Intelligent discovery of medical devices by a programming system

• US 20080140160A1
• Filed: 05/04/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Goetz, Steven M., Drew, Touby A., Roberts, Earle T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/60
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37288 Communication to several implantable medical devices within one patient
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Techniques for automatically identifying medical devices, e.g., implantable medical device, using wireless communications in order to communicate with the medical devices are described. For instance, a programming system securely discovers a set of medical devices which have the capacity to communicate using wireless communication links. The programming system may then apply one or more search heuristics to identify a set of discovered medical devices that are likely to be a medical device with which a user desires to interact. When the user selects the desired one of the identified medical devices, the programming system launches a device interaction application associated with the desired medical device. The user may use the device interaction application to interact with the desired medical device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

discovering a set of medical devices using one or more communication links;

applying one or more search heuristics to the set of discovered medical devices to identify one or more medical devices in the set that are likely to be a medical device with which a user desires to interact; and

launching one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device for use by a user to interact with the desired medical device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein applying one or more search heuristics comprises applying a set of search heuristics at least one of which is selected from a group consisting of:

patient identification, telemetry device type, telemetry device configuration, implantable device type, therapy type, telemetry type, historical use patterns of a particular programming system, whether additional actions need to be performed in order to establish a connection, and maximum number of hops to follow in a mesh network for establishing a connection.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applying one or more search heuristics comprises receiving the search heuristics while discovery of the set of medical devices is underway.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a biometric of a patient; and

querying a database for search heuristics associated with the patient,

wherein applying one or more search heuristics comprises applying the search heuristics associated with the patient.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises prompting a user to enter one or more of the search heuristics.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method further comprises receiving geographic location information regarding the medical devices, and

wherein applying one or more search heuristics comprises using the location information regarding the medical device to identify one or more of the medical devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically identifying the one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein launching the one or more device interaction applications comprises automatically launching one or more of the device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

displaying a first list of medical devices that includes the identified medical devices; and

receiving input from the user that indicates which one of the medical devices on the first list of the set of discovered medical device is the desired medical device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an additional search heuristic;

applying the additional search heuristic to the first list; and

displaying a second list of the medical devices that results from applying the additional search heuristic to the first list.

11. The method of claim 1,

wherein discovering a set of medical devices comprises querying one or more telemetry devices for information regarding the medical devices,

wherein applying one or more search heuristics comprises applying the search heuristics to the information, and

wherein the method further comprising communicating with the desired medical device via one of the telemetry devices.

12. The method of claim 11,

wherein the method further comprises determining, with the desired medical device, whether a patient in whom the desired medical device is implanted consents to communication between the desired medical device and the one of the telemetry devices;

and

wherein communicating with the desired medical device via the one of the telemetry devices comprises communicating with the desired medical device via the one of the telemetry devices when the patient consents to communication between the desired medical device and the one of the telemetry devices.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein determining whether the patient consents comprises determining whether the one of the telemetry devices is in close proximity to the patient, and

wherein the close proximity to the patient implies the consent of the patient to communication between the one of the medical devices and the telemetry device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the patient consents comprises receiving input, with the one of the telemetry devices, from the user that indicates consent.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the one of the telemetry devices is bonded to the desired medical device.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the telemetry devices include at least one patient programming device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication links comprise at least one of wireless or wired communication links.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering a set of medical devices comprises discovering a set of implantable medical devices.

19. A programming system comprising:

a discovery service module that discovers a set of medical devices using one or more communication links; and

a set of one or more device discovery managers that apply one or more search heuristics to the set of discovered medical devices to identify one or more medical devices in the set that are likely to be a medical device with which a user desires to interact, and launches one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device for use by a user to interact with the desired medical device.

20. The programming system of claim 19, wherein one of the device discovery managers selects at least one of the search heuristics from a set of search heuristics consisting of:

patient identification, implantable device type, telemetry device type, telemetry device configuration, therapy type, telemetry devices to use for communication, historical use patterns of a particular programming system, whether additional actions need to be performed in order to establish a connection, and maximum number of hops to follow in a mesh network for establishing a connection.

21. The programming system of claim 19, wherein one of the device discovery managers applies one or more of the search heuristics while the discovery service module is discovering the medical devices.

22. The programming system of claim 21, wherein the system further comprises:

a database that stores search heuristics associated with a patient; and

a biometric reader to read a biometric indicator of the patient,

wherein the device discovery module applies the search heuristics associated with the patient when the biometric reader reads the biometric indicator of the patient.

23. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the programming system further comprises an interface module that presents a user interface that prompts a user to enter one or more of the search heuristics.

24. The programming system of claim 19,

wherein the programming system further comprises a network interface to receive geographic location information regarding the medical devices, and

wherein the device discovery module applies the geographic location information as one of the search heuristics to identify one or more of the medical devices.

25. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the device discovery module automatically identifies the one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device.

26. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the device discovery module automatically launches the one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device.

27. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the programming system further comprises an interface module that presents a first list of the identified ones of the medical devices and that receives an indication from the user regarding which one of the medical devices on the first list of medical devices is the desired medical device.

28. The programming system of claim 27, wherein, after the interface module displays the first list, the interface module receives an additional search heuristic, one of the device discovery modules applies the additional search heuristic to the first list, and the interface module displays a second list of the medical devices that results from applying the additional search heuristic to the first list.

29. The programming system of claim 19,

wherein the programming system communicates with a telemetry device that is capable of communicating with the programming system and one or more of the medical devices;

and

wherein the device discovery module queries the telemetry device for information regarding the medical devices and uses the information regarding the medical devices as one or more of the search heuristics.

30. The programming system of claim 29, wherein the programming system communicates with the desired medical device via the telemetry device.

31. The programming system of claim 29, wherein the telemetry device comprises a wireless communications module to facilitate wireless communication with the programming system.

32. The programming system of claim 29, wherein the telemetry device comprises a wireless communications module to facilitate wireless communication with one or more of the medical devices.

33. The programming system of claim 29, wherein one of the medical devices communicates with the telemetry device when a patient associated with the one of the medical devices indicates consent to communication between the one of the medical devices and the telemetry device.

34. The programming system of claim 33,

wherein the one of the medical devices comprises a module that determines whether the telemetry device is within close proximity to the patient and outputs signals that enable the one of the medical devices to communicate with the telemetry device when the telemetry device is within close proximity to the patient, and

wherein close proximity to the patient implies consent of the patient to communication between the one of the medical devices and the telemetry device.

35. The programming system of claim 33, wherein the telemetry device comprises an interface by which the patient may provide input that indicates the consent of the patient.

36. The programming system of claim 29, wherein the telemetry device is bonded to the one of the medical devices.

37. The programming system of claim 29, wherein the telemetry device comprises a patient programming device.

38. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the communication links comprise at least one of wireless communication links and wired communication links.

39. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the medical devices comprise implantable medical devices.

40. The programming system of claim 19, wherein the user interacts with the desired medical device by at least one of programming the desired medical device and retrieving data from the desired medical device.

41. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions causing a programmable processor to:

discover a set of medical devices with which a programming system communicates using one or more communication links;

apply one or more search heuristics to the set of discovered medical devices to identify one or more medical devices in the set that are likely to be a medical device with which a user desires to interact; and

launch one or more device interaction applications associated with the desired medical device for use by a user to interact with the desired medical device.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the communication links comprise wireless communication links.