# US 12,191,030 B2 · Medical device with natural language processor

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- Number: US 12,191,030 B2
- Document ID: US12191030B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/657,790
- Filed: 2015-03-13
- Published: 2016-01-07
- Granted: 2025-01-07
- Earliest claimed: 2014-07-07
- Assignees: ZOLL Medical Corporation
- Applicants: Zoll Medical Corporation
- Inventors: Rachel H. Carlson; Shane S. Volpe; Thomas E. Kaib; Gregory R. Frank; Jason T. Whiting
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12191030B2

## CPC

- G16H 40/63: for local operation
- G16H 10/20: for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
- G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA

## Abstract

An external medical device is provided. The external medical device includes a memory and circuitry, in communication with the memory, to receive input specifying at least in part at least one prompt relating to a health survey for a patient, the at least one prompt being customized based on the patient; convert the at least one prompt to an audio representation; and perform the health survey by at least delivering to the patient the audio representation.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An external cardiac monitoring device for providing audio health surveys to a heart failure patient comprising:
a garment configured to be worn by the heart failure patient, the garment comprising:
a plurality of electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes disposed in the garment and configured to couple to the heart failure patient and to acquire ECG signals of the heart failure patient over an extended period of time, and
a plurality of therapy electrodes disposed in the garment and configured to deliver a therapeutic shock to the heart failure patient;
a memory; and
circuitry, configured to communicate with the memory and the plurality of ECG electrodes, and further configured to:
monitor the ECG signals for a patient abnormality in the heart failure patient;
receive custom prompt data from a health care provider specifying a customized health care survey for the heart failure patient;
parse the custom prompt data to identify a target event detectable by the external cardiac monitoring device, a plurality of custom text prompts to be included in the health care survey, the plurality of custom text prompts comprising a plurality of questions regarding the target event, a target response to be addressed by the external cardiac monitoring device, and one or more actions that the external cardiac monitoring device is to perform based upon how the heart failure patient responds to the health care survey, a particular one of the one or more actions being associated with the target response;
detect a location of the external cardiac monitoring device;
determine one or more language-based parameters for the patient, the one or more language-based parameters comprising a language associated with the location of the cardiac monitoring device;
monitor the patient or the device for the target event;
convert the plurality of questions into an audio representation of the plurality of questions using the one or more language-based parameters comprising the language associated with the location of the cardiac monitoring device;
responsive to detecting the target event, deliver to the heart failure patient the audio representation of the plurality of questions;
receive patient responses to the audio representation of the plurality of questions;
determine that at least one of the patient responses comprises the target response to be addressed by the external cardiac monitoring device as identified from parsing the custom prompt data received from the health care provider;
perform a predetermined action in response to determining that at least one of the patient responses comprises the target response, wherein the predetermined action comprises adjusting a configurable parameter of the external cardiac monitoring device that defines a course of treatment executed by the external cardiac monitoring device to treat the heart failure patient;
provide an output report relating to the health care survey, the output report comprising a visual representation of changes in answers provided by the heart failure patient to at least one of the questions over a time period, wherein the visual representation shows answers provided by the heart failure patient over multiple performances of the health care survey; and
responsive to detecting, using the plurality of ECG electrodes, a life-threatening arrhythmia, deliver, using the plurality of therapy electrodes, one or more pacing pulses or a defibrillating shock to the patient.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the external cardiac monitoring device comprises a non-invasive medical device.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the external cardiac monitoring device comprises an ambulatory medical device capable of and designed for moving with the heart failure patient.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the external cardiac monitoring device includes components to be continuously worn by the heart failure patient.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry includes circuitry to provide a user interface via which the custom prompt data from the health care provider is received.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry includes circuitry to:
determine, based on the custom prompt data, a target time period for performing the health care survey according to a schedule; and
record the target time period within the schedule.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 6, wherein the circuitry includes circuitry to determine the target time period based on an operating mode of the external cardiac monitoring device.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 7, wherein the circuitry to determine the target time period is configured to determine the target time period as being as soon as possible where the operating mode of the external cardiac monitoring device is set to a health survey mode.

### Claim 9 (depends on 6)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 6, wherein the custom prompt data specifies the target time period.

### Claim 10 (depends on 6)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 6, wherein the custom prompt data omits the target time period and the circuitry includes circuitry to store the target time period as a default time period.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry includes circuitry to:
record the patient responses;
determine results based on the patient responses; and
provide the results to an external entity via a user interface.

### Claim 12 (depends on 6)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 6, wherein the target time period includes a reoccurring time period.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry includes circuitry to:
output an audio representation of at least one of the patient responses.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1,
further comprising a cross-reference stored in the memory, the cross-reference including associations between response types and addresses for target recipients,
wherein the circuitry includes circuitry
to identify at least one response type of a particular one of the patient responses,
to identify at least one address for at least one target recipient from the cross-reference using the at least one response type, and
to transmit at least one notification to the at least one target recipient.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1,
further comprising a cross-reference stored in the memory, the cross-reference including associations between response types and addresses for target recipients,
wherein the circuitry includes circuitry
to identify at least one response type of a particular one of the patient responses,
to identify at least one address for at least one target recipient from the cross-reference using the at least one response type, and
to transmit at least one notification to the at least one target recipient,
the at least one target recipient including a device associated with at least one of the health care provider, a support provider, or a care taker and
the at least one notification including a natural language representation of at least one of a name of the heart failure patient, a location of the heart failure patient, a condition of the heart failure patient, or at least one of the patient responses.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1,
further comprising a cross-reference stored in the memory, the cross-reference including associations between response types and priorities for subsequent actions,
wherein the circuitry includes circuitry
to identify at least one response type of a particular one of the patient responses,
to identify at least one priority from the cross-reference using the at least one response type, and
to transmit at least one notification with the at least one priority.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to detect one or more health indicators in the heart failure patient, and the output report comprises at least one patient health trend that indicates a change in speech of the heart failure patient.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 17, wherein the one or more health indicators comprise at least one of shortness of breath, fatigue, or an emergency condition.

### Claim 19 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to alert the heart failure patient of one or more health indicators by providing at least one of a request to provide shortness of breath information or a request to provide fatigue information.

### Claim 20 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions that the external cardiac monitoring device is to perform comprises at least one of requesting additional information from the heart failure patient, providing additional training information to the heart failure patient, or requesting emergency assistance on behalf of the heart failure patient.

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the visual representation includes a selectable indicator that, when selected, causes an answer that was provided by the heart failure patient on a particular date to be displayed.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the visual representation includes a navigation bar that, when manipulated, causes the visual representation to display answers provided by the heart failure patient during a particular portion of the time period.

### Claim 23 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to
deliver to the heart failure patient the audio representation of the plurality of questions in association with a physical activity test selected by the health care provider for the heart failure patient,
wherein the plurality of custom text prompts further comprise a prompt requesting that the heart failure patient perform the physical activity test,
wherein the plurality of questions includes a first plurality of questions scheduled for delivery to the heart failure patient before the physical activity test,
wherein the plurality of questions includes a second plurality of questions scheduled for delivery to the heart failure patient after the physical activity test, and
wherein delivering to the heart failure patient the audio representation of the plurality of questions in association with the physical activity test comprises delivering an audio representation of the first plurality of questions before the physical activity test and delivering an audio representation of the second plurality of questions after the physical activity test;
detect one or more health indicators in the heart failure patient during performance of the physical activity test; and
alert the heart failure patient of the one or more health indicators during the physical activity test by one or more of instructing the heart failure patient to slow down during the physical activity test based upon the one or more health indicators or instructing the heart failure patient to stop the physical activity test based upon the one or more health indicators.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 23, wherein the physical activity test comprises a six minute walk test.

### Claim 25 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein adjusting the configurable parameter causes administration of the therapeutic shock to be delayed or expedited.

### Claim 26 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions that the external cardiac monitoring device is to perform comprises prompting a user, via a natural language prompt, to call an emergency service.

### Claim 27 (depends on 1)

The external cardiac monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions that the external cardiac monitoring device is to perform comprises prompting a user to change a battery of the external cardiac monitoring device.