Visual medical monitoring system for a remote subject

• US 20050033120A1
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Published: 02/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medic4all AG
• Original Assignee: Medic4all AG
• Inventors: Cohen, Moshe
• Granted Patent: US 8,079,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/904 Telephone telemetry

Abstract

The present invention is of a system, which features bi-directional communication for measuring and transferring medical data and for communication with medical personnel. The apparatus is preferably integrated with at least one of, but more preferably both, audio and video conferencing between an external (home and office) subject and a medical service center. The invention is particularly useful for subjects having some type of medical risk who wish to be supervised by a medical service center, as well as supervision for emergency situations.

Claims

1. A system for remote medical communication with at least one subject, the system comprising:

(a) at least one medical monitoring equipment for measuring at least one physiological parameter of the at least one subject, wherein the at least one medical monitoring equipment comprising at least one sensor, a processing unit for acquiring electrical signal from the at least one sensor and for extracting some medical parameters out of the electrical signal and a communication module for wirelessly transmitting the medical parameters and receiving data and instructions;

(b) a remote gateway at the subject'"'"'s premises, wherein the remote gateway comprising a wireless modem for wirelessly communicating with the at least one monitoring equipment, a modem for communicating over regular telephone line and a computational device for controlling the operation the remote gateway; and

(c) a medical service center comprising a computer being operative to communicate with the least one medical monitoring equipment over regular telephone lines via the remote gateway;

(d) a telephone network between the remote gateway and the medical service center;

wherein a data call over the telephone network, which is initiated by the medical service center to the at least one medical monitoring equipment, is accepted by the remote gateway, which is being operative to receive the data coming from the medical service center to the at least one monitoring equipment, store the received data and later retrieve said stored data upon receiving a request from the at least one medical monitoring equipment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a data call over the telephone network, which is initiated by the at least one medical monitoring equipment to the medical service center, is accepted by the remote gateway, which is being operative to receive the data coming from the at least one medical monitoring equipment to the medical service center store the received data and later retrieve said stored data upon receiving a request from the medical service center.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote gateway further comprises a telephone;

wherein audio signals of a telephone call that is set between a human operator at the medical service center and the at least one subject, who uses the telephone, are transferred over the same telephone line as the data communication between the remote gateway and the medical service center.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising;

(a) a central gateway located at the medical service center and being operative to connect devices that are located in the medical service center to the telephone network;

(b) a videoconferencing equipment located at the premises of the at least one subject and is connected via the remote gateway to the telephone network; and

(c) a videoconferencing equipment located at the medical service center and is connected via the central gateway to the telephone network;

wherein a videoconference call that is set between the human operator at the medical service center and the at least one subject and wherein the audio/video signals of the video conference are transferred over the same telephone pair of wires as the data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote gateway further includes a speaker and microphone and wherein the human operator at the medical service center controls the operation of the speaker and microphone at the remote site.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said the at least one medical monitoring equipment is in contact with at least a portion of a wrist of the at least one subject and the at least one medical monitoring equipment being attached to said wrist by a fastening article.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one medical monitoring equipment stays in a sleeping mode and is triggered by the at least one subject or by an internal timer, upon triggering the at least one medical monitoring equipment initiates a wireless communication with the remote gateway, requests the remote gateway to retrieve stored information that has been received from the medical service center, process the retrieved data And enters into sleeping mode.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one medical monitoring equipment upon triggering further performs an automatically measuring of at least one medical parameter and communicates the results of the measurements to the remote gateway.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the subject by pressing a single button initiates the communication.

10. The system of claim 5 wherein the control signals initiated by the operator are tone modulated using tones other than the standard DTMF tones.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the remote gateway automatically initiates a call to the medical center upon determining that it'"'"'s internal memory is full with new measurements.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the remote gateway automatically initiates a call to the medical center upon determining that at least one of the medical measurement is above or below certain conditions.