Local access to situation reports using a wearable medical device
Access to a situation report about a patient experiencing a medical event is provided via a short range connection, such as a BLE connection, between a wearable medical device and a communication device of a trained support person. The wearable medical device is worn by the patient and gathers patient data related to the medical event, such as an arrythmia. Patient data are processed into situation information which is formatted for easy translation by the communication device into the situation report. The resulting situation report is accessible by the trained support person via the communication device with relevant information to assist in providing medical support for the patient.
1 . A method for a cardioverter defibrillator support system to provide local access to a situation report for assisting a patient, the method comprising:
gathering patient data by a wearable cardiac device (WCD) worn by a patient;
determining by the WCD, that the patient experiences a medical event including one or more arrythmias when the patient is at a location away from a medical treatment site, based at least in part, on the patient data;
initiating defibrillation treatment for the one or more arrythmias by the WCD;
processing at least a portion of the patient data to produce situation information associated with the medical event, wherein the processing includes formatting the situation information for inclusion in the situation report;
broadcasting, by the WCD, a connectable advertising packet that includes data about the medical event for a trained support person to use to decide to assist the patient and to accept a connection with the WCD to receive the situation information;
receiving an acceptance from a communication device of the trained support person;
in response to receiving the acceptance, establishing by the WCD, a short-range connection with the communication device of the trained support person; and
transferring by the WCD, the situation information to the communication device via the short-range connection to generate the situation report at the communication device for use by the trained support person to administer treatment to the patient according to the situation information.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing the short-range connection includes sending an invitation to the communication device to trigger launching of a reporting application on the communication device, and wherein the situation report is generated by the reporting application using the situation information.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein formatting the situation information includes inserting indications in the situation information to specify one or more fields of the situation report for inclusion of the situation information by the reporting application.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transferring the situation information includes providing at least one of: an electrocardiogram (ECG) stream of the patient data of a current patient state recently captured by the WCD or one or more ECG snippets of a prior patient state previously captured patient data, and wherein the situation information includes patient data related to the defibrillation treatment.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the short-range connection includes a BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) connection, and wherein the method further comprises providing via the BLE connection, a first universally unique identification (UUID) for the medical event associated with arrythmia to specify a service that includes receiving situation information and a second UUID for characteristics of the situation information for arrythmia treatment.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing patient spotting information including at least one of: patient location information or a physical description of the patient to assist in locating the patient.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing to the communication device, a user prompt for the trained support person to enter the acceptance prior to the trained support person making physical contact with the patient at the location.
8 . A method for a cardioverter defibrillator support system to provide local access to a situation report for assisting a patient, the method comprising:
determining, by a wearable cardiac device (WCD), that a patient experiences a medical event including one or more arrythmias when the patient is away from a medical treatment site, based at least in part, on patient data gathered by the WCD;
initiating defibrillation treatment for the one or more arrythmias by the WCD;
processing at least a portion of the patient data to produce situation information associated with the medical event; and
in response to determining the medical event, establishing a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection with a communication device of a trained support person, wherein establishing the connection includes:
disseminating a BLE advertising packet for receipt by the communication device to advertise the medical event that includes data about the medical event for the trained support person to use to decide to assist the patient and to accept a connection with the WCD to receive the situation information for use by the trained support person to administer medical care to the patient;
receiving an acceptance for the connection from the communication device to access to situation information;
in response to receiving the acceptance, establishing a one-to-one connection with the communication device; and
transferring by the WCD in a BLE data packet via the one-to-one connection, the situation information formatted for inclusion in the situation report generated by a reporting application running on the communication device.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the BLE advertising packet includes sending an invitation to the communication device to trigger launching of the reporting application on the communication device.
10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the BLE advertising packet and/or the BLE data packet includes patient spotting information including at least one of: patient location information or a physical description of the patient to assist in locating the patient.
11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the BLE connection is bidirectional and the method further comprises:
receiving from the communication device, a request for particular additional situation information; and
transferring by the WCD in one or more additional BLE packets, the additional situation information.
12 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising providing via the BLE connection, a first universally unique identification (UUID) for the medical event associated with arrythmia to specify a service that includes receiving situation information and a second UUID for characteristics of the situation information for arrythmia treatment.
13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein formatting the situation information includes inserting indications in the situation information to specify one or more fields of the situation report to be used for inclusion of the situation information by the reporting application.
14 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the situation information includes x and y coordinate data for the reporting application to create an electrocardiogram (ECG) for display on the communication device.
15 . A cardioverter defibrillator support system to provide local access to a situation report for assisting a patient, the cardioverter defibrillator support system comprising:
a wearable cardiac device (WCD) that is wearable by the patient, the WCD comprising:
one or more sensors to collect patient data associated with the patient;
a patient assessment module to determine that the patient experiences a medical event including one or more arrythmias, based at least in part on the patient data;
a treatment unit to provide defibrillation treatment for the one or more arrythmias;
an interface to establish a short-range connection with a communication device of a trained support person in response to determining the medical event; and
one or more processors and logic encoded in one or more non-transitory media for execution by the one or more processors and when executed operable to perform steps comprising:
processing, by a situation information module, at least a portion of the patient data to produce situation information associated with the medical event experienced by the patient when the patient is away from a medical treatment site, wherein the processing includes formatting the situation information for inclusion in the situation report;
broadcasting, by the WCD, a connectable advertising packet that includes data about the medical event for the trained support person to use to decide to assist the patient and to accept a connection with the WCD to receive the situation information;
receiving an acceptance from the communication device of the trained support person; and
in response to receiving the acceptance, transferring the situation information to the communication device via the short-range connection during a critical time for care to generate the situation report for use by the trained support person to administer medical care to the patient according to the situation information.
16 . The cardioverter defibrillator support system of claim 15 , further comprising a reporting application for use by the communication device, configured to generate the situation report incorporating the situation information received from the WCD.
17 . The cardioverter defibrillator support system of claim 16 , wherein formatting the situation information includes inserting indications in the situation information to specify one or more fields of the situation report to be used for inclusion of the situation information by the reporting application.
18 . The cardioverter defibrillator support system of claim 16 , wherein the situation information includes x and y coordinate data and wherein the reporting application is further configured to translate the x and y coordinate data into graphic representations on an electrocardiogram (ECG) for display on the communication device.
19 . The cardioverter defibrillator support system of claim 16 , wherein the logic is operable to perform steps comprising:
transferring via the short-range connection, a first universally unique identification (UUID) for the medical event associated with arrythmia to specify a service that includes receiving situation information and a second UUID for characteristics of the situation information for arrythmia treatment.
20 . The cardioverter defibrillator support system of claim 15 , wherein the situation information includes information regarding previous treatment and/or immediate future treatment for the medical event.