ALARM ROUTING OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES IN TARGETED ALARM SYSTEM

• US 20160371449A1
• Filed: 12/18/2014
• Published: 12/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dragerwerk AG & Company KGaA (FPS Vermögensverwaltung GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Draeger Medical Systems Incorporated (FPS Vermögensverwaltung GmbH)
• Inventors: BROUSE, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,911,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/22 Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/003 Address allocation methods and details
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 26/006 with substations connected to an individual line, e.g. star configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 26/007 Wireless interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/185 Signal analysis techniques for reducing or preventing false alarms or for enhancing the reliability of the system
• 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 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• 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: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A targeted alarm system is described that includes a network probe for sending test data to terminal devices connected to a network and deriving reliability data of the terminal devices and the network. When a targeted alarm message needs to be sent, the system identifies a targeted terminal device based on the reliability data for sending the targeted alarm message. Related methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A targeted medical alarm system comprising:

a network adapter configured to communicate with a plurality of terminal devices over one or more networks, each of the terminal devices being associated with a respective caregiver;

one or more data processors; and

a computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the one or more data processors, performs operations comprising;

sending test data to each of the terminal devices;

receiving acknowledgement data indicating when the test data was received by the respective terminal device;

determining one or more latency-related values associated with each of the test data and the acknowledgement data;

updating reliability data based at least in part on the latency-related values; and

identifying a targeted terminal device to which a targeted message is to be sent based at least in part on the reliability data.

2-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method of targeted medical alarm for implementation by one or more data processors forming part of a least one computing device, the method comprising:

transmitting, by at least one data processor, test data to each of a plurality of terminal devices;

receiving, by at least one data processor, an automatic acknowledgement from each of the terminal devices indicating when the test data were received; and

determining, by at least one data processor, one or more latency-related values associated with the test data;

updating, by at least one data processor, reliability data based at least in part on the latency-related values; and

identifying, by at least one data processor and based on the reliability data, a terminal device to which a targeted message is to be sent.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the test data comprises one or more test packets.

23. The method according to claims 21, wherein the test data is transmitted periodically.

24. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data comprises a reliability map.

25. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data include a current workload data for at least some of the caregivers and the associated terminal devices.

26. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data includes a proximity data for at least some of the caregivers and the associated terminal devices.

27. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data includes an energy level data for at least some of the caregivers and the associated terminal devices.

28. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data includes a historical response data for at least some of the caregivers.

29. The method according to claims 21, wherein the reliability data includes a physical distribution of the caregivers and the associated terminal devices.

30. The method according to claims 21, further comprising sending the targeted message to the targeted terminal device.

31. The method according to claims 21, wherein the one or more latency-related values include one or more of:

a success or failure of acknowledgement, round-trip message latency, a message routing path, and a physical location.

32. The method according to claims 21, further comprising:

receiving, by at least one data processor, a response message from a responsive terminal device; and

generating, by at least one data processor, one or more statistics of the responsive terminal device based on the response message.

33. The method according to claims 21, wherein the one or more statistics include one or more of:

a response time, a current location, a typical location, a scheduled activity, and a scheduled location.

34. The method according to claims 21, wherein the targeted device is determined based at least in part on the one or more statistics of each of the terminal devices.

35. The method according to claims 21, further comprising:

identifying, by at least one data processor, a secondary terminal device based at least in part on the reliability data; and

sending, by at least one data processor, the targeted message to the secondary terminal device.

36. The method according to claims 21, wherein the secondary terminal device is identified for each critical message.

37. The method according to claims 21, further comprising generating, by at least one processor, a report of the reliability data.

38. The method according to claims 21, wherein the targeted device is determined based at least in part on a location distribution of the terminal devices.

39. The method according to claims 21, further comprising weighing and combining, by one or more data processor, each of the latency-related values to generate an overall reliability and latency of each of the terminal devices.

40. The method according to claims 21, further comprising generating the automatic acknowledgement from each of the terminal devices upon receipt of the test data.

41. (canceled)