Patent ID: 9307915
Filing Date: 2016-04-12
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. A method for measuring vital signs from a patient, comprising: (a) affixing to the patient's lower arm a vital sign monitor, the vital sign monitor comprising a first housing enclosing a processing component, a transceiver which communicates with peripheral components using a Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol, and a first accelerometer configured to generate a first time-dependent digital motion waveform indicative of movement of the patient's lower arm and to operably connect to the processing component to transmit the first time-dependent digital motion waveform via the CAN protocol; (b) affixing to a finger of the patient a sensor configured to detect a time-dependent plethysmogram waveform and to operably connect to the processing component to transmit the time-dependent plethysmogram waveform to the processing component; (c) affixing to the patient's chest an integrated circuit operably connected to at least two electrodes, the intergrated circuit and electrodes configured to generate time-dependent digitized ECG waveforms and to operably connect to the processing component to transmit the digitized ECG waveforms to the processing component via the CAN protocol; (d) affixing to the patient's chest a second accelerometer configured to generate a second time-dependent digital motion waveform indicative of movement of the patient's chest and to operably connect to the processing component to transmit the second time-dependent digital motion waveform to the processing component via the CAN protocol; (e) affixing to the patient's upper arm a third accelerometer configured to generate a third time-dependent digital motion waveform indicative of movement of the patient's upper arm and to operably connect to the processing component to transmit the third time-dependent digital motion waveform to the processing component via the CAN protocol; (f) synchronizing and processing with the processing component the time-dependent plethysmogram waveform, the time-dependent digitized ECG waveforms, the first time-dependent digital motion waveform, the second time-dependent digital motion waveform, and the third time-dependent digital motion waveform to determine (i) at least one vital sign calculated using the time-dependent plethysmogram waveform and the time-dependent ECG waveforms, and (ii) one or more motion parameters indicative of the patient's posture, activity level, and degree of motion calculated using the first, second and third time-dependent digital motion waveforms.