Method and apparatus to control drug therapy dosages in an implantable pump
An implantable drug infusion pump for delivering drug therapy to a patient and which also permits a patient to deliver or self-administer an additional bolus, reduces the likelihood of over dosage or under dosage by drug dosage characteristic limitations programmed into a microprocessor memory. The dose limits define the maximum and minimum amount of drug to be delivered per unit time or otherwise, reducing the likelihood that a patient may inadvertently or deliberately interfere with a treatment regimen.
1. A method for providing a drug therapy in an automatic drug therapy delivery system, the method comprising:
(a) implanting at least one implantable pump into a patient;
(b) programming a dose infusion characteristic value into a programmable memory location using a radio frequency signal, the dose infusion characteristic value selected from the group consisting of a base rate drug flow, a maximum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a minimum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a patient activation request, drug monitoring delivery data, a rolling average rate limit for a predetermined period of time, a nominal dosage rate, and a minimum time interval between bolus requests;
(c) delivering using the at least one implantable pump, in response to a patient originated stimulus, a bolus of a first drug to the patient in response to an input signal received by a programmable controller upon the determination of the programmable controller that the bolus is compliant with the dose infusion characteristic;
(d) determining a first amount of the first drug and a second amount of a second drug delivered to the patient;
(e) determining whether there exists a risk of overdosage or underdosage of the drug therapy;
(f) if a risk of overdosage or underdosage is determined, notifying the patient;
(g) sensing an efficacy of a treatment based on the first drug and the second drug; and
(h) determining a first alternative dosage of the first drug and a second alternative dosage of the second drug from the sensed efficacy.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the dose infusion characteristic limits the drug bolus frequency.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the dose infusion characteristic limits the drug bolus size.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the dose infusion characteristic limits the drug bolus frequency and size.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the dose infusion characteristic is programmed into the programmable controller by a patient care provider.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the programmable controller is programmable using a radio frequency programming link.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sensing efficacy of the bolus.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alternative dosage is limited by a dose limit.
9. A method of providing controlled treatment therapy to a patient using at least one implantable pump, comprising:
(a) implanting at least one implantable pump into a patient;
(b) receiving from a health care provider a set of drug dosage limit information for a first drug and a second drug describing at least one drug therapy dosage limit, the at least one drug therapy limit selected from the group consisting of a base rate drug flow, a maximum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a minimum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a patient activation request, drug monitoring delivery data, a rolling average rate limit for a predetermined period of time, a nominal dosage rate, and a minimum time interval between bolus requests;
(c) receiving from the patient drug delivery instructions describing a first amount for a first drug and a second amount for a second drug to be delivered;
(d) storing in memory historical information relating to the first and second amounts delivered to the patient;
(e) sensing an efficacy of the first and second drugs delivered to the patient based on the historical information; and
(f) separately administering the first drug and the second drug based on the sensed efficacy using the at least one implantable pump.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
displaying feedback in the form of a notification mechanism if the drug delivery approaches the drug therapy dosage limit.
11. The method of providing a controlled treatment therapy of claim 10 , wherein the notification mechanism is a LCD display.
12. The method of providing a controlled treatment therapy of claim 10 , wherein the notification mechanism is an enunciator.
13. The method of providing a controlled treatment therapy of claim 9 , wherein the drug dosage limit information is selected from the group consisting of maximum daily dosage, minimum daily dosage, and bolus dosage.
14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining an alternate dosage based on the sensed efficacy, the alternate dosage limited by a dose limit.
15. An apparatus that is implantable into a patient and that provides a drug therapy, the apparatus comprising:
a processor;
a memory having stored therein machine executable instructions, that when executed, cause the apparatus to:
sense an efficacy of a treatment, wherein the treatment incorporates a first drug and a second drug; and
separately administer within the patient the first drug and the second drug based on the sensed efficacy and a dose infusion characteristic value selected from the group consisting of a base rate drug flow, a maximum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a minimum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a patient activation request, drug monitoring delivery data, a rolling average rate limit for a predetermined period of time, a nominal dosage rate, and a minimum time interval between bolus requests using at least one implantable pump.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
administer the first drug and the second drug at different rates and different times.