DESC:FORM 2

THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

Title of invention:
DEVICE AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING HEALTH MONITORING OF A PATIENT

Applicant
Tata Consultancy Services Limited
A company Incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 1956
Having address:
Nirmal Building, 9th floor,
Nariman point, Mumbai 400021,
Maharashtra, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND PRIORITY

[001] The present application claims priority from Indian provisional specification no. 826/MUM/2015 filed on 13th March, 2015, the complete disclosure of which, in its entirety is herein incorporated by references.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[002] The present application generally relates to the field of health monitoring of a patient. More particularly, but not specifically, the disclosure is related to device and method for facilitating health monitoring of a patient using automatic therapy adaptation based on patient performance / health parameters.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[003] An electronic health record (EHR), or electronic medical record (EMR), is a systematic collection of electronic health information about an individual patient or population. In a current practice, doctor or medical practitioners manually selects any exercise or therapy for a particular patient based on his/her personal knowledge and experience. In addition to that the doctors also access to the EMR of the patient. The therapy selection is more or less patient specific, whereas it should be based on the particular disease or disorder or any kind of impairments. In a country like India where ratio between doctors and patient is 1000:1, it is very difficult to manage and provide personal attention to every patient.

[004] In addition to that, it is also not possible to find a good doctor and often they lack domain specific knowledge while selecting or suggesting any therapy. Even if they are available, it is difficult to get their appointment and could be very costly to the patient. In case the suggestion is provided, it is found that the suggestion is very specific to patient rather than diseases. In addition to that, sometimes the doctors are unaware of potential conflict among different therapies/exercises. When the doctor finds any interesting fact about any therapy during interaction with any patient, practicing exercises, they circulate them in a very close circle. Often this type of important information gets lost or is not visible to the greater community. In any rehabilitation kind of scenario, the situation is much worse for any new therapy because administrator or program manager has to design tools for data capture, select parameters to be extracted, order them for proper evaluation etc.

[005] In addition to that, when the patient practice or perform the exercises/therapies during rehabilitation, their performance is monitored using a set of predefined parameters which are extracted/obtained manually (by observation) or automatically (by any algorithm), during practice session. These parameters extracted/obtained from the exercise are very much indicative of one’ physical/health condition (or how he/she is performing exercise). Doctor or medical practitioner usually observe changes in these parameters, to suggest a new therapy or advanced one. Further, the patient cannot log or provide personal feedback with respect to exercises or therapies. Given a set of exercises, doctor has to build or refer new therapy. If new therapy module is not present then doctor has to suggest a new development. Further, another concern is that the doctor cannot view/share patient’s feedback on usability, stress etc. for any therapy or exercise.

[006] Prior art literatures have illustrated various other approaches for facilitating health monitoring of the patient. One of the device in the art prior provides recommendation regarding the rehabilitation of the patient. But it does not take the feedback of the patient in to consideration. Further, this device does not share the patient information over s network.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION

[007] In accordance with the present disclosure, the primary objective is to provide a device and method for facilitating health care of a patient.

[008] Another objective of the present disclosure is to provide a device and method for automatically providing rehabilitation therapy to the patient based on the doctor’s recommendation and the patient feedback.

[009] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a device which can share the therapy details with respect to the patient and the disease over a network to various other doctors.

[0010] Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures, which are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Before the present methods, systems, and hardware enablement are described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular systems, and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments of the present invention which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosure. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention which will be limited only by the appended claims.

[0012] The present invention provides a device for facilitating health monitoring of a patient. The present disclosure discloses a therapy building toolbox (i.e., the device) for doctors or medical practitioner. The toolbox mainly contains exercises and therapies which are nothing but spatio-temporal combination of different exercises. The doctors or medical practitioner may use this toolbox to mix and match different exercises to build a new therapy and upload the same for future reference. The mix and match may happen over time-space. In similar way, the doctors may combine different therapies spatio-temporally to build a complete therapy-package. Further, the doctors may view, select, build, and upload exercises/therapies/packages to the toolbox.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure the device comprises a database, an input/output interface, a plurality of sensors and a processor. The data includes a plurality of exercises. The input/output interface in communication with the database. The input/output interface is accessible by a caregiver to select a first set of exercises out of the plurality of exercises to build a therapy. The therapy is configured to improve the health of the patient. The plurality of sensors monitors the first set of exercises performed by the patient. The plurality of sensors generate a first set of parameters. The first set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient. The processor is configured to monitor the first set of parameters and receive a feedback from the patient. The processor further configured to recommend a second set of exercises based on the monitoring to improve the health of the patient.

[0014] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the doctors may view potential conflict among different therapies. The device also enables a doctor to delegate therapy/exercise to another doctor or ask for other doctor’s inputs/suggestions or make discussion on the same. According to aspects of present disclosure, the doctors maintains a personal note with respect to any exercise/therapy or any package. Moreover, the patient also documents their feedback on user-experience, pain, stress level etc. for a particular exercises or therapy. Further, the present disclosure provides a social network platform where a doctor can view, asses or discuss on particular therapy, share patients usability or personal note within a private or public group.

[0015] According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a method has also been provided for facilitating the health monitoring of the patient. Initially, the database is maintained, wherein the database includes a plurality of exercises. Then the first set of exercises are selected out of the plurality of exercises to build a therapy. The therapy configured to improve the health of the patient. In the next step, the first set of exercises performed by the patient are monitored using the plurality of sensors. Then the first set of parameters are extracted by the processor from the first set of exercises performed by the patient. The set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient. In the next step, the set of parameters and the feedback is received from the patient are monitored by the processor. And finally a second set of exercises are recommended by the processor based on the monitoring and the feedback from the patient to improve the health of the patient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, are better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings exemplary constructions of the invention; however, the invention is not limited to the specific methods and system disclosed. In the drawings:

[0017] Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of network implementation of a device and a monitoring terminal for facilitating health monitoring, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter;

[0018] Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic representation of selection of plurality of exercises to make a therapy, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
[0019] Fig. 3 illustrates a flowchart representing the steps involved in facilitating the health monitoring of the patient, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure; and

[0020] Fig. 4A-4B illustrates graphical representation of examples for facilitating the monitoring health of the patient, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter; and

[0021] It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagram herein represent conceptual views of illustrative systems embodying the principles of the present subject matter. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computing device or processor, whether or not such computing device or processor is explicitly shown.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0022] Some embodiments of this invention, illustrating all its features, will now be discussed in detail.

[0023] The words "comprising," "having," "containing," and "including," and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items.

[0024] It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any systems and methods similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the present invention, the preferred, systems and methods are now described. In the following description for the purpose of explanation and understanding reference has been made to numerous embodiments for which the intent is not to limit the scope of the invention.

[0025] One or more components of the invention are described as module for the understanding of the specification. For example, a module may include self-contained component in a hardware circuit comprising of logical gate, semiconductor device, integrated circuits or any other discrete component. The module may also be a part of any software programme executed by any hardware entity for example processor. The implementation of module as a software programme may include a set of logical instructions to be executed by a processor or any other hardware entity.

[0026] The disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms.

[0027] The elements illustrated in the Figures interoperate as explained in more detail below. Before setting forth the detailed explanation, however, it is noted that all of the discussion below, regardless of the particular implementation being described, is exemplary in nature, rather than limiting. For example, although selected aspects, features, or components of the implementations are depicted as being stored in memories, all or part of the systems and methods consistent with the attrition warning system and method may be stored on, distributed across, or read from other machine-readable media.

[0028] Method steps of the invention may be performed by one or more computer processors executing a program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform functions of the invention by operating on input and generating output. Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, the processor receives (reads) instructions and data from a memory (such as a read-only memory and/or a random access memory) and writes (stores) instructions and data to the memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include, for example, all forms of non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices, including EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays). A computer can generally also receive (read) programs and data from, and write (store) programs and data to, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or a removable disk.

[0029] A network implementation of a device 100 for facilitating health monitoring of a patient is illustrated in Fig 1. in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Although the present disclosure is explained considering that a monitoring terminal 102 is implemented as a software application on a server, it may be understood that the monitoring terminal 102 may also be implemented as a variety of computing systems, such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook, a workstation, a mainframe computer, a server, a network server, a tablet, a mobile phone, and the like. According to embodiments of present disclosure, the device 100 may be communicatively coupled to the monitoring terminal 102 through a network.

[0030] In one implementation, the network may be a wireless network, a wired network or a combination thereof. The network can be implemented as one of the different types of networks, such as intranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, and the like. The network may either be a dedicated network or a shared network. The shared network represents an association of the different types of networks that use a variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and the like, to communicate with one another. Further the network may include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, servers, computing devices, storage devices, and the like.

[0031] The device 100 illustrated in the figure 1 may further comprises a database 104, an input/output (I/O) interface 106, a plurality of sensors 108 and a processor 110. The processor 110 may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions.

[0032] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the database is loaded with a plurality of exercises. Generally in medical domain, given a patient with some diseases / disorders / some-kind of impairments, doctor analyzes his / her condition and suggests one or multiple exercises. These exercises are stored in the database 104. For example, a therapy Timed Up and Go (TUG) which is used to asses patient’s balance (or mobility), is temporal combination of exercises comprising standup from chair, walk to the line on the floor at normal pace, turn, walk back to the chair at normal pace, and sit down again.

[0033] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the I/O interface 106 is in communication with the database 104. The I/O interface 106 may include a variety of software and hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface, a graphical user interface, and the like. The I/O interface 106 may allow the system 100 to interact with the monitoring terminal 102. The I/O interface 106 can facilitate multiple communications within a wide variety of networks and protocol types, including wireless networks, such as WLAN, cellular, or satellite. The I/O interface 106 is configured to be accessed by the caregiver or a doctor. Based on the disease or treatment required for the patient, the doctor selects a first set of exercise out of the plurality of exercises present in the database 104. The first set of exercise build a therapy for the patient. The therapy is chosen such a way that it is supposed to improve the health of the patient. For example, for a patient with Parkinson Disease, the doctor usually checks whether he / she has any gait abnormalities or not. Based on the observation, the doctor may suggest few exercises like simple standing, sitting, walking and the like. These exercises cumulatively form a therapy. In the other words, the therapy can be thought of as spatio-temporal combination of exercises as shown in the Fig. 2.

[0034] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the device 100 also includes the plurality of sensors 108. The doctors usually monitors patient’s performance. The plurality of sensors 108 are configured to monitor the first set of exercises performed by the patient. In various examples, the plurality of sensors 108 include a temperature sensor, a motion sensor, an acceleration sensor, weight sensor, blood pressure sensor, etc. The use of any other sensor is well within the scope of this disclosure. The plurality of sensors 108 generates a first set of parameters. The set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient. The first set of parameters are compared with a predefined set of parameters. If changes are observed in the first set of parameters, it clearly indicates to the doctor about patient’s physical/health condition.

[0035] According to an embodiment of present disclosure, the processor 110 may be configured to track the changes happening in the first set of parameters corresponding to the patient. In addition to that, the processor 110 is also configured to receive a feedback from the patient about their health. Further, the processor 110 is also configured to receive a second set of parameters using the I/O interface 106. The second set of parameters includes at least one of a locational information and surrounding environmental condition of the patient. Further, based on such observation (i.e., changes in the parameters), the device 100 provides automatic therapy adaptation for the patient. In the other words, the processor 100 provides recommendations to the doctor for new or advanced therapies based on history based parameter evaluation for the patient. The advanced therapy includes a second set of exercises based on the monitoring. The second set of exercises further configured to improve the health of the patient.

[0036] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the device 100 is further configured to share the therapy a set of doctors over a network. The set of doctors may be located at a distant location. In another embodiment the doctor can build therapy in terms of exercise. Once therapy building is done, they can upload the therapy in the device 100 for further use.

[0037] Further, the doctor spatio-temporally combines different exercises to build a new therapy. Similarly multiple therapies can be spatio-temporally combined to build a therapy-package which can be recommended to the patient. In another embodiment, the device 100 also configured to upload the same therapy or a new therapy or therapy-package for future reference which can be seen and utilized by other doctors associated with the device 100. In yet another embodiment, the device 100 further enables the doctors to make a personal note with respect to any exercise, therapy or therapy-package. The device 100 also enables the doctor to view potential conflict among different exercises/therapies based on the patient details. The device 100 also facilitate the patient to document their feedback on user-experience, pain, stress level etc. for a particular exercises or therapy. Further, the present disclosure also provides a social network platform where a doctor can view, asses or discuss on particular therapy, share patients usability or personal note within a private or public group.

[0038] The same can be explained with the help of following example, patients with acute prolapsed intervertebral disc are commonly given some exercises like spinal flexion and extension for physiotherapy. However, spinal extension (bending back) is contraindicated if (i) when no position or movement decreases or centralizes the pain sensation, (ii) when saddle anesthesia and/or bladder control problems is present (could indicate spinal-cord or cauda equina lesion because of large central disc herniation), (iii) when the patient is within such extreme pain he rigidly holds the body immobile. Further, spinal flexion (bending forward) may also contraindicate if when extension relieves the symptoms, and when flexion increases or peripheralises the symptoms.

[0039] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the device 100 further includes a display device 112. The display device 112 is configured to display the first set of parameters and the second set of parameters. In an embodiment the display device 112 can be same as the I/O interface 106.

[0040] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the device 100 further includes an alert generation module 114. The alert generation module 114 is configured to generate an alert in case of an emergency while performing the therapy. The alert can also be generated in any other condition when the patient is connected to the device 100. The use any type of existing alert generation technology is well within the scope of this disclosure.

[0041] In operation, a flowchart 200 illustrating the steps involved for facilitating health monitoring of the patient as shown in Fig. 3 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Initially at step 202, the database 104 is maintained by the caregiver. The database 104 includes a plurality of exercises which are used in the rehabilitation and care of the patient. It should be appreciated that database 104 can be automatically updated over a period of time. In the next step 204, the first set of exercises are selected out of the plurality of exercises. The first set of exercises build a therapy for the patient. The therapy configured to improve the health of the patient. As the therapy is provided to the patient, the patient performs the first set of exercises. At step 206, the first set of exercises are monitored using the plurality of sensors 108. In the next step 208, the first set of parameters are extracted from the first set of exercises performed by the patient. The set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient. In the next step 210, the set of parameters are monitored by the processor 110. At the same time at step 212, the processor 110 also receives the feedback from the patient. The patient tells about the present condition of his health whether he is feeling better or not. And finally at step 214, the second set of exercises are recommended by the processor 110 based on the monitoring and the feedback from the patient to improve the health of the patient.

[0042] Now referring to figure 4A and 4B illustrate examples for monitoring health of the patient according to an embodiment of the disclosure. If the doctor diagnoses a patient with balance impairment, then he/she can use the device 102 to select various exercises for that patient. It may be note to person skilled in art, that the device 102 is not only limited to above example, but also it is applicable across variety of diseases and patients. If the patient has both static and dynamic impairments then the doctor can temporally combine following exercises to build a therapy. (1st exercise for static balance for 4 months and then exercise for dynamic balance for 6 months). In one example, the health of the patient may be monitored for a given set of scenario as shown is below table.

Exercise Standing
Target Patient Patient with balance impairment
Parameters How body oscillates with respect to Medial-Lateral and Anterior-Posterior plane
Evaluation time 4 Months

[0043] Based on the above scenarios, a balance profile over time may be generated, as shown in Fig. 4A, indicating how the body of the patient oscillates with respect to medial-lateral and anterior-posterior plane. In the graph as shown in Fig. 4A, blue line indicates an initial balance, red line indicates balance after 10 days, green line indicates balance after 20 days, and black line indicates balance after 2 months. Further, from the graph, it may be also observed that the huge improvement of static balance is done only in 2 months. Now, the device 102 automatically derives this improvement in static balance, and suggests a new advanced exercise for dynamic balance which is simple side walking. The suggestion provided is shown in below table.

Exercise Side walking
Target Patient Patient with DYNAMIC balance impairment
Parameters Line of progression
Evaluation time 6 Months

[0044] Based on the above suggestion, another graph may be generated, as shown in Fig. 4B, indicating LOP progression assessment after training (exercise). Further, it may be observed from the graph that though initially the variation of LOP is very less (marked in dotted line), but with the training LOP has been improved (marked in complete line).

[0045] According to another embodiment, the device 100 also provides the automatic therapy recommendation based on patient profile. The patient profile includes at least one of Impairment or demography. For example, given mild cognitive impairment, memory games developed in English may not be suitable for rural Indian patients. Similarly, same set of exercise may not be applicable for all patients with acquired brain injury patients (ABI), as they may have several other medical conditions.

[0046] In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the present disclosure provides a device and method for facilitating the health monitoring of the patient. The preceding description has been presented with reference to various embodiments. Still, it should be understood that the foregoing relates only to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and that numerous changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. ,CLAIMS:WE CLAIM:

1. A device for facilitating health monitoring of a patient, the device comprising:
a database having a plurality of exercises;
a input/output interface in communication with the database, wherein the input/output interface is accessible by a caregiver to select a first set of exercises out of the plurality of exercises to build a therapy, wherein the therapy configured to improve the health of the patient;
a plurality of sensors for monitoring the first set of exercises performed by the patient, wherein the plurality of sensors generating a first set of parameters, wherein the first set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient; and
a processor, wherein the processor is configured to monitor the first set of parameters and receive a feedback from the patient, the processor further configured to recommend a second set of exercises or the therapy based on the monitoring to improve the health of the patient.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor further configured to share the therapy with a set of doctors over a network.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein a doctor from the set of doctors is able to upload a third set of exercise based on the set of parameters and the therapy.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor further configured to receive a second set of parameters, wherein the second set of parameters includes at least one of a psycho-physiological information, locational information and surrounding environmental condition of the patient.

5. The device of claim 1 further includes a memory to store the first and the second set of parameters.

6. The device of claim 1 further includes an alert generating device configured to generate an automatic alert in case of an emergency while performing the therapy.

7. The device of claim 1 further includes a display device to display the first and the second set of parameters.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the automatic therapy recommendation is provided based on patient profile, wherein the patient profile including at least one of Impairment or demography.

9. A method for facilitating health monitoring of a patient, the method comprising:
maintaining a database, wherein the database having a plurality of exercises;
selecting a first set of exercises out of the plurality of exercises to build a therapy, wherein the therapy configured to improve the health of the patient;
monitoring the first set of exercises performed by the patient using a plurality of sensors;
extracting by a processor, a first set of parameters from the first set of exercises performed by the patient, wherein the set of parameters are indicative of the health of the patient;
monitoring by the processor, the set of parameters;
receiving by the processor, a feedback from the patient; and
recommending by the processor, a second set of exercises based on the monitoring and the feedback from the patient to improve the health of the patient.

10. The method of claim 9 further includes developing a therapy package by combining one or more therapies.

11. The method of claim 9 further includes the step of updating the database with new set of exercises for future use.

12. The method of claim 9 further includes the step of making notes with respect to the exercise, the therapy or the therapy package.

13. The method of claim 9 further includes the step of getting an electronic medical record of the patient.

14. The method of claim 9 further includes the step of sharing the therapy to one or more caregivers over a network.