Patent Issued for Connected health system having an instant user feedback interface (USPTO 11295857): Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH

2022 APR 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Hassler, Manuel (Oberursel, DE), Mallipalli, Harshavardhana Reddy (San Ramon, CA, US), Steuber, Jessica (Ashland, MA, US), Yuds, David (Hudson, NH, US), filed on March 30, 2021, was published online on April 5, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11295857 is Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH (Bad Homburg, Germany).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Medical devices, such as dialysis machines, are known for use in the treatment of renal disease. The two principal dialysis methods are hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD). During hemodialysis, the patient’s blood is passed through a dialyzer of a hemodialysis machine while also passing dialysate through the dialyzer. A semi-permeable membrane in the dialyzer separates the blood from the dialysate within the dialyzer and allows diffusion and osmosis exchanges to take place between the dialysate and the blood stream. During peritoneal dialysis, the patient’s peritoneal cavity is periodically infused with dialysate, or dialysis solution. The membranous lining of the patient’s peritoneum acts as a natural semi-permeable membrane that allows diffusion and osmosis exchanges to take place between the solution and the blood stream. Automated peritoneal dialysis machines, also called PD cyclers, are designed to control the entire peritoneal dialysis process so that it can be performed at home, usually overnight, without clinical staff in attendance. Both HD and PD machines may include displays with touch screens or other user interfaces that display information of a dialysis treatment and/or enable an operator or patient to interact with the machine.

“Dialysis treatments performed in the home, which may include PD and/or home HD treatments, may be monitored remotely by clinicians and medical device companies through connection to a network modem or gateway that may be part of a secure connected health system. The patient’s treatment data may be collected along with status of the dialysis machine. The status may include a variety of details like alarm occurrences, power failure events, software version status, and even location information. This personal health information (PHI) is encrypted and, when analyzed using data analytics, anonymized to protect the patient’s identity. The clinician has access to the patient’s PHI via the connected health system and may use it to understand the efficacy of the treatments, discussing it with the patient either by telehealth visits (phone or video conference) or in person during the patient’s scheduled clinic visits. If the patient has a concern with their dialysis device, they can discuss it at this time. Additionally, patients may call the dialysis device manufacturer’s hotline to report any concerns with the equipment. Both the clinic visit and the hotline paths allow the patient to provide useful feedback to dialysis device manufacturers on how to improve their devices.

“There is often a period of time between visits with a patient’s clinician during which a patient may either forget a concern about the device or may believe that reporting the concern has diminished in importance. Additionally, receiving feedback via the dialysis manufacturer’s hotline has a different hurdle: the required actions of having to contact the dialysis manufacturer may be enough of an obstacle to cause the user to avoid this option for providing feedback. Accordingly, as a result, unless the feedback is related to a health risk or a device failure, the patient may find it is easier to simply dismiss their own concerns and deal with the issue without reporting a problem. This may be especially true where the feedback issue occurs at night during a nocturnal dialysis treatment when all the patient wants to do is resolve the issue and go back to sleep. By the next day, the concern may be forgotten or dismissed, resulting in a limitation for patients in being able to provide feedback and preventing the clinicians and/or device manufacturers from receiving valuable patient feedback.

“Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system that addresses the above-noted concerns and other issues.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “According to the system described herein, an instant user feedback system is provided for a medical device in a home. The system includes a gateway device configured to connect to a local network within the home and configured to connect to a remote network that is external to the home. A microphone is configured to receive voice input from a user. An instant user feedback interface is communicatively coupled to the gateway device, wherein, when engaged, the instant user feedback interface activates the microphone to receive the voice input from the user. The gateway device includes a control unit that is configured to: process the voice input into transmissible user feedback information; obtain status information of the medical device via the local network; and transmit the user feedback information and the status information to a remote system via the external network.

“According further to the system described herein, a medical system includes a medical device disposed in a home of a user and an instant user feedback system for the medical device, an instant user feedback system is provided for a medical device in a home. The instant user feedback system includes a gateway device configured to connect to a local network within the home and configured to connect to a remote network that is external to the home. A microphone is configured to receive voice input from a user. An instant user feedback interface is communicatively coupled to the gateway device, wherein, when engaged, the instant user feedback interface activates the microphone to receive the voice input from the user. The gateway device includes a control unit that is configured to: process the voice input into transmissible user feedback information; obtain status information of the medical device via the local network; and transmit the user feedback information and the status information to a remote system via the external network.

“According to aspects of the system described herein, multiple feature implementations may be provided in connection with the instant user feedback system and medical system described herein. The medical device may be a dialysis machine. The instant user feedback interface may include a button on the gateway device and/or the instant user feedback interface may include a button on a user feedback device that is remote from the gateway device and that communicates with the gateway device. The gateway device may comprise a speaker configured to output spoken words to the user. The gateway device may be configured to provide two-way conversational capability between the user and the gateway device. The instant user feedback interface may include two buttons that present two options to the user, wherein a first option of the two options is an identification option that indicates user identification information will be transmitted identifying the user, and wherein a second option of the two options is a non-identification option that indicates limited user identification information will be transmitted. The non-identification option may include safety protocol information that enables emergency condition identification of the user. A responsive action in response to the user feedback information may be determined at the remote system, and the instant user feedback system may receive information on the responsive action from the remote system. The system may further comprise a mobile computing device of the user that couples to the gateway device when brought into proximity to the gateway device and that is configured to provide an image or a video to the gateway device related to the voice input.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An instant user feedback system for a medical device in a home, comprising: a gateway device configured to connect to a local network within the home and configured to connect to a remote network that is external to the home; a microphone configured to receive voice input from a user; an instant user feedback interface communicatively coupled to the gateway device, wherein, when engaged, the instant user feedback interface activates the microphone to receive the voice input from the user; wherein the gateway device includes a control unit, the control unit configured to: process the voice input into transmissible user feedback information; obtain status information of the medical device via the local network; and transmit the user feedback information and the status information to a remote system via the external network, and wherein the instant user feedback interface includes two buttons that present two options to the user, wherein a first option of the two options is an identification option that indicates user identification information will be transmitted identifying the user, and wherein a second option of the two options is a non-identification option that indicates limited user identification information will be transmitted.

“2. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein the medical device is a dialysis machine.

“3. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein the two buttons of the instant user feedback interface are on the gateway device.

“4. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein the two buttons of the instant user feedback interface are on a user feedback device that is remote from the gateway device and that communicates with the gateway device.

“5. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device comprises a speaker configured to output spoken words to the user.

“6. The instant user feedback system of claim 5, wherein the gateway device is configured to provide two-way conversational capability between the user and the gateway device.

“7. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein the non-identification option includes safety protocol information that enables emergency condition identification of the user.

“8. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, wherein, a responsive action in response to the user feedback information is determined at the remote system, and wherein the instant user feedback system receives information on the responsive action from the remote system.

“9. The instant user feedback system of claim 1, further comprising a mobile computing device of the user that couples to the gateway device when brought into proximity to the gateway device and that is configured to provide an image or a video to the gateway device related to the voice input.

“10. A medical system, comprising: a medical device disposed in a home of a user; an instant user feedback system for the medical device, the instant user feedback system comprising: a gateway device configured to connect to a local network within the home and configured to connect to a remote network that is external to the home; a microphone configured to receive voice input from a user; an instant user feedback interface communicatively coupled to the gateway device, wherein, when engaged, the instant user feedback interface activates the microphone to receive the voice input from the user; wherein the gateway device includes a control unit, the control unit configured to: process the voice input into transmissible user feedback information; obtain status information of the medical device via the local network; and transmit the user feedback information and the status information to a remote system via the external network, and wherein the instant user feedback interface includes two buttons that present two options to the user, wherein a first option of the two options is an identification option that indicates user identification information will be transmitted identifying the user, and wherein a second option of the two options is a non-identification option that indicates limited user identification information will be transmitted.

“11. The medical system of claim 10, wherein the medical device is a dialysis machine.

“12. The medical system of claim 10, wherein the two buttons of the instant user feedback interface are on the gateway device.

“13. The medical system of claim 10, wherein the two buttons of the instant user feedback interface are on a user feedback device that is remote from the gateway device and that communicates with the gateway device.

“14. The medical system of claim 10, wherein the gateway device comprises a speaker configured to output spoken words to the user.

“15. The medical system of claim 14, wherein the gateway device is configured to provide two-way conversational capability between the user and the gateway device.

“16. The medical system of claim 10, wherein the non-identification option includes safety protocol information that enables emergency condition identification of the user.

“17. The medical system of claim 10, wherein, a responsive action in response to the user feedback information is determined at the remote system, and wherein the instant user feedback system receives information on the responsive action from the remote system.

“18. The medical system of claim 10, further comprising a mobile computing device of the user that couples to the gateway device when brought into proximity to the gateway device and that is configured to provide an image or a video to the gateway device related to the voice input.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Hassler, Manuel. Connected health system having an instant user feedback interface. U.S. Patent Number 11295857, filed March 30, 2021, and published online on April 5, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11295857.PN.&OS=PN/11295857RS=PN/11295857

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