APPLICATION SERVER FOR DISPATCHING PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNALS IN A HOSPITAL, IN REAL TIME

• US 20110274013A1
• Filed: 07/10/2009
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Gass, Raymond
• Granted Patent: US 8,363,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/261
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42

Abstract

An application server (AS) for dispatching physiological signals in a hospital, in real time, this hospital comprising a local area network infrastructure (HN) with a virtual local area (VN) supporting voice over IP telephony application, comprises:—means for receiving packets containing samples of a physiological signal via a first terminal (IPP1) connected to the virtual local area (VN) supporting voice over IP,—means for de-encapsulating a received packet containing samples of said physiological signal, at the real time transport protocol level,—means for creating a second packet containing samples of said physiological signal, and forwarding the second packet back at least to the first terminal (IPP1).

Claims

1. ) An application server for dispatching physiological signals in a hospital, in real time, this hospital comprising a local area network infrastructure (HN) with a virtual local area network (VN) supporting voice over IP telephony application;

characterized in that it comprises;

means (SPH) for receiving packets containing samples of a physiological signal via a first terminal (IPP1) connected to the virtual local area (VN) supporting voice over IP,

means (SPM) for de-encapsulating a received packet containing samples of said physiological signal, at the real time transport protocol level,

means (LBM) for creating a second packet containing samples of said physiological signal, and forwarding the second packet back at least to the first terminal (IPP1).

2. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (SPM) for processing the samples of a received physiological signal;

and in that the means (LBM) for creating a second packet insert, into a second packet, processed samples supplied by said means for processing.

3. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that said means (LBM) for creating a second packet comprise means for creating a source address and a destination address by permuting the source address and the destination address of said first packet, at the real time transport protocol level.

4. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (FWM) for creating a third packet containing samples of said first packet, and forwarding the third packet to at least a second terminal (PDA1, . . . , PDAn) connected to the virtual local area network (VN) supporting voice over IP, by creating a point to point flow for each destination terminal.

5. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 4, characterized in that it further comprises means (SPM) for processing the samples of a received physiological signal;

and in that said means (FWM) for creating a third packet containing samples of said received physiological signal are fit for inserting, into a third packet, processed samples supplied by said means for processing.

6. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 4, characterized in that said means (FWM) for creating a third packet comprise:

means for creating a source address by extracting the destination address of the first packet, and means for creating a destination address by taking the address of the second terminal (PDA1, . . . , PDAn), at the real time transport protocol level.

7. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (PPM) for building a series of still images that represents physical characteristics of the physiological signal, and sending each image over the user datagram protocol to at least a terminal (IPP1) connected to the virtual local area (VN) supporting voice over IP.

8. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (FCM) for elaborating a file comprising a physiological signal and data related to a patient, and which is adapted for storing in a data base (DB).

9. ) An application server (AS) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises automatic call supervision means (SPH) for:

accepting a phone call;

accepting a conference call;

terminating adequately the call set up protocol so as to be in a position to establish a voice connection over the voice dedicated VLAN (VN), without any specific requirement, neither from the calling party, nor from the call server CS;

returning to an idle state when a call is released by the terminal that has set it up.