Outpatient Monitoring Systems and Methods

A system for remote monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals having reduced bit data and/or reduced number of channels, representative of patient's vital signs, the system comprising:

• at least one portable monitor configured to:
• acquire, store and compress/reduce data signals representative of patients' vital signs with a lossy compression/bit reduction algorithm/channel reduction procedure;
• and
• transmit the compressed data signals along with some uncompressed vital signs signal data fragments;
• and
• at least one monitoring computer station, the monitoring computer station comprising:
• a downloading module for obtaining the compressed/reduced data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments;
• and
• a verification module visually distinguishing between the compressed/reduced data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments.

A system for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs, interpretation results data, and manually marked patient symptoms information data, the system comprising:

• at least one portable patient monitor, the portable patient monitor comprising:
• an acquisition module for acquiring digital data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs;
• an analysis module for interpreting the acquired digital data signals;
• an interactive user interface for reporting subjective symptoms;
• a recording module for storing the full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information entered via the user interface;
• and
• a transmission module configured to transmit the data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information entered via the user interface.

A method for remote monitoring of patients' state associated with interpretation results data representative of the patients' vital signs, comprising the steps of:

• remotely initializing at least one monitoring session having an associated unique identification number;
• obtaining the sessions' identification number;
• associating a patients' personal data and a consultants' personal data with the obtained sessions' identification number;
• transmitting vital signs signals with interpretation results;
• verifying the interpretation results data and/or post-processing the received signals data and/or inserting comments to the interpretation results data;
• and
• synchronizing the verified or commented on interpretation results data with a data interpretation center and repository.

A method for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with analysis of full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs having a reduced bit data/reduced number of channels, comprising the steps of:

• receiving bit-reduced and/or channel-reduced full-disclosure signals data representative of a patients' vital signs and uncompressed/unreduced data signals fragments;
• visually reviewing the compressed/reduced full-disclosure signals data representative of a patients' vital signs and the uncompressed data signals fragments;
• and
• remotely requesting additional uncompressed/unreduced data signals fragments for a more detailed analysis and/or verification.

A method for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure signals data representative of a patients' vital signs, automatically generated interpretation data results, and manually marked patient symptoms information, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving, in a remote location, data representative of a patients' full-disclosure signals with interpretation data results and manually marked subjective symptoms information;
• reviewing, from the remote location, the data representative of a patients' full-disclosure signals with the interpretation data results and the manually marked subjective symptoms information;
• and
• reporting, from the remote location, the interpretation data results and the manually marked subjective patient symptoms information.

A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

• remotely initialize at least one monitoring session having an associated unique identification number;
• obtaining the sessions' identification number;
• associate a patients' personal data and a consultants' personal data with the obtained sessions' identification number;
• transmit vital signs signals with interpretation results;
• verify the interpretation results data and/or post-processing the received signals data and/or inserting comments to the interpretation results data and
• synchronize the verified or commented on interpretation results data with a data interpretation center and repository.

A system for remote monitoring and consultations of a patients' state associated with automated interpretation of vital signs signals, the system comprising:

• at least one means for portable monitoring, each means for portable monitoring configured to:
• acquire data signals representative of a patient's vital signs;
• interpret the representative data signals;
• and
• generate interpretation result data;
• and
• transmit the interpretation results and the vital signs signals;
• and
• at least one monitoring computer station, the monitoring computer station comprising:
• means for obtaining the data signals representative of the patients' vital signs and the interpretation result data;
• means for viewing the obtained data signals representative of the patients' vital signs and the interpretation result data;
• means for correcting and/or affixing comments to the interpretation result data;
• and
• means for synchronizing the revised interpretation result data with a data interpretation center and repository.

A system for remote monitoring of patients' state associated with analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals having reduced bit data and/or reduced number of channels, representative of patient's vital signs, the system comprising:

• at least one means for portable monitoring configured to:
• acquire, store and compress data signals representative of patients' vital signs with a lossy compression/bit reduction algorithm/channel reduction procedure;
• and
• transmit the compressed/reduced data signals along with some uncompressed/unreduced vital signs signal data fragments;
• and
• at least one means for monitoring, the means for monitoring comprising:
• means for obtaining the compressed data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments;
• and
• means for visually distinguishing between the compressed/reduced data signals and the uncompressed/unreduced data fragments.

A system for remote monitoring of a patients' state associated with ongoing automated analysis and transmission of full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs, interpretation results data, and manually marked patient symptoms information data, the system comprising:

• at least one means for portable patient monitoring, the means for portable patient monitoring comprising:
• means for acquiring digital data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs;
• means for interpreting the acquired digital data signals;
• means for reporting subjective symptoms;
• means for defining symptom's characteristics;
• and
• means for defining patient's activity and circumstances related to the symptom's occurrence;
• means for storing the full-disclosure data signals representative of vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information entered via the user interface;
• and
• means for transmitting the data signals representative of full-disclosure vital signs, the interpretation results, and the information entered via the user interface.