System and method for dynamically adjusting patient therapy
A system and method of managing therapy provided to patients in an institution. The system monitors all aspects of the medication delivery to a patient, as well as other information related to the patient, such as values of vital signs, laboratory results and patient factors such as history, diagnosis, allergies and the like. The system includes one or more databases of information, including institutionally developed rules, guidelines and protocol representing the best medical practices of the institution. The system provides alerts and/or recommendations based on the application of the rules to the information being monitored, and alerts care givers accordingly, providing for dynamic adjustment of the patient's therapy. The system also monitors the status of the alerts, and if no action is taken in a selected period of time, may escalate the priority of the alert and/or halt the delivery of medication to the patient until the alert is resolved.
1. A system for managing therapy provided to a patient, comprising:
a memory comprising a pharmacokinetic (PK) model configured to predict a concentration of a medication within at least a portion of the patient's body tissue; and
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to:
accept a medication identification, a treatment protocol, and patient-specific information;
retrieve the PK model from the memory; and
generate, using the PK model, the medication identification, the treatment protocol, and the patient-specific information, at least one of a recommended dosing schedule and a recommended monitoring schedule for administration of the medication to the patient.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the patient-specific information comprises at least one of the group of an age, a weight, a gender, a diagnosis, a blood pressure, a result of a blood test, and a result of a urine test.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the dosing schedule comprises a bolus dose and a subsequent continuous rate of administration to achieve and maintain a target concentration.
4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one monitoring device configured to measure a concentration of a medication within at least a portion of the patient's body tissue and provide information related to the measured concentration of the medication, wherein the processor is further configured to:
accept the information generated by the at least one monitoring device; and
generate, based on the information from the at least one monitoring device, a recommendation for adjusting at least one of the dosing schedule and the monitoring schedule.
5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a two-way communication system coupled between the memory and the processor.
6. A method of managing therapy provided to a patient, comprising the steps of:
accepting a medication identification, a treatment protocol, and patient-specific information;
retrieving a pharmacokinetic (PK) model from a memory, the PK model configured to predict a concentration of a medication within at least a portion of the patient's body tissue; and
generating automatically, using the PK model, the medication identification, the treatment protocol, and the patient-specific information, at least one of a recommended dosing schedule and a recommended monitoring schedule for administration of the medication to the patient.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the patient-specific information comprises at least one of the group of an age, a weight, a gender, a diagnosis, a blood pressure, a result of a blood test, and a result of a urine test.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the recommended dosing schedule comprises a bolus dose and a subsequent continuous rate of administration to achieve and maintain a target concentration.
9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the steps of:
measuring the concentration of the medication within at least a portion of the patient's body tissue during administration of the medication and providing information related to the concentration of the medication; and
generating automatically, based at least in part on the measured concentration of the medication, a recommendation for adjusting at least one of the dosing schedule and the monitoring schedule.
10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of retrieving a PK model from a memory comprises retrieving the PK model through a two-way communication system coupled to the memory.