Medical alarm and communication system and methods
First Claim
1. A medical system for providing a medical alert in response to the occurrence of a medical event comprising:
- a patient implanted device for monitoring a patient'"'"'s condition, detecting medically relevant events, and sending data to an external device upon detection of medically relevant events, said data including an alert signal;
a receiver that receives data pertaining to the patient'"'"'s condition;
an alert module for receiving the alert signal issued by said_implanted device, said alert module for receiving said alert signal and issuing the alert signal to a central station through a first communications network or a second communications network, wherein the alert module is controlled by a processor;
a transmitter operatively coupled to the alert module;
a patient alerting device operatively coupled to the alert module;
the alert module being configured to attempt to establish communication with a central station through the transmitter according to a primary communications protocol through said first communications network when the alert signal is generated, and wherein the alert module further determines whether attempts to establish communication with the central station according to the primary communications protocol have failed within a predetermined time interval according to specified failure criteria and to further take remedial action in response to such failure, said patient alerting device being activated to take remedial action upon failure of the first communication protocol;
wherein the remedial action activates the patient alerting device to indicate that the primary communications protocol has failed through said first communications network, and attempts to establish communication with the central station through the transmitter according to at least one secondary communications protocol through said second communications network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A medical alarm communications system comprises a pager like device to be kept near a patient. The pager like device communicates medical alerts regarding the patient to a remote central station, which can provide therapeutic and/or diagnostic assistance by communicating to the pager like device. When the pager like device determines that an alert should be sent to the central station, it attempts to establish communication with the central station according to a primary communication protocol. If this attempt is unsuccessful according to some predetermined criteria (e.g. too much time has elapsed before communication is established), then the pager like device generates a message to the patient indicative of the failure, and The attempts to establish communication with the central station according to a secondary communication protocol.
132 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A medical system for providing a medical alert in response to the occurrence of a medical event comprising:
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a patient implanted device for monitoring a patient'"'"'s condition, detecting medically relevant events, and sending data to an external device upon detection of medically relevant events, said data including an alert signal; a receiver that receives data pertaining to the patient'"'"'s condition; an alert module for receiving the alert signal issued by said_implanted device, said alert module for receiving said alert signal and issuing the alert signal to a central station through a first communications network or a second communications network, wherein the alert module is controlled by a processor; a transmitter operatively coupled to the alert module; a patient alerting device operatively coupled to the alert module; the alert module being configured to attempt to establish communication with a central station through the transmitter according to a primary communications protocol through said first communications network when the alert signal is generated, and wherein the alert module further determines whether attempts to establish communication with the central station according to the primary communications protocol have failed within a predetermined time interval according to specified failure criteria and to further take remedial action in response to such failure, said patient alerting device being activated to take remedial action upon failure of the first communication protocol; wherein the remedial action activates the patient alerting device to indicate that the primary communications protocol has failed through said first communications network, and attempts to establish communication with the central station through the transmitter according to at least one secondary communications protocol through said second communications network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A medical system for providing a medical alert in response to the occurrence of a medical event comprising:
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a patient implanted device for monitoring a patient'"'"'s medical condition, and sending data to an external device, said data including a plurality of alert signal types; a receiver that receives the data; an alert module that reviews the data to determine whether to issue a predetermined type of alert signal through a first communications network or a second communications network, wherein the alert module is controlled by a processor; a transmitter operatively coupled to the alert module; a patient alerting device operatively coupled to the alert module; wherein the alert module is configured to attempt a primary alert protocol through said first communications network if the alert module determines that an alert signal of a predetermined type should be generated, and that alert module is_further configured to determine whether attempts to provide the predetermined type of alert signal according to the primary alert protocol have failed according to specified failure criteria and to take remedial action in response to such failure; wherein the remedial action includes activating the patient alerting device to indicate that the primary communications protocol has failed, and attempts to provide the predetermined type of alert signal using at least one secondary alert protocol through said second communications network. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A medical device for providing a medical alert in response to the occurrence of a medical event comprising:
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a patient implanted device for monitoring a patients condition_detecting medically relevant events and sending data to an external device upon_detection of medically relevant events; a receiver that receives data pertaining to a patient'"'"'s condition; an alert module that reviews the data to determine whether to issue a predetermined type of alert signal to a central station through a first communications network or a second communications network, wherein the alert module is controlled by a processor; a transmitter operatively coupled to the alert module; a patient alerting device operatively coupled to the alert module; the alert module being configured to attempt to establish communication with a central station through the transmitter according to at least one of (1) a primary communications protocol through said first communications network, and (2) at least one secondary communications protocol through said second communications network, said communications protocol being selected based upon the type of alert that is generated by the alert module. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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Specification