Remote Patient Management Device and Method

• US 20130169432A1
• Filed: 01/23/2012
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Turkcell Teknoloji Arastirma ve Gelistirme Anonim Sirketi (Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.)
• Original Assignee: Turkcell Teknoloji Arastirma ve Gelistirme Anonim Sirketi (Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.)
• Inventors: Ozgul, Mehmet Emin, Tavsancil, Emre, Erman, Kamil
• Granted Patent: US 8,976,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The present invention relates to a remote patient management device (1) and method (1000) which facilitates to particularly follow up chronic diseases and keep them under control and enables to transfer measurement results, which should be made by people with these diseases and transmitted to healthcare personnel properly, in an easy and safe way automatically.

Claims

1. A remote patient management device (1) comprising

a body (2);

a plurality of visual units (3) which are located on the body (2) and enable to inform and warn the user visually;

at least one sound generating unit (4) which is located on the body (2) and enables to warn and inform the user vocally;

at least one input unit (5) which is located on the body (2) and enables the user to carry out input processes;

and characterized by

at least one short-range communication module (6) which is located in the body (2) and comprises at least one interface enabling contact with devices that are present at short-range including medical devices that will make tests of the patient;

at least one long-range communication module (7) which is located in the body (2) and comprises at least one interface enabling contact with remote servers including transmitting test measurement results of the patient to healthcare centers;

at least one control module (8) which enables the visual units (3), the sound generating unit (4) and the input unit (5) to fulfill their duties and to carry out short communication by means of the short-range communication module (6) and remote communication by means of the long-range communication module (7).

2. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by at least two adaptation layers (9) which enable the control module (8) to interact with the short-range communication module (6) and the long-range communication module (7) in an isolated manner.

3. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 2, characterized by the adaptation layers (9) which presents a standard set of functions, that is necessary for getting in contact with medical devices and remote servers, to the control module (8).

4. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the control module (8) having:

at least one application (10) which controls services that enable remote management of the device (1) and updates, and all components;

at least one processor (11) which enables running an application (10);

at least one medical device library (12) in which identity information relating to the medical devices connected, treatment information and necessary operating information are included;

at least one update unit (13) which enables controlling retrieval of information relating to the application (10) or the medical devices connected from the remote servers; and

at least one non-volatile memory (14) in which the application (10) and the medical device library (12) are kept confidential.

5. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the input unit (5) which is a keypad.

6. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the input unit (5) which is a touch screen.

7. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the short-range communication module (6) which has a bluetooth communication interface that is defined by IEEE 802.15.1 standard.

8. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the short-range communication module (6) which has a wireless personal networks communication interface that is defined by IEEE 802.15.4 standard.

9. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the short-range communication module (6) which has a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) communication interface that is defined by IEEE 802.11 series.

10. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the short-range communication module (6) which has an infrared communication interface.

11. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the short-range communication module (6) which has a wire serial communication interface.

12. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the long-range communication module (7) which has an interface of a global system for mobile communications.

13. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the long-range communication module (7) which has an Ethernet communication interface.

14. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the long-range communication module (7) which has a Wireless Fidelity communication interface.

15. A remote patient management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized by at least one subscriber identity module which enables sending the measurement results that are received from the medical devices to the remote servers by being encrypted with certificate keys and encryption methods.

16. A remote patient management method (1000) enabling people with chronic diseases to make their tests on a regular basis and transmission of test measurement values to healthcare personnel reliably essentially comprising the steps of:

turning on a device (1) (1100);

determining suitability of the device for operation by testing of device (1) sub-systems and making updates thereof (1200);

matching the device (1) with at least one medical device (1300);

obtaining results of measurements from the medical device and transmitting the results to a remote server (1400); and

turning off the device (1) (1500).

17. A remote patient management method (1000) according to claim 16, characterized by the step of determining suitability of the device for operation having the sub-steps of:

booting an application (10), which is located in a non-volatile memory (14), by a processor (11) (1201);

running the application (10) booting of which is carried out, by the processor (11) (1202);

testing of the sub-systems by the application (10) (1203);

if it is determined that there is an error during tests, giving a user a visual and audible warning that there is the error (1204);

reporting the error to the remote server (1205);

if it is determined that there is no error during tests, booting a data in a medical device library (12) and a user adjustment data in the non-volatile memory (14) by the processor (11) (1206);

establishing a connection with the remote server by the application (10) over a long-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1207);

making connection, package and long-range access tests by the application (10) (1208);

if it is determined that there is an error during the connection, package and long-range access tests, giving the user the visual and audible warning that there is the error (1209);

if it is determined that there is no error during the connection, package and long-range access tests, giving the user a visual and audible notification that there is no error (1210);

controlling by the application (10) whether there is a short-range communication adaptation layer (9) or short-range communication interfaces that were activated during error tests (1211);

if it is determined that there is/are the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) or the short-range communication interfaces which was/were activated during error tests as a result of the control process (1211), switching the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) or the short-range communication interfaces which were activated to a sleep mode by the application (10) (1212);

if it is determined that there is/are no short-range communication adaptation layer (9) or short-range communication interfaces which was/were activated during error tests as a result of the control process (1211), connecting to the remote server over the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1213);

after connecting to the remote server, controlling whether there is an update for the application (10) or the medical device library (12) (1214);

if it is determined that there is one or more updates after controlling whether there is an update at the remote server (1214), downloading the updates to an update unit (13) (1215);

if it is determined that there is an error during downloading of the updates to the update unit (13), reporting the error to the server (1216) and switching the communication interfaces to sleep mode (1219);

if it is determined that there is no error during downloading of the updates to the update unit (13), configuring the updates by the update unit (13) (1217);

restarting of the device (1) (1218); and

booting of the application (10) located in the non-volatile memory (14) by the processor (11) (1201);

if it is determined that there is no update after controlling whether there is the update at the remote server (1214), switching the communication interfaces to sleep mode (1219).

18. A remote patient management method (1000) according to claim 16, characterized by the step of matching the device (1) with at least one medical device (1300) having the sub-steps of:

controlling whether a short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is located in a short-range communication module (6) (1301);

if it is determined that the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is not located in the short-range communication module (6) as a result of the control process (1301), connecting to the remote server over a long-range communication adaptation layer (1302);

recording the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device in a medical device library (12) by an update unit (13) (1303);

adding the short-range communication interface downloaded to a short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1304);

if it is determined that the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is located in the short-range communication module (6) as a result of the control process (1301), transmitting information of with what type of medical device matching will be made to the update unit (13) (1305);

triggering an application (10) by the update unit (13) using matching information (1306);

bringing the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) into a state waiting for communication with the medical device defined by the application (10) (1307);

bringing the medical device into a matching state (1308);

initiation of a matching process by the application (10) (1309);

if it is detected that there is an error during the matching process (1309), giving a user a visual and audible warning that there is the error (1310) and reporting the error to the remote server (1311);

if it is detected that there is no error during the matching process (1309), giving the user a visual and audible notification that there is no error (1312) and conveying the matching process to the remote server over the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1313);

registering an identity information related to the medical device which is matched and the communication module of the medical device, on a non-volatile memory (14) and the medical device library (12) (1314);

switching the communication interfaces to a sleep mode (1315).

19. A remote patient management method (1000) according to claim 16, characterized by the step of obtaining results of measurements from the medical device and transmitting the results to a remote server (1400) having the sub-steps of:

reading one or more medical devices, which are defined in a medical device library (12) previously, by an application (10) (1401);

running a short-range communication interface on a short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1402);

controlling whether the medical device which will make measurement requires pre-measurement information including calibration, time in order to start measuring (1403);

if it is determined that the medical device which will make measurement requires pre-measurement information including calibration, time in order to start measuring after the controlling process (1403), controlling whether the medical device is previously defined (1404);

if it is determined that the medical device is not previously defined after the controlling process (1403), giving a user a visual and audible warning that the medical device is not defined (1405);

if it is determined that the medical device is previously defined as a consequence of the controlling process (1404), running a communication protocol of the medical device and establishing a connection with the medical device (1406);

sending necessary pre-measurement information from the medical device library (12) to the medical device (1407);

controlling whether the process of receiving measurement results is completed (1408);

if it is determined that the process of receiving measurement results is not completed as a consequence of the controlling process (1408), giving the user visual and audible information that measurement results are still being received (1409);

if it is determined that the process of receiving measurement results is completed as a consequence of the controlling process (1408), controlling whether there is an error in receiving measurement results (1410);

if it is determined that there is an error in receiving measurement results as a consequence of the controlling process (1410), giving the user a visual and audible warning that there is the error (1411) and switching the communication interfaces to a sleep mode (1418);

if it is determined that there is no error in receiving measurement results as a consequence of the controlling process (1410), giving the user a visual and audible warning that the measurement results are received faultlessly (1412);

encrypting the measurement results received with certificate keys and a encryption method (1413);

registering the measurement results encrypted on a non-volatile memory (14) (1414);

sending the measurement results registered to the remote server by means of a communication interface over a long-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1415);

giving the user a visual and audible notification that the measurement results are sent to the remote server (1416);

deleting the measurement results on the non-volatile memory (14) after the results are sent to the remote server (1417); and

switching the communication interfaces to sleep mode (1418).

20. A remote patient management method (1000) according to claim 17, characterized by the step of matching the device (1) with at least one medical device (1300) having the sub-steps of:

controlling whether a short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is located in a short-range communication module (6) (1301);

if it is determined that the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is not located in the short-range communication module (6) as a result of the control process (1301), connecting to the remote server over the long-range communication adaptation layer (1302);

recording the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device in the medical device library (12) by the update unit (13) (1303);

adding the short-range communication interface downloaded to the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1304);

if it is determined that the short-range communication interface which will enable getting in contact with the medical device is located in the short-range communication module (6) as a result of the control process (1301), transmitting information of with what type of medical device matching will be made to the update unit (13) (1305);

triggering the application (10) by the update unit (13) using matching information (1306);

bringing the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) into a state waiting for communication with the medical device defined by the application (10) (1307);

bringing the medical device into a matching state (1308);

initiation of a matching process by the application (10) (1309);

if it is detected that there is an error during the matching process (1309), giving the user the visual and audible warning that there is the error (1310) and reporting the error to the remote server (1311);

if it is detected that there is no error during the matching process (1309), giving the user the visual and audible notification that there is no error (1312) and conveying the matching process to the remote server over the short-range communication adaptation layer (9) (1313);

registering an identity information related to the medical device which is matched and the communication module of the medical device, on the non-volatile memory (14) and the medical device library (12) (1314);

switching the communication interfaces to the sleep mode (1315).