Medical effector system

Abstract

A sedation delivery system comprised of a bedside unit and a procedure unit. The bedside unit contains a series of connection points for receiving inputs from a series of patient monitors. The procedure unit contains a patient monitoring and a drug delivery pump or magnetic flux generator capable of sedative therapy to a patient. The sedation delivery system contains the capability to issue and receive a request from a non-sedated patient, issue and receive a request from a sedated patient and then to calculate a time difference. The sedation delivery system program operates the pump or magnetic flux generator based upon at least some of the patient outputs and program inputs including a calculated time difference. A removable umbilical cable connects the two units and allows the output of the patient monitors as well as other information to travel between the two units.

1 . A sedation delivery system comprising:
 a) a microprocessor-based bedside monitoring unit having a bedside-monitoring-unit host controller which contains a first program which performs the steps of: issuing a request to a non-sedated patient for a non-sedated patient response; receiving a signal based on the non-sedated patient response; and calculating a non-sedated response time for the patient based at least in part on a time difference between issuing the request and receiving the signal;   b) a microprocessor-based procedure room unit having a procedure-room-unit host controller which contains a second program which performs the steps of: issuing requests through the bedside monitoring unit to a sedated patient for a sedated patient response; receiving a signal through the bedside monitoring unit based on the sedated patient response; calculating a sedated response time for the sedated patient, and calculating a response time difference between the non-sedated and sedated response times; and   c) an umbilical cable having a first end attached or attachable to the bedside monitoring unit and having a second end attached or attachable to the procedure room unit, wherein at least one of the first and second ends is detachable from the corresponding bedside monitoring unit or the procedure room unit.   
     
     
         2 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure room unit has a drug-delivery infusion pump assembly controlled by the procedure-room-unit host controller based at least in part on the response time difference. 
     
     
         3 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure room unit comprises an oxygen delivery program which performs the steps of receiving a pulse-oximeter signal from the patient undergoing sedation and calculating an oxygen flow rate based at least in part on the received pulse-oximeter signal, wherein the procedure-room-host controller controls a flow of oxygen to the patient based on the calculated oxygen flow rate. 
     
     
         4 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 3 , wherein when the umbilical cable is attached to the procedure room unit and the bedside monitoring unit, the pulse-oximeter signal flows from the patient through the bedside monitoring unit and through the umbilical cable to the procedure room unit and the flow of oxygen flows through the umbilical cable and the bedside monitoring unit to the patient. 
     
     
         5 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure room unit includes at least one magnetic flux generator adapted to deliver a time varying magnetic field to a patient to have a sedative effect on the patient. 
     
     
         6 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure room unit includes an Ethernet and/or a modem connector operatively connected to the host controller. 
     
     
         7 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the host controller of the procedure room unit includes Health Level Seven application protocol to electronically send and/or receive communications to and/or from a remote computer. 
     
     
         8 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure room unit includes a printer operatively connected to the host controller. 
     
     
         9 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure-room-unit host controller of the procedure-room unit compiles an electronic history of the bedside monitoring unit when attached to the procedure room unit. 
     
     
         10 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 2  further comprising a single-patient-use drug-delivery cassette assembly and operatively connectable to the drug-delivery infusion pump assembly of the procedure room unit, and further including a single-patient-use cannula assembly and attachable to the bedside monitoring unit. 
     
     
         11 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein, when the bedside monitoring unit is attached to the procedure room unit, the bedside-monitoring-unit host controller of a turned-on bedside monitoring unit turns on a turned-off procedure room unit. 
     
     
         12 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein, when the bedside monitoring unit is attached to the procedure room unit, the procedure-room-unit host controller of a turned-on procedure room unit turns on a turned-off bedside monitoring unit. 
     
     
         13 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the bedside monitoring unit displays patient monitoring while not attached to the procedure room unit and displays patient monitoring while attached to the procedure room unit when the procedure-room-unit host controller detects certain faults in the procedure room unit. 
     
     
         14 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the procedure-room-unit host controller shuts off the drug-delivery infusion pump assembly when certain faults are detected in an attached bedside monitoring unit and/or in the procedure room unit. 
     
     
         15 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the umbilical cable includes a power feed line, and wherein the procedure-room-unit host controller shuts off power to the power feed line of the umbilical cable when the umbilical cable is disconnected from the bedside monitoring unit and/or the umbilical cable is disconnected from the procedure room unit. 
     
     
         16 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1 , wherein the bedside monitoring unit includes a bedside-monitoring-unit battery, and wherein power from the procedure room unit charges the bedside-monitoring-unit battery via the power feed line of the umbilical cable. 
     
     
         17 . The sedation delivery system of  claim 1  further comprising a single-patient-use drug vial operatively connectable to the drug-delivery infusion pump assembly of the procedure room unit.