Architecture for TDMA medical telemetry system
First Claim
1. A medical telemetry system for permitting real-time monitoring of patients, including ambulatory patients, of a medical facility from a centralized monitoring station, comprising:
- at least one monitoring station which displays real-time physiologic data of multiple patients;
a plurality of battery-powered wireless remote telemeters, the remote telemeters configured to attach to, and configured to collect and transmit real-time physiologic data of, respective patients; and
a plurality of transceivers which communicate bi-directionally with the plurality of remote telemeters using a plurality of wireless radio frequency (RF) channels, the transceivers connected to the at least one monitoring station and being distributed throughout the medical facility such that different transceivers provide data-reception coverage for different areas of the medical facility, at least some of the transceivers receiving physiologic data on different RF channels, the transceivers configured to receive the physiologic data transmitted by the remote telemeters and to forward the physiologic data over a wired connection to the at least one monitoring station;
wherein at least some of the remote telemeters automatically switch between different RF channels of the plurality of RF channels in response to patient movement throughout the medical facility to connect to and disconnect from individual transceivers of the plurality of transceivers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A medical telemetry system is provided for collecting the real-time physiologic data of patients (including ambulatory patients) of a medical facility, and for transferring the data via RF to a real-time data distribution network for monitoring and display. The system includes battery-powered remote telemeters which attach to respective patients, and which collect and transmit (in data packets) the physiologic data of the patients. The remote telemeters communicate bi-directionally with a number of ceiling-mounted RF transceivers, referred to as "VCELLs," using a wireless TDMA protocol. The VCELLs, which are hardwire-connected to a LAN, forward the data packets received from the telemeters to patient monitoring stations on the LAN. The VCELLs are distributed throughout the medical facility such that different VCELLs provide coverage for different patient areas. As part of the wireless TDMA protocol, the remote telemeters continuously assess the quality of the RF links offered by different nearby VCELLs (by scanning the frequencies on which different VCELLs operate), and connect to those VCELLs which offer the best link conditions. To provide a high degree of protection against multi-path interference, each remote telemeter maintains connections with two different VCELLs at-a-time, and transmits all data packets (on different frequencies and during different timeslots) to both VCELLs; the system thereby provides space, time and frequency diversity on wireless data packet transfers from the telemeters. The telemeters and VCELLs also implement a patient location protocol for enabling the monitoring of the locations of individual patients. The architecture can accommodate a large number of patients (e.g., 500 or more) while operating within the transmission power limits of the VHF medical telemetry band.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A medical telemetry system for permitting real-time monitoring of patients, including ambulatory patients, of a medical facility from a centralized monitoring station, comprising:
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at least one monitoring station which displays real-time physiologic data of multiple patients; a plurality of battery-powered wireless remote telemeters, the remote telemeters configured to attach to, and configured to collect and transmit real-time physiologic data of, respective patients; and a plurality of transceivers which communicate bi-directionally with the plurality of remote telemeters using a plurality of wireless radio frequency (RF) channels, the transceivers connected to the at least one monitoring station and being distributed throughout the medical facility such that different transceivers provide data-reception coverage for different areas of the medical facility, at least some of the transceivers receiving physiologic data on different RF channels, the transceivers configured to receive the physiologic data transmitted by the remote telemeters and to forward the physiologic data over a wired connection to the at least one monitoring station; wherein at least some of the remote telemeters automatically switch between different RF channels of the plurality of RF channels in response to patient movement throughout the medical facility to connect to and disconnect from individual transceivers of the plurality of transceivers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of transferring real-time physiologic data of a patient from a wireless remote telemeter to a receiving node of a network so as to provide protection against multi-path interference, the remote telemeter configured to attach to the patient, the method comprising:
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providing first and second transceivers that are positioned within respective first and second patient areas of a medical facility, the patient areas being sufficiently close to one another so that the transceivers provide overlapping first and second coverage zones, each transceiver positioned remotely from and being connected to the receiving node; transmitting a first data packet from the remote telemeter to the first transceiver during a first timeslot, the first data packet containing at least the real-time physiologic data; transmitting a second data packet from the remote telemeter to the second transceiver during a second timeslot which is different from the first timeslot, the second data packet containing at least the real-time physiologic data; forwarding the first and second data packets, respectively, from the first and second transceivers to the receiving node; and selecting between the first and second data packets at the receiving node. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36)
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33. A medical telemetry system for monitoring patients of a medical facility, the system comprising:
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a plurality of transceivers distributed throughout the medical facility such that different transceivers provide data reception coverage for different areas of the medical facility, the plurality of transceivers connected to a common data receiving node, at least some of the transceivers of the plurality operating on different radio frequency (RF) channels; and a wireless remote telemeter that is configured to be worn by an ambulatory patient, the remote telemeter including sensing circuitry for sensing physiologic data of the patient, the remote telemeter implementing a wireless communications protocol in which the remote telemeter transmits data packets to different transceivers of the plurality during different timeslots, and in which the remote telemeter maintains wireless connections with at least two different transceivers at-a-time on at least two different RF channels and transmits like physiologic data to the at least two different transceivers to provide multiple concurrent transmission paths for the transfer of the physiologic data from the remote telemeter to the receiving node. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35)
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Specification