Dynamic Announcing For Creation Of Wireless Communication Connections

• US 20170366921A1
• Filed: 08/31/2017
• Published: 12/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Pflugh, Timothy, Qu, Fujian, Coppola, Benjamin, Karst, Edward, Weinberg, Lisa P., Pei, Xing, Wu, Yongjian
• Granted Patent: US 10,321,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0031 Implanted circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/283 Invasive
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/29 for permanent or long-term implantation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/361 Detecting fibrillation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4836 Diagnosis combined with treatment in closed-loop systems or methods A61B5/0036 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/686 Permanently implanted devices, e.g. pacemakers, other stimulators, biochips A61B5/6861 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37254 Pacemaker or defibrillator security, e.g. to prevent or inhibit programming alterations by hackers or unauthorised individuals
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37258 Alerting the patient
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/2492 Pulse stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0087 Preprocessing of received signal for synchronisation, e.g. by code conversion, pulse generation or edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

Example electronic devices, including but not limited to implantable medical devices, and methods employing dynamic announcing for creation of wireless communication connections are disclosed herein. In an example, an electronic device includes a wireless communication interface to transmit announcement signals for creating a wireless communication connection with the external device. The electronic device also includes a sensor to detect a characteristic of an environment external to the electronic device, and a control circuit including an announcement timing control module to dynamically control timing of the announcement signals based on the detected characteristic.

Claims

1. An electronic device configured to communicate wirelessly with an external device separate from the electronic device, the electronic device comprising:

a wireless communication interface configured to transmit announcement signals for creating a wireless communication connection with the external device;

a sensor configured to detect a characteristic of an environment external to the electronic device; and

a control circuit comprising an announcement timing control module configured to access one or more announcement factors based on the detected characteristic and to dynamically control timing of the announcement signals based on the one or more announcement factors.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, the electronic device comprising at least one of an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator, an artificial cardiac pacemaker, and an implantable loop recorder, and the detected characteristic comprising an electrical signal produced by a heart of a patient.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the detected characteristic comprises a signal indicative of a patient'"'"'s heart activity.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a real-time clock configured to provide a current time of day, the announcement timing control module further configured to dynamically control timing of the announcement signals based on both the detected characteristic and on the current time of day.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the sensor is at least one of an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the announcement factors represents at least one of a clinical condition or a system condition.

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the clinical condition represents at least one of a VF episode, a high voltage shock, or delivery of a patient notification.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to at least one of i) increase an advertising frequency, ii) increase a number of advertising pulses per advertising cycle, or iii) decrease a pulse to pulse interval during the advertising cycle.

9. An implantable medical device for monitoring physiology of a person, the implantable medical device capable of wirelessly communicating with an external device located external to the person, the implantable medical device comprising:

a wireless communication interface configured to transmit announcement signals for creating a wireless communication connection with the external device;

at least one sensor configured to detect a characteristic of an environment external to the implantable medical device; and

a control circuit comprising an announcement timing control module configured to access one or more announcement factors based on the detected characteristic and to dynamically control timing of the announcement signals based on at least the one or more announcement factors.

10. The implantable medical device of claim 9, further comprising a heart activity detector configured to determine a heart activity of the person based on the detected characteristic, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to dynamically increase or decrease the frequency of the announcement messages based on the heart activity.

11. The implantable medical device of claim 9, the implantable medical device configured to determine a heart rate of the person based on the detected characteristic, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to increase the frequency of the announcement messages in response to the determined heart rate exceeding a first threshold or falling below a second threshold.

12. The implantable medical device of claim 9, the implantable medical device configured to determine, at least one of:

a body position, and

a physical activity level of the person and whether the physical activity level of the person exceeds a threshold, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to increase the frequency of the announcement messages in response to, at least one;

the determined body position being an upright position, and

the determined physical activity level of the person exceeding a threshold.

13. The implantable medical device of claim 9, the implantable medical device configured to determine, at least one of:

a body position, and

a physical activity level of the person, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to cease transmission of the announcement messages in response to, at least one;

the determined body position, and

the determined physical activity level of the person indicating that the person is sleeping.

14. The implantable medical device of claim 9, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to predict when to change a timing of the announcement signals based on the detected characteristic.

15. The implantable medical device of claim 14, wherein the announcement timing control module is configured to predict the timing by:

identifying a pattern associating user-initiated follow-up sessions and occurrence of a clinical condition; and

based on the pattern, designate the clinical condition to represent the detected characteristic.

16. The implantable medical device of claim 9, further comprising:

a heart activity detector configured to determine a heart activity of the person based on the detected characteristic;

a memory configured to store a heart activity together with the time of day at which the heart activity was detected; and

a microcontroller configured to determine a trend in the time of day at which pathological heart activity is detected, wherein the announcement timing control module is further configured to dynamically set the frequency of the announcement messages based the trend.

17. The implantable medical device of claim 9, further comprising:

a heart activity detector configured to determine a heart activity of the person and determine whether the heart activity is a pathological heart activity based on the detected characteristic;

an event detector configured to detect a cardiac event;

a memory configured to store at least one of the pathological heart activity and the cardiac event together with the time of day at which at least one of the pathological heart activity and the cardiac event was detected; and

a microcontroller configured to determine a trend in the time of day at which at least one of the pathological heart activity and cardiac event is detected, wherein the announcement timing control module is further configured to dynamically set the frequency of the announcement messages based on the trend.

18. The implantable medical device of claim 9, further comprising:

a heart activity detector configured to determine a heart activity of the person based on the detected characteristic;

an event detector configured to detect cardiac events;

a memory configured to store at least one of the heart activity and cardiac event when the person triggers the implantable medical device to connect with an external device;

a microcontroller configured to determine a trend in at least one of the heart activity and the cardiac event occurring when the person triggers the implantable medical device to connect with the external device, wherein the announcement timing control module is further configured to increase the frequency of the announcement messages when at least one of a current detected heart activity and a current detected cardiac event satisfies the trend.

19. The implantable medical device of claim 9, further comprising:

a sensor configured to detect a level of acceleration imparted upon the implantable medical device, the announcement timing control module further configured to increase the frequency of the announcement messages based on the detected level of acceleration exceeding a threshold.

20. A method for dynamically controlling a frequency of advertising messages transmitted by an electronic device to create a wireless communication connection with an external device separate from the electronic device, the method comprising:

detecting a characteristic of an environment external to the electronic device;

accessing an announcement frequency factor employable to set a frequency of advertising messages, wherein the announcement frequency factor is based on the detected characteristic;

setting at least one of i) a frequency of the advertising messages, ii) a number of advertising pulses per advertising cycle, or iii) a pulse to pulse interval during the advertising cycle, based at least in part on the announcement frequency factor; and

transmitting the advertising messages using the frequency.

21. The method of claim 20, the announcement frequency factor comprising at least one of a heart rate of a patient, a clinical condition, a system condition, at least one of a cardiac and neurogenic event of a patient or at least one of a body position any a physical activity level of a patient.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising providing a current time of day using a real-time clock, wherein setting a frequency of the advertising messages based at least in part on the announcement frequency factor.