PATIENT MONITORING OVER HETEROGENEOUS NETWORKS

• US 20130021169A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 01/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2010
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 9,762,648 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/870.02
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/166 IP fragmentation; TCP segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A patient monitor includes least one monitoring device which collects patient data about a patient. A packet generator generates data packets from the patient data collected from the patient. A communication unit transmits the data packets over an Internet protocol (IP) network. The communication unit includes a first transmitter for transmitting the data packets using a first wireless network and a second transmitter for transmitting the data packets using a second wireless network.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting physiological data, comprising:

establishing a communication link between a multi-mode patient monitoring device and a plurality of Internet protocol (IP) networks;

collecting physiological data collected by the patient monitoring device;

generating data packets from the collected physiological data;

duplicating the generated data packets;

transmitting the duplicated data packets over the plurality of networks;

receiving the transmitted duplicated data packets; and

forwarding a single set of data from the duplicated data packets to an end application.

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

before the transmitting step, resizing the duplicated data packets to the most appropriate size for transmitting on each of the plurality of networks; and

after the receiving step, merging together the resized data packets into a data stream that accurately represents the duplicated data packet.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the resizing is at least one of an aggregation and fragmentation process.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the most appropriate packet size depends on at least one of each network'"'"'s power consumption characteristics, bandwidth and bit error rate, the application delay requirements, and the interface'"'"'s maximum transmission units (MTU) size.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of networks include at least one of a IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) GPRS, UMTS, CDMA2000, IS-95, GSM, CDMA, CDMA 1x, CDMA 1X EV-DO, WiMAX, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 805.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.21 Wi-Fi, UMTS over W-CDMA, UMTS over TDD, CDMA 3X EV-DO, HSPA D, HSPA U, EDGE, Bluetooth, Zigbee, UWB, LTE and Wi-Bree network.

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

after the receiving step, determining sampling rate information for each received duplicate data packet from a timestamp, packet size information, and sampling rate of each received duplicate data packets; and

before the forwarding step, ordering the received duplicate data packets from the determined sampling rate information.

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

8. A patient monitor comprising:

at least one monitoring device which collects patient data about a patient;

a packet generator which generates data packets from the patient data collected from the patient; and

a communication unit which transmits the data packets over an Internet protocol (IP) network, wherein the communication unit includes a first transmitter for transmitting the data packets using a first wireless network and a second transmitter for transmitting the data packets using a second wireless network.

9. The patient monitor according to claim 8, wherein the communication unit further includes:

a packet duplicator which generates duplicates of the data packets; and

optionally, a packet splitter which resizes the duplicated data packets to the most appropriate size for each of the first and second wireless networks.

10. The patient monitor according to claim 8, wherein the first and second networks include at least one of a IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) GPRS, UMTS, CDMA2000, IS-95, GSM, CDMA, CDMA 1x, CDMA 1X EV-DO, WiMAX, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEE 802.21, Wi-Fi, UMTS over W-CDMA, UMTS over TDD, CDMA 3X EV-DO, HSPA D, HSPA U, EDGE, Bluetooth, Zigbee, UFB, LTE and Wi-Bree network.

11. The patient monitor according to claim 8, wherein the patient monitor is a battery powered ambulatory patient worn monitor.

12. The patient monitor according to claim 8, wherein the packet splitter is configured to resize the data packets using at least one of an aggregation process and a fragmentation process.

13. The patient monitor according to claim 8, wherein the packet splitter is configured to resize the data packets to a packet size in accordance with at least one of each network'"'"'s power consumption characteristics, bandwidth and bit error rate, the application delay requirements, and the interface'"'"'s maximum transmission units (MTU) size.

14. 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 to receive the data packets that were transmitted via the first and second networks and at least one of generate a display based on the data packets received and store the patient data about the patient.

15. The patient monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein the patient information server includes:

a packet merger which merges the resized data packets into a data stream that accurately represents the duplicated data packet; and

a duplicate packet detector for forwarding one of the duplicated data packets to the patient information server application.

16. The patient monitoring system according to claim 14, further including:

a sender which receives data packets from the plurality of patient monitors and transmits the data packets to the mobile information display.

17. The patient monitoring system according to claim 16, wherein the sender includes:

a receiving unit including;

a packet merger which merges the resized data packets into a data stream that accurately represents the duplicated data packet; and

a duplicate packet detector for forwarding one of the duplicated data packets to the mobile information display; and

a transmitting unit including;

a packet duplicator which generates duplicates of the data packets; and

optionally, a packet splitter which resizes the duplicated data packets to the most appropriate size for each of the first and second wireless networks.