Hill-rom Services, Inc.

Pacesetter, Inc.

Charles Neder

Steven Nelson Roe

Lincoln J Alvord

Richard W O'Connor

Robert J Ferrand

William R Fish

Marc M Thomas

William A Gilmartin

William Loh

Wesley E Grass

Stephen D Smith

Jonathan Salsado

William Silva

Louis Wong

Lyle Frank Weaver

A method and apparatus for measuring battery depletion in an implantable medical device is presented. The apparatus includes first and second switch pairs disposed in series between the battery and a load, and connected in a parallel arrangement with respect to one another. A capacitor is connected in a first polarity between the battery and the load when only first and fourth switches are closed and in a second polarity when only second and third switches are closed. A comparator circuit causes the switches to reverse the capacitor's polarity based on a comparison of the voltage drop across the capacitor to a threshold value. A counter counts the number of times the capacitor reverses polarity, which is proportional to the amount of charge transferred from the battery during its lifetime in the device and indicative of the battery's level of depletion.

Method and apparatus for measuring battery depletion in implantable medical devices

A bed comprises a mattress supported on a support surface. The mattress has first and second inflatable cells for supporting a patient.

Patient care system

A bed configured to support a patient having a weight comprises a frame, a patient support, and a plurality of sensors coupled between the frame and the patient support. Each of the plurality of sensors is configured to generate an analog signal in response to a portion of the weight of the patient on the patient support. The bed also comprises a circuit coupled to the plurality of sensors to receive the analog signals therefrom. The circuit includes a plurality of analog-to-digital converters, each analog-to-digital converter being coupled to one of the sensors to generate a separate digital signal for each of the plurality of sensors, and a processor coupled to the plurality of analog-to-digital converters to determine the weight of the patient on the patient support.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Charles Neder