System and Method for Context Dependent Service Discovery for Mobile Medical Devices

• US 20080233925A1
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Baldus, Heribert, Klabunde, Karin, Feng, Lei (Ray), Sun, Xiaolu (Luke)
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• 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

Abstract

A medical communication system (10) comprises peer devices (44, 46) which provide medical services which are used for patient monitoring, patient management or other medical procedures involving patients and/or clinicians. A mobile device (12) includes a short-range interface device (22) for discovering peer devices (44, 46) and associated peer devices services (66). A positioning component (14) determines a location of the mobile device (12). An identification component (60) reads a patient identification device (48) and a clinician identification device (50) and identifies a patient (32) and a clinician (30) at the location of the mobile device (12). A visibility manager (120) limits information and services available to the mobile device (12) to current context relevant information and services which are based at least on one of the identity of the patient (32), the identity of the clinician (30), and the identified mobile device location.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

medical peer devices which each includes a peer-to-peer interface and provides medical services for medical procedures;

a mobile device including;

a short-range interface device for discovering medical peer devices and associated peer devices services,

a positioning component for identifying a location of the mobile device, and

an identification component for reading a patient identification device and identifying a patient at the location of the mobile device, and reading a clinician identification device and identifying a clinician at the location of the mobile device;

and

a visibility manager for limiting information and services available to the mobile device to current context relevant information and services which are based at least on one of the identity of the patient, the identity of the clinician, and the identified mobile device location.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1, further including:

a discovered services repository for storing records of the discovered medical peer devices and associated peer devices services.

3. The system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the current context relevant information and services are selected by setting a visibility flag in the discovered services repository to a visible setting for only those discovered peer devices and associated peer devices services which are one of associated with the identified patient and the mobile device location and accessible for the identified clinician.

4. The system as set forth in claim 3, further including:

a context registration engine for registering detailed context of each applications; and

a context information repository for storing detailed context information of each registered application including at least an application identification, application associated context information, associated peer devices and associated peer devices services.

5. The system as set forth in claim 4, further including:

a context handler for matching the current context information with the application associated context information.

6. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the visibility manager resets the visibility flag in the discovered services repository based on the matched context information.

7. The system as set forth in claim 6, wherein the context handler continually monitors the context information and the visibility manager resets the visibility flag in the discovered services repository based on the updated matched context information.

8. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the patient and clinician identification devices includes at least one of:

RF tag,

IR tag, and

a barcode.

9. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the short-range interface device includes at least one of:

ZigBee interface; and

Bluetooth interface.

10. A communication method comprising:

identifying a location of a mobile device;

identifying an object by an object identification tag associated with the object;

discovering peer devices and associated peer devices services via a short-range interface device; and

limiting information and services available to the mobile device to current context relevant information and services which are based at least on one of the identity of the object, and the identified mobile device location.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10, wherein the object is a medical patient and the peer devices include at least one of an Electrocardiogram device (ECG), and Electroencephalogram device (EEG), an Electromyogram device (EMC), an invasive blood pressure measurement device (BP), a non-invasive blood pressure measurement device (NiBP), pulse measurement device, cardiac output monitor, respirations measurement device, blood oxygen measurement device (SPO₂), and core body temperature measurement device.

12. The method as set forth in claim 10, further including:

storing records of the discovered peer devices and associated peer devices services in a discovered services repository.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12, further including:

setting a visibility flag in the discovered services repository to a visible setting for only those discovered peer devices and associated peer devices services which are one of associated with the identified object and the mobile device location and accessible for the identified clinician.

14. The method as set forth in claim 13, further including:

registering context of each application; and

storing context information of each registered application including at least an application identification, application associated context information, associated peer devices and associated peer devices services.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14, further including:

matching the current context information with the application associated context information.

16. The method as set forth in claim 15 further including:

resetting the visibility flag in the discovered services repository based on the matched context information.

17. The method as set forth in claim 16, further including:

continually monitoring the context information; and

resetting the visibility flag in the discovered services repository based on the updated matched context information.

18. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein the object identification device includes at least one of:

RF tag,

IR tag, and

a barcode; and

the short-range interface includes at least one of;

ZigBee interface; and

Bluetooth interface.

19. An apparatus for performing the method of claim 10.

20. A communication apparatus comprising:

a means for identifying a location of a mobile device;

a means for identifying an object by an object identification tag associated with the object;

a means for discovering peer devices and associated peer devices services via a short-range interface device; and

a means for limiting information and services available to the mobile device to current context relevant information and services which are based at least on one of the identity of the object, and the identified mobile device location.