changes to one or more physiological parameters of the plurality of physiological parameters, wherein the changes to the one or more physiological parameters comprises one or more of a change in acceleration experienced by the patient or a change in posture of the patient; compare the changes to each of the one or more physiological parameters to a correspond threshold condition of one or more threshold conditions; and based on a determination that the changes to the one or more physiological parameters satisfy at least one threshold condition of the one or more threshold conditions, cause the external computing device to display a notification to the patient via the user interface.
10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one threshold condition comprises a threshold change in posture of the patient, and wherein the threshold change in posture comprises a change from a first posture to a second posture within a threshold time period.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein to determine the change in posture, the processing circuitry is configured to: determine, based on the received sensed data, that the patient is in the first posture at a first time; and determine, based on the received sensed data, that the patient is in the second posture at a second time, wherein the second time is different from the first time, and wherein to determine that the change in posture satisfies the threshold change in posture, the processing circuitry is configured to: determine a time difference between the first time and the second time; compare the time difference against the threshold time period; and determine that the change in posture satisfies the threshold change in posture based on a determination that the time difference is less than or equals to the threshold time period.
12. The system of any of claims 9-11, wherein the plurality of physiological parameters comprises one or more of: a heart rate of the patient; a stress hormone level of the patient; a respiration rate of the patient; a body temperature of the patient; a blood pressure of the patient; an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal of the patient; a glucose level of the patient; impedance within tissue of the patient; or a blood oxygen saturation level of the patient.
13. The system of any of claims 9-12, wherein the at least one threshold condition comprises a threshold change in acceleration experienced by the patient.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein to determine that the change in acceleration satisfies the threshold change in acceleration, the processing circuitry is configured to: compare a current acceleration detected by the acceleration to an average acceleration detected by the accelerometer prior to the current acceleration; and determine that a difference between the current acceleration and the average acceleration satisfies the threshold change in acceleration.
15. The system of any of claims 9-14, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: assign a weight for each of the plurality of physiological parameters; determine, for each physiological parameter of the one or more physiological parameters that satisfy the corresponding threshold condition of the one or more threshold conditions and based on the respective weight, a weighted score; determine, based on a summation of the weighted scores, an aggregate score; compare the aggregate score against a threshold score; and based on a determination that the aggregate score satisfies the threshold score, cause the external computing device to output the notification.

Description

SYSTEM FOR DETECTING EXTERNAL IMPACT ON A PATIENT [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application, Serial No. 63/511,952, filed July 5, 2023, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The disclosure relates generally to medical systems and, more particularly, medical systems configured to monitor patient activity for changes in patient health. BACKGROUND [0003] Some types of medical systems may monitor various patient data, e.g., cardiac electrogram (EGM) data, of a patient to detect changes in health. In some examples, the medical system may monitor the cardiac EGM data to detect one or more types of arrhythmia, such as bradycardia, tachycardia (e.g., atrial tachycardia), fibrillation (e.g., atrial fibrillation), or asystole (e.g., caused by sinus pause or AV block). In some examples, the medical system may include one or more of an implantable medical device or a wearable device to collect the data. SUMMARY [0004] A medical system may monitor physiological parameters of a patient. Medical systems may include implantable or wearable medical devices and/or sensors configured to sense physiological parameters from the patient. In some cases, a patient may experience an external impact (e.g., as a result of a traffic collision, a collision with a person and/or an object, an impact with a projectile, effects of a nearby explosion, or the like). The external force may cause the patient to experience medical conditions (e.g., contusions, concussions, fractures to bones, cardiac conditions, cranial conditions) which may require medical aid rendered by a medical care provider (e.g., a clinician, an emergency medical services (EMS) provider). Due to the environment the patient is in (e.g., when the patient is isolated) and/or the effect of the external force on the patient, the medical care provider may be delayed in receiving a notification indicating that the patient requires medical aid. [0005] The medical system may determine that the patient experiences an external force based on changes to the physiological parameters and transmit a notification in response to the determination. The medical system may detect a change in one or more physiological parameters and compare the change in the physiological parameters against a threshold condition (e.g., a threshold amount of change) to determine whether the patient experienced an external force. For example, the medical system may determine that the patient experienced an external force by detecting a threshold amount of change in the acceleration experienced by the patient (e.g., in terms of g-forces on the patient), a threshold change in posture of the patient, and/or other metrics indicative of the application of an external force on the body of the patient. The threshold conditions may correspond to a magnitude of the external force and may be used by the medical system to only detect external forces of sufficient magnitude. The medical system may detect occurrences of external force on the patient without requiring signals and/or data from computing devices or computing systems external to the medical system. In some examples, the medical system may include an implantable medical device (IMD) such as an implantable cardiac monitor (ICM). [0006] The medical system described herein may provide several advantages over other medical systems. The medical system described herein may include sensors positioned on or within the patient at locations that may increase the detection accuracy of sensors (e.g., accelerometers) relative to other medical systems, e.g., may allowing the sensors to sense multi-directional sensing vectors corresponding to movement of the patient. In some examples, the medical system may allow for the accurate impact detection without requiring additional implantable, wearable, or external sensors outside of the medical system. In some examples, the medical system may distinguish between different types of external force and provide the information to medical care providers to facilitate the delivery of medical aid to the patient. In some examples, the medical system may automatically adjust threshold conditions for the impact detection process, thereby maintaining and/or increasing the accuracy of the detections made by the medical system. [0007] In some examples, external impacts may lead to downstream effects on the health of the patient after a period of time (e.g., days, weeks, months, years) following the external impact, such as additional health issues. In such examples, upon detection of said additional health issues in the future, information regarding the external impact may be used to inform a clinician of the cause, severity, or treatment of the additional health issues. For example, an external impact near a heart of a patient may negatively affect the heart of the patient and potentially contribute to cardiac-related health issues experienced by the