SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HIGHLY RELIABLE DELIVERY OF LIFE-CRITICAL ALARMS THROUGH SHARED WIRELESS CHANNELS

• US 20130015966A1
• Filed: 03/09/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2010
• 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: Soomro, Amjad A., Schmitt, Ruediger, Kotfila, Mark S., Raymond, Phillip
• Granted Patent: US 9,554,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/502
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• 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 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/004 Alarm propagated along alternative communication path or using alternative communication medium according to a hierarchy of available ways to communicate, e.g. if Wi-Fi not available use GSM

Abstract

A patient monitor includes a plurality of monitoring devices which collect data about a patient. An evaluation unit determines the patient'"'"'s condition from the collected data and generates an alarm if the patient'"'"'s condition warrants notifying an appropriate medical responder. A communication unit which transmits the alarm to a access point over a hospital Internet protocol (IP) network, the communication device includes a first transmitter for transmitting the alarm using a primary link and a second transmitter for transmitting the alarm using a secondary link in response to the transmission using the primary link failing.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting an alarm, comprising:

establishing a communication link between a multi-mode patient monitoring device and one or more access points over one or more networks, by which the patient monitoring device communicates using a hospital Internet protocol (IP) network via the one or more access point;

processing physiological data collected by the patient monitoring device to determine whether a patient'"'"'s condition warrants generating an alarm;

transmitting the alarm using a primary link between the patient monitor and the one or more access points; and

transmitting the alarm using a secondary link between the patient monitor and the one or more access points in response to attempts to transmit the alarm using the primary link failing.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the alarm using the primary link is attempted at a maximum for a first pre-determined duration of time which is less than tolerable latency of the alarm transmission or a first pre-determined number of times.

3. The method according to claim 1, further including:

determining whether an acknowledgement message was received in response to the attempt to transmit the alarm using the primary link to determine if the transmission using the primary link was successful.

4. The method according to claim 1, further including:

entering IEEE802.11 APSD mode of operation; and

transmitting the alarm using the primary link using IEEE 802.11 APSD protocol.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the primary link is at least one of a IEEE 802.11, a Wi-Fi network, and a specific band of radio frequency.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the secondary link is at least one of specific band of radio frequency, one or more links used for asset tracking tags, communication protocol(s) used for asset tracking tags in IEEE 802.11 networks, one or more links used for RFID tags, one or more links used for Bluetooth radios, and one or more links used for cellular networking technologies.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein transmission using the secondary link is substantially concurrent with transmission using the primary link.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission using the secondary link is at least one of a broadcast, multicast, and unicast message.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the patient monitoring device transmits on the secondary link without performing the association protocol for the secondary link wireless protocol.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein patient monitor processes the physiological data to determine the patient'"'"'s condition.

11. A computer-readable medium carrying software for controlling one or more processors to configure and perform the method according to claim 1.

13. The patient monitor according to claim 9, wherein the transmission of the alarm using the primary link is attempted at a maximum for a first pre-determined duration of time which is less than tolerable latency of the alarm transmission or a first pre-determined number of times.

14. The patient monitor according to claim 9, wherein the primary link is at least one of an IEEE 802.11, a Wi-Fi network, and a specific band of radio frequency.

15. The patient monitor according to claim 10, wherein the secondary link is at least one of a specific band of radio frequency, one or more links used for asset tracking tags, communication protocol(s) used for asset tracking tags in IEEE 802.11 networks, one or more links used for RFID tags, one or more links used for Bluetooth radios, and one or more links used for cellular networking technologies.

16. The patient monitor according to claim 9, wherein the patient monitor is a battery powered ambulatory patient worn monitor.

17. A patient monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of the patient monitors according to claim 8; and

a patient information server in communication with the hospital IP network which displays and the stores the transmitted alarm;

wherein the patient monitor transmits the alarm using a primary link and transmits the alarm using a secondary link in response to the transmission using the primary link failing.

18. The patient monitoring system according to claim 15, wherein the primary link is at least one of a IEEE 802.11, a Wi-Fi network, and a specific band of radio frequency.

19. The patient monitoring system according to claim 16, wherein the secondary link is at least one of a specific band of radio frequency, one or more links used for asset tracking tags, communication protocol(s) used for asset tracking tags in IEEE 802.11 networks, one or more links used for RFID tags, one or more links used for Bluetooth radios, and one or more links used for cellular networking technologies.

20. The patient monitoring system according to claim 16, wherein the transmission of the alarm using the primary link is attempted at a maximum for a first pre-determined duration of time which is less than tolerable latency of the alarm transmission or a first pre-determined number of times.

12. A patient monitor, comprising:

a plurality of monitoring devices which collect data about a patient;

an evaluation unit which determines the patient'"'"'s condition from the collected data and generates an alarm if the patient'"'"'s condition warrants notifying an appropriate medical responder; and

a communication unit which transmits the alarm to one or more access points over a hospital Internet protocol (IP) network, wherein the communication device includes a first transmitter for transmitting the alarm using a primary link and a second transmitter for transmitting the alarm using a secondary link in response to the transmission using the primary link failing.