The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and, more particularly, to a pulse oximeter having a wait-time and/or progress indication.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of healthcare, caregivers (e.g., doctors and other healthcare professionals) often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of monitoring devices have been developed for monitoring many such physiological characteristics. These monitoring devices often provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with information that facilitates provision of the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become a perennial feature of modern medicine.
One technique for monitoring physiological characteristics of a patient is commonly referred to as pulse oximetry, and the devices built based upon pulse oximetry techniques are commonly referred to as pulse oximeters. Pulse oximeters may be used to measure and monitor various blood flow characteristics of a patient. For example, a pulse oximeter may be utilized to monitor the blood oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient. In fact, the “pulse” in pulse oximetry refers to the time-varying amount of arterial blood in the tissue during each cardiac cycle.
Pulse oximeters typically utilize a non-invasive sensor that transmits light through a patient's tissue and that photoelectrically detects the absorption and/or scattering of the transmitted light in such tissue. A photo-plethysmographic waveform, which corresponds to the cyclic attenuation of optical energy through the patient's tissue, may be generated from the detected light. Additionally, one or more of the above physiological characteristics may be calculated based generally upon the amount of light absorbed or scattered. More specifically, the light passed through the tissue may be selected to be of one or more wavelengths that may be absorbed or scattered by the blood in an amount correlative to the amount of the blood constituent present in the blood. The amount of light absorbed and/or scattered may then be used to estimate the amount of blood constituent in the tissue using various algorithms.
Generally, the pulse oximeter begins displaying the patient's physiological characteristics after the sensor has been placed and enough time has passed for the monitor to calculate the characteristics from the data received from the sensor. In some instances, the caregiver applying the pulse oximeter sensor may expect the patient's physiological characteristics to be displayed instantly or within a very short period of time after applying the sensor. If the characteristics are not yet calculated, they will not yet be displayed, and the caregiver may erroneously believe that the sensor is misapplied. In these instances, the caregiver may reposition the sensor before the pulse oximeter has the time to calculate and display the patient's physiological characteristics. Once the sensor is repositioned, the calculations must begin again, thereby slowing down the acquisition of the patient's information. An impatient caregiver may inadvertently delay the acquisition and display of the patient's physiological characteristics by moving the sensor.