Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Hansjoerg Geywitz

Markus Silvester Wohlschlager

Daniel Gal

Albrecht Reinhard Kinzkofer

Harry Beitinger

Andre Bigalke

Stefan Jaeschke

A method and communications module for recommending in what manner or mode a sensor and communications module of a subject monitoring system should communicate. A determination is made as to whether or not more than a predetermined number of wireless channels have a noise level below a certain threshold. If a positive determination is made, a wireless communication mode is recommended. If a negative determination is made, a wireless communication mode is not recommended.

Recommending whether a subject monitoring system uses a wireless communication mode

A computing device arrangement () for receiving fetal monitoring data from a fetal monitoring system is disclosed. The computing device arrangement comprises a display device () arranged to display the fetal monitoring data, a touchscreen device () and a processor arrangement () communicatively coupled to the display device and the touchscreen device. The processor arrangement is arranged to receive the fetal monitoring data from the fetal monitoring system, control the display device to display the fetal monitoring data, receive a freeform input () in a region of the touchscreen device from the touchscreen device; modify the fetal monitoring data by annotating a displayed region () of the fetal monitoring data with the freeform input, said displayed region corresponding to the region of the touchscreen device; and generate an output of the modified fetal monitoring data for storage in a data storage device (). Also disclosed are a fetal monitoring system including such a computing device arrangement and a method of generating freeform annotations with such a computing device arrangement.

Annotating fetal monitoring data

There is provided a device () for placement on the abdomen () of a subject to measure uterine contractions of the subject and a fetal heart rate. The device () comprises a rigid base () for placement on the abdomen () of the subject and a cover () configured to connect to the rigid base (). The cover () comprises a flexible portion moveable in response to uterine contractions of the subject. The device () further comprises a fetal heart rate sensor () mounted on the rigid base () and configured to measure the fetal heart rate. The device () also comprises a uterine contractions sensor () located within the device () and configured to measure the uterine contractions of the subject.

Device for measuring uterine contractions and fetal heart rate

The present invention is directed to a method for health monitoring using one or more sensors comprising first measuring () a body composition via one or more sensors. The measured body composition is then classified () into one of a plurality of categories. An at least one setting to be used for the health monitoring is adjusted () based on the classified body composition. Then, the health monitoring is performed () using the adjusted at least one health monitoring setting, wherein at least one of the sensors used to measure the body composition may also be used to perform the health monitoring.

Fat layer dependent sensor adaptation

The present disclosure relates to apparatuses and a method for wireless health monitoring comprising dynamically adjusting sound data compression level and/or transmission bandwidth of transmission between a mobile transmitter and a receiver. In some embodiments, a method for wireless health monitoring may include calculating () a distance between a mobile transmitter () and a receiver (). A data compression () level for compressing a signal, e.g., a sound signal, from the transmitter may be determined out of a plurality of data compression levels based on the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. A transmission bandwidth may then be determined () based at least in part on the determined data compression level. The compressed signal may be transmitted () using the determined transmission bandwidth.

Method for wireless data transmission range extension

The invention relates to determining a fetal heart rate from an ultrasonic Doppler echo signal, which comprises at least two channels, including a first channel obtained for a first depth range and a second channel obtained for a second depth range. A first heart rate is determined from the first channel () and a second heart rate is determined from the second channel (). External information on the fetal heart rate and/or the maternal heart rate, extracted from an independent source () such as an ECG, is used to select one of the first heart rate and the second heart rate as the fetal heart rate to be determined. A preferred embodiment provides for elimination of double counting heart rates by cutting out unwanted signal contributions. The disclosure further provides for an adaptive signal processing and data acquisition controlled by patient related data.

Device and method for determining fetal heart rate

The invention relates to determining a fetal heart rate from an ultrasonic Doppler echo signal. Rather than extracting the Doppler signal from the carrier signal using synchronous demodulation, quadrature demodulation is used, which allows to distinguish between systolic and diastolic movements. This velocity direction can be used to cut out unwanted parts of the signal (systolic or diastolic heart activity), thus eliminating double counting heart rates. In particular, a binary sign signal (') may be used to cut out unwanted signal episodes, resulting in a processed reference signal (&#x2032;) having only the signal parts of one heart activity. Another aspect relates to determining a first and a second heart rate from at least two channels having a different depth range, and selecting one of the first and second heart rate based on external information of the fetal or maternal heart rate.

The invention relates to a communication device () for wirelessly communicating with a sensor (). The communication device () comprises a receiver for receiving signals, an amplifier for amplifying the received signals, a transmitter for transmitting signals, and a controller. The controller is operable in a first mode in which signal strength values are determined over time, which are indicative of a strength of an amplified received signal, and in a second mode in which signal transmission and reception are controlled based on the determined signal strength values. The determined signal strength values can be indicative of, for instance, a saturation of the amplifier caused by a transmission operation of another, neighboring communication device such that, by considering the determined signal strength values, the transmission carried out by the communication device () can be synchronized with the corresponding operation of the neighboring communication device. This can lead to reduced disturbances.

Communication device for wirelessly communicating with a sensor

There is provided a portable device () for monitoring a subject and detecting a source of interference for the portable device (). The portable device () comprises a detector () configured to detect the presence of interference in an environment of the portable device (). The portable device () also comprises a processor () configured to determine a strength of the interference in the environment of the portable device () and to control a user interface () to provide an output at a frequency that depends on the determined interference strength.

Portable device for monitoring a subject and detecting a source of interference

The invention relates to a method of monitoring a fetal heart rate, the method comprising: providing a first measurement head () and a second measurement head () and a sensor (), the sensor () being comprised in the first measurement head () or the second measurement head (), the sensor () being adapted to sense the maternal heart rate, the first measurement head () being adapted to sense maternal-fetal related medical data and the second measurement head () being adapted to sense the fetal heart rate, measuring the maternal heart rate by acquiring maternal heart rate data using the sensor (), measuring the fetal heart rate by acquiring fetal heart rate data using the second measurement head (), acquiring the maternal-fetal related medical data, detecting maternal-fetal heart rate coincidences by analyzing the maternal heart rate data and the fetal heart rate data.

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Kusterdingen, Germany

Hansjoerg Geywitz