Medical device with resuscitation prompts depending on elapsed time
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus are provided for determining a defibrillation treatment protocol in an external defibrillator using a measurement of elapsed time. The present invention provides a defibrillator with a timer function. Upon activation of the defibrillator, an internal timer begins to run. By closely associating the activation of the defibrillator with the onset of the patient's attack, and by making allowances for inherent time differences between these events, the timer provides a measure of the elapsed time between the onset of the patient's emergency and the presentation of the defibrillator at the patient's side. Using this measure of elapsed time, the defibrillator determines an appropriate treatment therapy, such as CPR or defibrillation therapy.
1. An external defibrillator for providing a selected treatment protocol to a patient comprising:
a connection port capable of receiving electrodes, the electrodes being capable of being attached to a patient so as to provide patient data to the defibrillator; and
a controller coupled to the connection port, and configured to:
receive an activation command that has been generated externally from the defibrillator,
start a timer function responsive to the received activation command,
sample an elapsed time from the timer function, and
order a CPR protocol if the elapsed time is greater than a set time, else order a shock treatment protocol if the elapsed time is less than the set time.
2. The defibrillator of claim 1 , further comprising:
an output device, and
in which the elapsed time is output through the output device so as to be readable by a human user.
3. The defibrillator of claim 1 , further comprising:
a selectable override function configured within the controller that immediately orders the shock treatment protocol when selected.
4. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which
the controller is further configured to sense a patient connection, and to sample the elapsed time in association with sensing the patient connection.
5. The defibrillator of claim 1 , further comprising:
a power on mode and an automatic power off mode, and
in which the timer function continues to operate for a period of time after the defibrillator passes from power on mode to power off mode.
6. The defibrillator of claim 1 , further comprising:
a low power circuit, and
in which the timer function is operable through the low power circuit.
7. The defibrillator of claim 6 , further comprising:
a power off and power on mode, and
in which the low power circuit remains active in power off mode.
8. The defibrillator of claim 1 , further comprising:
a non-volatile memory, and
in which the controller is further configured to:
store in the non-volatile memory a start time associated with when the timer function is started,
sample a second time, and
sample the elapsed time by comparing the second time with the start time.
9. The defibrillator of claim 8 , further comprising:
a real-time clock function, and
in which the start time is recorded by sampling the clock time, and
the second time is also recorded by sampling the clock time.
10. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which the controller is further configured so as to
sense whether CPR is being administered to the patient, and
order a shock treatment protocol upon sensing that CPR is being administered to the patient.
11. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which
the controller is further configured to be instructed by a user to bypass ordering one of the CPR protocol and the shock treatment protocol based on whether the elapsed time is greater or less than the set time, and to proceed directly to ordering the shock treatment protocol.
12. The defibrillator of claim 11 , further comprising:
an input device for the user to enter the bypass instruction.
13. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which
when the shock treatment protocol is ordered, the controller is further configured to:
perform a shock analysis;
order a CPR treatment protocol if shock treatment is not indicated by the shock analysis; and
issue a defibrillation shock if shock treatment is indicated by the shock analysis.
14. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which
the controller is further configured to offset the elapsed time by an adjustment value.
15. The defibrillator of claim 14 , in which
the adjustment value is decoded from the activation command.
16. The defibrillator of claim 1 , in which
the controller is further configured to order hypothermia therapy if the elapsed time is greater than a threshold time which is longer than the set time.