COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK FOR DISTRIBUTED SENSING AND THERAPY IN BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

• US 20070299480A1
• Filed: 04/24/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Hill, Gerard J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,949,404 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/28
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37282 characterised by communication with experts in remote locations using a network
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37288 Communication to several implantable medical devices within one patient
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

An implantable medical device system is provided with multiple medical devices implanted in a patient'"'"'s body and a wireless mesh communication network providing multiple communication pathways between the multiple medical devices. A communication pathway between a first and a second implanted device of the multiple medical devices can comprise one or more of the other implanted multiple medical devices.

Claims

1. An implantable medical device system, comprising:

multiple medical devices implanted in a patient'"'"'s body, each device comprising a power supply for powering data communication operations, a processor for controlling device functions;

a memory for storing a network rule set and one of a transmitter and a transceiver for wirelessly transmitting data; and

a wireless mesh communication network providing multiple communication pathways between the multiple medical devices;

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a communication pathway selected between a first implanted device and a second implanted device of the multiple medical devices comprises at least one of the other of the implanted medical devices.

3. The system of claim 1 further including an external device in communication with the multiple implanted medical devices via the multiple communication pathways provided by the wireless mesh communication network.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the multiple medical devices is a specialist node assigned to perform a network communication task.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the specialist node is one of:

a gateway node, a data processor node, a data storage node, a police node, a housekeeper node, a algorithm workhorse node, a network administrator node, a scheduler node, a local coordinator node, and a repeater node

6. The system of claim 3 further comprising a processor for self-configuring the mesh network.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein configuring the mesh network comprises one of:

assigning specialist roles to the multiple medical devices;

defining a channel plan for controlling data transmission along the multiple communication pathways; and

determining a routing scheme for selecting a communication pathway between any one of the multiple implanted devices and one or more of the other of the multiple implanted devices.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the channel plan includes channel division according to one of frequency, time and code.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the processor reconfigures the network in response to one of an altered network rule set;

a change in power status of one of the medical devices;

a change in primary operating status of one of the medical devices;

a change in patient condition;

a new device being added to the network; and

an existing device being removed from the network.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the rule set comprises constant rules and variable rules wherein the variable rules are adjusted during the learning process.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the multiple medical devices further comprises a therapy delivery module.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the multiple medical devices further comprises a physiological sensor.

13. A computer readable medium for storing a set of instructions which when implemented in an implantable medical device mesh communication network system cause the system to:

perform a learning process for gathering information regarding a plurality of network members corresponding to the power capacity and functionality of each of the plurality of network members;

assign roles to individual network members for performing network tasks in response to the learning process;

define a channel plan in response to the learning process; and

define a network communications routing scheme in response to the learning process.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising adjusting a network rule set in response to the learning process.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the network rule set comprises one or more constant rules and one or more variable rules.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising repeating the learning process in response to one of a change in a network rule set, introduction of a new device in the network, removal of an existing device from the network, a change in the primary operating status of a network member, a change in the power status of a network member, and a change in a patient status.

17. An implantable medical device system, comprising:

multiple implantable medical devices;

means for providing wireless communication between the multiple medical devices via multiple communication pathways;

means for monitoring a power status of each of the implantable medical devices;

means for monitoring the functional status of each of the implantable medical devices;

means for monitoring a patient condition;

means for receiving an adjusted rule set; and

means for automatically configuring the network wherein the configuring means comprises means for defining a channel plan, assigning network tasks to the multiple medical devices, and defining a routing scheme, and wherein the configuring means configures the network in response to the power status monitoring mean, the functional status monitoring means, the patient condition monitoring means; and

the means for receiving the adjusted rule set.

18. An implantable medical device mesh communication network system, comprising:

multiple implantable medical devices having multiple communication pathways continuously available therebetween; and

at least one external medical device having multiple communication pathways with the multiple implantable medical devices.