Telemedicine system using voice video and data encapsulation and de-encapsulation for communicating medical information between central monitoring stations and remote patient monitoring stations
First Claim
1. A telemedicine system for transmitting voice, video and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient monitoring station over a network, the telemedicine system comprising:
- a first control unit located at the patient monitoring station, the control unit receiving medical data from one or more medical instruments in communication with the control unit and delivering the medical data to a first communication device in communication with the control unit, the communication device encapsulating the medical data in packets in accordance with a preselected communication protocol and outputting the packets onto the network; and
a second control unit located at the central monitoring station, the second control unit being in communication with a second communication device, the second communication device receiving the packets output by the first communication device onto the network, the second communication device de-encapsulating the packets to reconstruct the medical data, the reconstructed medical data being provided to the second control unit;
wherein the first control unit receives video and voice data from videoconferencing equipment in communication with the control unit and delivers the video and voice data to the first communication device, the communication device encapsulating the video and voice data in packets in accordance with the preselected communications protocol and outputting the packets onto the network, wherein the second communication device receives the packets encapsulating the video and voice data and de-encapsulates the packets to reconstruct the video and voice data, the second communication device providing the video and voice data to the second control unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a packet-based telemedicine system for communicating video, voice and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient monitoring station which is remotely-located with respect to the central monitoring station. The patient monitoring station obtains digital video, voice and medical measurement data from a patient and encapsulates the data in packets and sends the packets over a network to the central monitoring station. Since the information is encapsulated in packets, the information can be sent over multiple types or combinations of network architectures, including a Community access Television (CATV) network, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide are network (WAN), over a wireless communications network, or over an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. Thus, a separate transmission protocol is not required for each different type of transmission media. Rather, a single transport/network layer protocol is used for encapsulating the information in packets at the sending end and for de-encapsulating the information at the receiving end. Furthermore, by sending the information in packets, the video, voice and measurement data can be integrated and sent over a single network.
620 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A telemedicine system for transmitting voice, video and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient monitoring station over a network, the telemedicine system comprising:
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a first control unit located at the patient monitoring station, the control unit receiving medical data from one or more medical instruments in communication with the control unit and delivering the medical data to a first communication device in communication with the control unit, the communication device encapsulating the medical data in packets in accordance with a preselected communication protocol and outputting the packets onto the network; and a second control unit located at the central monitoring station, the second control unit being in communication with a second communication device, the second communication device receiving the packets output by the first communication device onto the network, the second communication device de-encapsulating the packets to reconstruct the medical data, the reconstructed medical data being provided to the second control unit; wherein the first control unit receives video and voice data from videoconferencing equipment in communication with the control unit and delivers the video and voice data to the first communication device, the communication device encapsulating the video and voice data in packets in accordance with the preselected communications protocol and outputting the packets onto the network, wherein the second communication device receives the packets encapsulating the video and voice data and de-encapsulates the packets to reconstruct the video and voice data, the second communication device providing the video and voice data to the second control unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of acquiring and transporting data in a telemedicine system, the method comprising the steps of:
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generating medical device command data and application-level data in a control unit located at a central monitoring station, the data being represented by one or more bits; encapsulating the data in packets in accordance with a preselected communications protocol, each packet comprising a designation of a patient monitoring station to which the packet is being sent; outputting the packets onto a network; receiving the packets at the patient monitoring station designated by the designation comprised in the packets; de-encapsulating the packets to reconstruct the data; providing the reconstructed data to a control unit located at the patient monitoring station; obtaining video and voice data from videoconferencing equipment located at the central monitoring station; encapsulating the video and voice data in packets in accordance with the preselected communications protocol, each packet comprising the designation of the patient monitoring station; outputting the packets onto the network; receiving the packets at the patient monitoring station; de-encapsulating the packets to reconstruct the video and voice data; and providing the reconstructed video and voice data to the control unit located at the patient monitoring station.
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Specification