Establishing secure communication at an emergency care scene

• US 10,524,123 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2017
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Inventors: Freeman, Gary A., Johnson, Guy R., Geheb, Frederick J., Weary, Mark, Stever, Timothy F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Lee
• Application Number:
  US15/464,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20170325091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,015 Days
• Field of Search: 455 412
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0252 using ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0257 using atmospheric pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0204 Acoustic sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0836 Measuring rate of CO2 production
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14552 Details of sensors specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6801 specially adapted to be attached to or worn on the body surface
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/0048 Mouth-to-mouth respiration teaching or training models G09B23/288
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/0057 Pumps therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/10 Preparation of respiratory gases or vapours
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3303 Using a biosensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/332 Force measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3368 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3375 : Acoustical, e.g. ultrasonic, measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3569 : sublocal, e.g. between console and disposable
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3592 : using telemetric means, e.g. radio or optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/505 : Touch-screens; Virtual keyboard or keypads; Virtual buttons; Soft keys; Mouse touches
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2230/63 : Motion, e.g. physical activity
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37252 : Details of algorithms or data aspects of communication system, e.g. handshaking, transmitting specific data or segmenting data
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/39044 : in combination with cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] therapy
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 : for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0869 : for achieving mutual authentication cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for mutual authentication H04L9/3273
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 : using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 : Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 : for emergency connections

Abstract

Among other things, we describe a system that includes a first medical device for treating a patient at an emergency care scene, the first medical device including a processor and a memory configured to detect a request for a connection between the first medical device and a second medical device for treating the patient at the emergency care scene, the request for connection including an identifier of the second medical device, responsive to receiving the request for connection, enabling a wireless communication channel to be established between the first medical device and the second medical device based on the identifier of the second medical device and an identifier of the first medical device; and enabling transmission and/or exchange of patient data between the first medical device and the second medical device via the wireless communication channel. Such communications with more than two devices may also be possible.

Claims

1. A system for establishing secure dynamically reconfigurable wireless communications between a defibrillator and a computing device, the system for diagnosing or delivering therapy to a patient, the system comprising:

a defibrillator having one or more electrode pads configured to provide a defibrillating shock to the patient and configured to perform a close proximity wireless communication protocol;

a plurality of electrodes coupled with the defibrillator and configured to sense an electrocardiogram (ECG) of the patient and to generate ECG signals based on the sensed ECG;

a computing device comprising a receiver and transmitter configured to establish a secure communication channel with the defibrillator according to the close proximity wireless communication protocol, the communication channel having a range of less than 100 cm with the defibrillator;

a sensor configured to sense at least one feature from an immediate environment of the defibrillator; and

a processor with memory configured to perform operations comprising;

detecting a request for connection based at least in part on the at least one sensed feature of the immediate environment,

determining whether spatial localization is achieved between the defibrillator and the computing device based at least in part on the sensed feature of the immediate environment,

providing mutual authentication between the defibrillator and the computing device based at least in part on the spatial localization, wherein providing mutual authentication comprises the defibrillator authenticating the computing device and the computing device authenticating the medical device, and

establishing the secure communication channel between the defibrillator and the computing device for exchanging patient data comprising one or more of (i) treatment data comprising ECG signals of the patient, or (ii) patient information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the spatial localization includes a distance of less than 100 cm.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the close proximity wireless communication channel employs a protocol including at least one of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and ZigBee.

4. The system of claim 2, comprising a second receiver and transmitter configured to establish an intermediate proximity wireless communication channel having a range of greater than 20 cm.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the second receiver and transmitter are configured to maintain the secure wireless communication channel between each device.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the intermediate proximity wireless communication channel employs a protocol including at least one of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ISM radio band, and ZigBee.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the secure communication channel is established based on a correlation between sensed features of each medical device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the secure communication channel involves use of encryption and proximate tokens between each device, wherein the proximate tokens or sensed feature for determining spatial localization is mutually known by each device without requiring transmission to the other device, and wherein the proximate tokens are used in a secure key-exchange protocol.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the proximate tokens include random values input into the secure key-exchange protocol.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the proximate tokens are based on occurrence of an event related to the sensed feature.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the proximate tokens are based on occurrence of an event includes comprising at least one of a time of the occurrence, an elapsed time from the occurrence, a contact pressure, a time of release from contact, a velocity of release from contact, a velocity of sensed motion, a shape of a path of a gestural motion, a velocity of movement of an object in an image.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the treatment data includes one or more of data indicative of a shock delivered to the patient, a rate of chest compressions delivered to the patient, a depth of chest compressions delivered to the patient, a duration of compressions delivered to the patient, medication administered to the patient, a rate of ventilation flow to the patient, and a volume of ventilation flow to the patient.

13. The system of claim 2, wherein the patient information includes patient identification data.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein the patient information comprises patient physiological data comprising one or more of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal of the patient, a blood pressure of the patient, end tidal carbon dioxide of the patient, pulse oximetry of the patient, a temperature of the patient, a respiration rate of the patient, a blood oxygen level of the patient, a pulmonary function of the patient, and a blood glucose level of the patient.

15. The system of claim 2, wherein the patient information comprises at least one of environmental information, ambient temperature, patient location, patient history, air pressure, motion information and audio information.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mutual authentication between each device is based at least in part on a temporal localization between each device relative to one another.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein determination of whether the spatial localization is achieved is based on whether a threshold is met by the sensed feature.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the threshold includes at least one of a sensed distance, sound, acceleration, velocity, pressure or power level.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the mutual authentication occurs prior to establishment of the secure wireless communication channel.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver is the sensor.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the sensor is configured to measure a field strength of electromagnetic energy for estimating a degree of proximity between devices.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor includes at least one of a camera, a motion sensor and an acoustic sensor.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one feature of the immediate environment measured by the sensor includes at least one of an image, a sound, a movement, a code, gestural motion, contact between devices, acceleration or velocity.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one feature comprises a plurality of features and the spatial localization is based on a correlation between the plurality of features.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the sensor comprises two or more of a motion sensor, a pressure sensor, a visual sensor, and an acoustic sensor and the correlation between plurality of features comprises a correlation between at least one of:

a motion measured by the motion sensor and a pressure measured by a the pressure sensor, a motion measured by the motion sensor and a sound measured by the acoustic sensor, a motion measured by the motion sensor and a motion measured by a second motion sensor, a pressure measured by the pressure sensor and a sound measured by the acoustic sensor, a visual image measured by the visual sensor and a motion measured by the motion sensor, a visual image measured by the visual sensor and a display provided by the defibrillator, or a sound measured by the acoustic sensor and a sound measured by a second acoustic sensor.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to detect a request for disconnection based on the at least one sensed feature.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to detect a request for disconnection based on a different sensed feature.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise determining whether spatial localization is achieved between a plurality of devices, for providing mutual authentication and establishing a secure communication channel between each device.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is a mobile computing device.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one medical device is at least one of a defibrillator, a ventilator, a patient monitor, a wearable defibrillator and a wearable monitor.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the defibrillator comprises an accelerometer configured to measure compression parameters comprising one or more of a rate, a depth and a duration of chest compressions.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the processor and memory perform the operations comprising:

in response to exchanging patient data, coordinating the chest compression prompting with defibrillation.