Pressure measurement
AssigneeBruin Biometrics, LLC
InventorMartin F. Burns
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for evaluating tissue structure in damaged or healing tissue. The present disclosure also provides methods of identifying a patient at the onset of risk of pressure ulcer or at risk of the onset of pressure ulcer, and treating the patient with anatomy-specific clinical interventions selected, based on pressure measurements. The present disclosure also provides methods of stratifying groups of patients based on risk of wound development and methods of reducing incidence of tissue damage in a care facility. The present disclosure also provides methods to analyze trends of pressure values to detect tissue damage before it is visible, and methods to compare bisymmetric pressure values to identify damaged tissue.
Claims17
A method for identifying and providing an appropriate level of care to a patient in a care facility, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) taking a plurality of pressure measurements of the patient at one or more body locations;
- b) determining an average pressure value of the plurality of pressure measurements of the patient;
- c) providing one or more anatomy-specific interventions based on the average pressure value;
- d) increasing the level of anatomy-specific interventions based on an increase in the average pressure value;
- and
- e) decreasing the level of anatomy-specific interventions based on a decrease in the average pressure value.
A method of managing care of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) taking a first set of pressure measurements at one or more body locations selected for monitoring upon admission to a care facility;
- b) determining a first average pressure value of each of the first set of pressure measurements;
- c) setting an intervention level to N=1 if one of the average pressure value of the first set of pressure measurements is above a first threshold;
- d) implementing a level-N intervention for each of the one or more body locations having an average pressure value above a first threshold;
- e) taking subsequent sets of pressure measurements at each of the one or more body locations at a level-N frequency;
- and
- f) determining new average pressure values for each of the one or more body locations.
A method of identifying and treating a patient at risk of tissue damage, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) evaluating a patient for a risk of tissue damage upon admission to a care facility, wherein the evaluating step comprises:
- i) taking a first plurality of pressure measurements in the patient;
- ii) determining a first average pressure value of the first plurality of pressure measurements;
- b) administering a first intervention of level-0 if the first average pressure value is below or equal to a first threshold;
- and
- c) administering a first intervention of level-N if the first average pressure value is above the first threshold, where N is an integer and N has a value of 1 or greater.
A method of identifying and treating a patient in need of an intervention for pressure ulcer, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) taking a plurality of pressure measurements at an anatomic site of the patient;
- b) determining an average pressure value of the plurality of pressure measurements;
- c) determining whether the average pressure value exceeds a threshold corresponding to level N, where N is greater than or equal to 2;
- d) administering the intervention for pressure ulcer to the anatomic site if the average pressure value exceeds the threshold;
- and
- e) taking a plurality of pressure measurements every two hours if the average pressure value exceeds the threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.