MOBILE MONITORING

• US 20090231125A1
• Filed: 12/05/2005
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Baldus, Heribert, Elixmann, Martin J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,978,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.120
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0028 Body tissue as transmission medium, i.e. transmission systems where the medium is the human body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6804 Garments; Clothes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/005 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the human body

Abstract

A wireless network for monitoring a patient (10) comprises at least one wearable monitor (12, 70) including a physiological condition sensor (34, 74) coupled to the patient (10) to sense and communicate data related to one physiological function of the patient (10). A first body communication unit (16, 78) interfaces with the at least one wearable monitor (12, 70) to communicate over the patient (10) utilizing a near field capacitive body coupled protocol. A relay system (14, 50 72) includes a second body communication unit (18, 52, 80) that receives data from the at least one wearable monitor (12, 70) and communicates with the first body communication unit (16, 78) utilizing the near field capacitive body coupled protocol. An external communication unit (22) communicates the data to a remote medical monitoring station via a cell phone network or the internet.

Claims

1. A wireless network for monitoring a patient, the wireless network comprising:

at least one wearable monitor including;

a physiological condition sensor coupled to the patient to sense and communicate data related to one physiological function of the patients, and

a first body communication unit that interfaces with the physiological condition sensor to communicate over the patient utilizing a near field capacitive body coupled protocol; and

a relay system including;

a second body communication unit that receives data from and communicates with the first body communication unit utilizing the near field capacitive body coupled protocol, and

an external communication unit which communicates the data to a remote medical monitoring station.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the relay system includes one of a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, a palmtop computer, a pager and a laptop computer.

3. The system according to claim 1, the at least one wearable monitor further including:

an alarm sensor that interfaces with the physiological condition sensor to detect whether the sensed physiological condition is outside of a predetermined threshold and causes the first communication unit to send out an alarm signal.

4. The system according to claim 1, the wireless body network further including:

a relaying component that receives data from one of the wearable monitor external communicating unit and transmits the data to the remote monitoring station.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the data is transmitted via a radio frequency signal.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the wireless network further includes:

an identification component that provides a unique patient identifier with the data.

7. The system according to claim 1, the relaying component broadcasts received data on one of a cell phone network and the internet.

8. The system according to claim 1, the physiological condition sensor is one of heart rate, pulse oximetry, respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature and electrocardiographic activity.

9. The system according to claim 1 wherein the relay unit includes a cell phone, the cell phone including the second body communication unit which receives the data transmitted with the body coupled protocol when the cell phone is touching or closely adjacent the patient and the external communication unit which communicates the data over a cell phone network to the remote station.

10. The system according to claim 9 wherein the wearable monitor includes a low power radio frequency transmitter and the cell phone includes a radio frequency receiver which receives the physiological data directly from the wearable monitor when the second body communication unit is not touching or closely adjacent the patient.

11. The system according to claim 1 wherein the external communication unit includes a radio frequency transmitter that transmits a radio frequency signal and further including:

a cell phone or PDA unit which includes a receiver which receives the radio frequency signal and a cell phone or PDA that retransmits the data on a cell phone network or the internet to the remote station.

12. The system according to claim 11 wherein the wearable monitor also includes a radio frequency transmitter, the cell phone or PDA unit radio frequency receiver receiving the both radio frequency signals.

13. A method for communicating medical information within a wireless network, comprising:

monitoring a physiological condition of a patient via a sensor coupled to the patient;

communicating data related to the physiological conditions sensed by the sensor via a first body communication unit that communicates over the patient utilizing a near field capacitive body coupled protocol;

receiving data from the at least one wearable monitor utilizing the near field capacitive body coupled protocol; and

communicating the received to a remote medical monitoring station.

14. The method according to claim 13, further including:

monitoring the sensed physiological condition data and generating an alarm signal in response to the sensed physiological data being outside of a predetermined threshold.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein communicating the received data includes:

transmitting the received data over a cell phone network or the internet.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein communicating the received data includes:

transmitting a radio frequency signal to a relay system that retransmits the data over the internet or a cell phone network.

17. The method according to claim 16, further including:

communicating the data relative to the sensed physiological condition utilizing a radio frequency protocol; and

,

with a cell phone, receiving one of the radio frequency protocol and the radio frequency signal and retransmitting the data over the cell phone network.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the physiological is condition is one of heart rate, pulse oximetry, respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature and electrocardiographic activity.

19. A method for transmitting medical information within a wireless network, comprising:

associating a wearable monitor with a mobile alarm relay system including;

initializing communication between a first body communication unit associated with the wearable monitor and a second body communication unit associated with the mobile alarm relay system utilizing a near field capacitive body coupled protocol, and

establishing secure communication between the wearable monitor, and the mobile alarm relay system by sending an authentication request from the wearable monitor to the mobile alarm relay system and returning an authentication key from the mobile alarm relay system to the wearable monitor;

verifying the communication between the wearable monitor and the mobile alarm relay system is active including;

monitoring the connection between the wearable monitor and the mobile alarm relay system, and

generating an alarm if the connection becomes inactive; and

triggering an alarm if the data transmitted by the wearable monitor is outside of a predetermined threshold including;

transmitting an alarm message from the wearable monitor to the mobile alarm relay system, and

relaying the alarm message from the mobile alarm relay system to an external network.

20. A method for transmitting patient physiological data across a wireless network, comprising:

associating a wearable monitor with an identification and relaying component utilizing a near field body coupled communication protocol;

establishing a radio frequency connection between the identification and relaying component and a mobile alarm relay system;

verifying the communication between the wearable monitor, the identification and relaying component and the mobile alarm relay system is active; and

transmitting an alarm from the wearable monitor to the mobile alarm relay system via the identification and relaying component if the data transmitted by the wearable monitor is outside of a predetermined threshold.