System and method for mitigating interference in pulse oximetry

1. A pulse oximetry system comprising;

a sensor body having, an emitter, a detector, and one or more position indicators;

one or more position receivers separate and external from the sensor body and configured to determine the respective positions of the position indicators; and

a processor-based monitor configured to determine changes in absolute position in space of the sensor body based on the positions determined by the one or more position receivers and to process pulse oximetry measurements from the detector using the changes in absolute position to obtain a motion-corrected pulse oximetry measurement.

2. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the processor-based monitor utilizes triangulation to determine the change in the absolute position of the sensor body.

3. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the processor-based pulse oximetry system comprises a display configured to display corrected pulse oximetry data.

4. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the absolute position comprises coordinates denoting the position in space of the sensor body.

5. A pulse oximetry system comprising;

a sensor body comprising;

an emitter;

a detector;

one or more position indicators adapted to detect a change in position of at least one of the sensor body, the emitter, or the detector;

and

a processor-based monitor configured to process pulse oximetry measurements from the detector using the change in position to obtain a corrected pulse oximetry measurement, wherein the processor-based monitor utilizes a data bank of light scatter/absorbance probability as a function of an optical path length to obtain the corrected pulse oximetry measurement.

6. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein the change in position comprises a change in position of the emitter relative to the detector.

7. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein the change in position comprises an absolute position change of the emitter or the detector.

8. The pulse oximetry system, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein absolute position of the emitter or the detector is measured using a Hall effect device.

9. A tangible machine readable medium comprising:

code for emitting light from an emitter proximate to a patient's tissue;

code for detecting a portion of the light on a detector proximate to the tissue;

code for acquiring three-dimensional data for the emitter or for the detector with one or more position indicators;

code for processing the three-dimensional data to determine if there has been a change in position of the emitter or the detector;

code for processing pulse oximetry measurements from the detector; and

code for correcting the pulse oximetry measurements based at least in part on the change in position of the emitter or detector utilizing a data bank of light scatter/absorbance probability as a function of the optical path length.

10. The tangible machine readable medium, as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the absolute position data of the emitter or the detector comprises data obtained from a Hall Effect Device.

11. The tangible machine readable medium, as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the absolute position data of the emitter or the detector comprises data obtained from a RF/IR remote positioning system.

12. The tangible machine readable medium, as set forth in claim 9 , comprising code for determining an optical path length between the emitter and the detector.

13. The tangible machine readable medium, as set forth in claim 9 , comprising code for displaying the corrected pulse oximetry measurements.

14. A method for performing pulse oximetry comprising the acts of:

emitting light from an emitter proximate to a patient's tissue;

detecting a portion of the emitted light on a detector proximate to the tissue;

acquiring three-dimensional data for the emitter and for the detector with one or more position indicators;

processing the three-dimensional data to determine if there has been a change in position of the emitter or the detector;

processing pulse oximetry measurements from the detector; and

correcting the pulse oximetry measurements based at least in part on the change in position of the emitter or the detector by utilizing a data bank of light scatter/absorbance probability as a function of an optical path length.

15. The method, as set forth in claim 14 , wherein acquiring absolute position data comprises:

measuring the position of the emitter and the detector by a Hall Effect Device and a magnet.

16. The method, as set forth in claim 14 , wherein acquiring absolute position data comprises:

measuring the position of the emitter and the detector by a remote RF/IR position sensor.

17. The method, as set forth in claim 14 , comprising determining an optical path length between the emitter and the detector.

18. The method, as set forth in claim 14 , comprising the act of displaying corrected pulse oximetry data.