Automated patient care system and method for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory insufficiency

A method for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory insufficiency using an automated collection and analysis patient care system, comprising:

• storing a plurality of monitoring sets into a database, each monitoring set comprising recorded measures which each relate to patient information and comprise either medical device measures or derived measures calculable therefrom, the medical device measures having been recorded on a substantially continuous basis;
• retrieving the plurality of monitoring sets from the database;
• defining a set of indicator thresholds, each indicator threshold corresponding to a quantifiable physiological measure of a pathophysiology indicative of respiratory insufficiency and relating to a same type of patient information as at least one of the recorded measures;
• and
• diagnosing a respiratory insufficiency finding, comprising:
• determining a change in patient wellness by comparing at least one recorded measure to at least one other recorded measure with both recorded measures relating to the same type of patient information;
• comparing each patient wellness change to one of the indicator thresholds corresponding to the same type of patient information as the recorded measures which were compared;
• and
• retrieving a reference baseline comprising recorded measures which each relate to patient information recorded by the medical device adapted to be implanted during an initial time period and comprise either device measures recorded by the medical device adapted to be implanted or derived measures calculable therefrom;
• and
• obtaining at least one of the at least one recorded measure and the at least one other recorded measure from the retrieved reference baseline.

A computer-readable storage medium holding code for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory insufficiency using an automated collection and analysis patient care system, comprising:

• code for storing a plurality of monitoring sets into a database, each monitoring set comprising recorded measures which each relate to patient information and comprise either medical device measures or derived measures calculable therefrom, the medical device measures having been recorded on a substantially continuous basis;
• code for retrieving the plurality of monitoring sets from the database;
• code for defining a set of indicator thresholds, each indicator threshold corresponding to a quantifiable physiological measure of a pathophysiology indicative of respiratory insufficiency and relating to a same type of patient information as at least one of the recorded measures;
• and
• code for diagnosing a respiratory insufficiency finding, comprising:
• code for determining a change in patient wellness by comparing at least one recorded measure to at least one other recorded measure with both recorded measures relating to the same type of patient information;
• and
• code for comparing each patient wellness change to an indicator threshold corresponding to the same type of patient information as the recorded measures which were compared, wherein comparing each patient wellness change further comprises at least one of:
• code for performing a graded comparison, comprising:
• code for grading the comparisons between each patient wellness change and corresponding indicator threshold on a fixed scale based on a degree of deviation from the indicator threshold to form individual graded comparisons;
• and
• code for determining an overall patient wellness change by performing a summation over the individual graded comparisons;
• and
• code for performing a weighted comparison, comprising:
• code for determining probabilistic individual weightings of the comparisons between each patient wellness change and the corresponding indicator threshold based on a statistical deviation and trends via linear fits from the corresponding indicator threshold;
• and
• code for determining an overall patient wellness change by performing a summation over the individual weightings of the comparisons.