Various medical devices, including patient monitors, analyze and display different kinds of physiological and/or psychological parameters detected by one or more sensors connected to a patient. These parameters may be shown in waveform or numerical form, wherein the waveform could depict values of the parameters for a period and the numerical form could depict current values of the parameters. Medical staff can monitor the patient's physical conditions by the medical device, and further identify alarming conditions by detected parameter values.
For example, for a patient in surgery or under anesthesia, a multi-parameter patient monitor may be used to monitor conventional physiological parameters of the patient, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and blood oxygen, and display information of detected parameters, such as by waveform, numerical values, or otherwise, in an interface of the patient monitor. A single parameter monitor for Bispectral Index (BIS) monitoring and another single parameter monitor for Neuromuscular Transmission (NMT) monitoring may be used to monitor and display conditions of awareness and muscle relaxation. In order to ascertain the depth of anesthesia for the patient, medical staff have to view information on these monitors and then make a judgment based on experience. Because the amount of information on these monitors is vast, doctors have to spend time choosing parameters that may be used to determine the depth of anesthesia. On another hand, because all useful information is scattered on different monitors, the doctor has to view all parameters one by one and then combine the current and past parameters to make the judgment. In addition, patient monitors may be provided by different manufactures, so the parameters displayed on each patient monitor may be inconsistent. These situations affect the medical staff judgment regarding whether a dose of anesthetic is suitable and impact the doctor's ability to effectively make medical judgments.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds