Health monitoring system

Abstract

A health monitoring system which tracks the state of health of a patient and compiles a chronological health history of the patient uses a multiparametric monitor which periodically and automatically measures and records a plurality of physiological data from sensors in contact with the patient's body. The data collected is not specifically related to a particular medical condition but, instead, provides the information necessary to derive patterns which are characteristic of healthy patients as well as those who are ill. The data collected is periodically uploaded to a database in which it is stored along with similar health histories for other patients. The monitor is preferably self-contained in a chest strap which is located on the patient's torso, and makes use of a controller which controls sampling of the desired data and storage of the data to a local memory device pending uploading to the database. The more voluminous data collected is reduced and compressed prior to storage in the local memory device. Preferably, much of the monitor circuitry is run intermittently to conserve power. The monitor data is supplemented with subjective data (such as psychological and environmental conditions) collected from the patient using a handheld data input device which runs a program to solicit information from the patient. The subjective data collected is chronologically aligned with the monitor data in the database such that the health history of a patient includes both objective and subjective medical data.