Integrated mobile phone and medical implant monitoring system and method for using the same

• US 20120100887A1
• Filed: 10/25/2010
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Waveworks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Waveworks Incorporated
• Inventors: Tekin, Ahmet, Ay, Suat Utku, Emira, Ahmed
• Granted Patent: US 8,265,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Integrated mobile phone and medical implant system. The disclosed system integrates the available electronic resources that already exist in compact and portable devices, such as any generic mobile phone, with a body implantable medical device such that the sensory data obtained from the implant device is transmitted through an electronic umbilical cord directly to the mobile device where the data is analyzed and presented in a user-friendly manner to the user/patient and/or transmitted wirelessly to a remote location for further action, if necessary, without the need for additional equipment. With the switch of software application from a drop-down menu, the mobile device of the system functions both as a normal mobile phone, as a medical monitoring device, or both simultaneously without any interference between the two modes of operations. Method for using the integrated system is also disclosed.

Claims

1. An integrated mobile device and medical implant system comprising

a first architecture further comprising;

a mobile phone;

a device implantable within the body of a user/patient, said implantable device comprising an implant coil and an implant IC hermetically sealed within a substrate;

an electronic umbilical cord having an implant-end patch and a phone-end plug, said electronic umbilical cord providing inductive communications link between said implantable device and said mobile phone through a patch coil affixed to said implant-end patch;

said umbilical cord further comprising a two-way near field inductive data/power transfer two-wire cable capable of carrying modulated RF data;

a Link-ICC formed in said mobile phone between a communication port and system-on-chip chip (SOCC), or inside said SOCC, or inside application processor (AP), and capable of acting as an interface between said mobile phone and said implantable device through said electronic umbilical cord;

wherein said Link-ICC is programmable to work in an RF-ID band to generate a carrier signal for fully differential operation for interference-free communication with said implantable device through said electronic umbilical cord, and further configured to have a power amplifier that drives the primary patch coil at said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord, and a receive chain including a programmable attenuator, a limiting amplifier to recreate the carrier signal for mixing, filters and variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) for signal conditioning, and ADC for conversion to digital signal, a digital signal processor and control logic to extract data from said implantable device, a mobile phone interface to present said data to mobile phone application processor; and

a mobile phone display to present the processed data to the immediate user/patient and/or an antenna to communicate the data wirelessly to a remote location.

2. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 1, wherein said mobile phone is capable of sharing its resources, including display, battery, communication and accessory ports, application processor, crystal oscillator, audio, vibratory and memory to form a complete medical monitoring interface to the user/patient.

3. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 1, wherein said implantable device includes biosensors and actuators.

4. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 1, wherein said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord is adhesively secured over said implantable device on the body of said user/patient.

5. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 1, wherein said phone-end plug of said electronic umbilical cord connects to an audio jack of said mobile phone.

6. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 1, wherein said phone-end plug of said electronic umbilical cord connects to any available port on said mobile phone.

7. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system comprising

a second architecture further comprising;

a generic mobile phone;

an electronic umbilical cord having an implant-end patch and a phone-end plug, said electronic umbilical cord comprising standard power/accessory cable including digital interface wires and power supply wires;

said implant-end patch further comprising an outer portion configured to receive a Link-ICC acting as an interface between said mobile phone and said implantable device through said electronic umbilical cord;

wherein said Link-ICC is programmable to work in an RF-ID band to generate a carrier signal for fully differential operation for interference-free communication while connected to said mobile phone through said electronic umbilical cord, and further configured to have a receive chain including a programmable attenuator, a limiting amplifier to recreate the carrier signal for mixing, filters and variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) for signal conditioning, and ADC for conversion to digital signal, a digital signal processor and control logic to extract data from said implantable device, a mobile phone interface to present said data to mobile phone application processor; and

a generic mobile phone display to present the processed data to the immediate user/patient and/or an antenna to communicate the data wirelessly to a remote location.

8. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 7, wherein said mobile phone is capable of sharing its resources, including display, battery, communication and accessory ports, application processor, crystal oscillator, audio, vibratory and memory to form a complete medical monitoring interface to the user/patient.

9. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 7, wherein said implantable device includes biosensors and actuators.

10. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 7 wherein said implant-end patch, comprising said outer portion, of said electronic umbilical cord is adhesively secured over said implantable device on the body of said user/patient.

11. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 7, wherein said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord connects to power and accessory ports of said mobile phone.

12. The integrated mobile device and medical implant system according to claim 7, wherein said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord has access to a battery of said mobile phone.

13. A method comprising

providing a first architecture having a mobile phone configured to receive an interface Link-ICC and an implantable medical device communicating through said interface Link-ICC via an electronic umbilical cord having an implant-end patch and a phone-end plug, the implantable device comprising an inductive implant coil and implant IC sealed within a substrate and biosensors as well as actuators;

placing a patch coil on said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord;

placing said Link-ICC inside said mobile phone between a communication port and system-on-chip chip (SOCC), or inside said SOCC, or inside application processor (AP);

securing adhesively said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord onto the body of said user/patient over said implantable medical device;

connecting said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord further comprising a two-way near field inductive data/power transfer two-wire cable capable of carrying modulated RF data to said mobile phone;

turning on said mobile phone;

having a battery;

transceiving data to and from the implantable medical device; and

presenting the processed data in a useful format to the user/patient and/or transmit wirelessly to a remote location.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein receiving medical data from said implantable device is accomplished by plugging said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord to audio jack of said mobile phone while not interfering with the normal communications functionality of said mobile phone.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said wireless transmission of data is accomplished by storing sensory data received from said implantable device in said mobile device memory and sending said data using normal mobile phone functions.

16. A method comprising

providing a second architecture having a generic mobile phone and an implantable medical device communicating through an interface Link-IC via an electronic umbilical cord having an implant-end patch and a phone-end plug, said implant-end patch having an outer portion, the implantable device comprising an inductive implant coil and implant IC sealed within a substrate and biosensors actuators as well;

placing an inductive patch coil on said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord;

placing said Link-ICC on said outer portion of said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord;

enabling said Link-ICC to affect power/data transfer with said implantable device through said inductive patch coil and inductive implant coil;

securing adhesively said implant-end patch of said electronic umbilical cord onto the body of said user/patient over said implantable medical device;

connecting said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord further comprising standard power accessory cable which contains standard digital data communication wires and power supply lines;

turning on said mobile phone having a battery;

transceiving data to and from the implantable medical device; and

presenting the processed data in a useful format to the user/patient and/or transmit wirelessly to a remote location.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein receiving medical data from said implantable device is accomplished by plugging said phone-end of said electronic umbilical cord to power/accessory port of said mobile phone while not interfering with the normal communications functionality of said mobile phone.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein said wireless transmission of data is accomplished by storing sensory data received from said implantable device in said mobile device memory and sending said data using normal mobile phone functions.