Wireless telecommunications system adaptable for patient monitoring

• US 8,134,459 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2007
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Smiths Medical ASD, Inc. (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smiths Medical ASD, Inc. (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Smith, Guy, Oswald, Matthew T., Brown, Matthew L., Ellis, Matthew E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Sam
• Assistant Examiner(s): JIAN, SHIRLEY XUEYING
• Application Number:
  US11/907,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20090105549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A wireless network having an architecture that resembles a peer-to-peer network has two types of nodes, a first sender type node and a second receiver/relay type node. The network may be used in a medical instrumentation environment whereby the first type node may be wireless devices that could monitor physical parameters of a patient such as for example wireless oximeters. The second type node are mobile wireless communicators that are adapted to receive the data from the wireless devices if they are within the transmission range of the wireless devices. After an aggregation process involving the received data, each of the node communicators broadcasts or disseminates its most up to date data onto the network. Any other relay communicator node in the network that is within the broadcast range of a broadcasting communicator node would receive the up to date data. This makes it possible for communicators that are out of the transmitting range of a wireless device to be apprized of the condition of the patient being monitored by the wireless device. Each communicator in the network is capable of receiving and displaying data from a plurality of wireless devices.

Claims

1. A system for communicating information relating to physical attributes of patients, comprising:

at least one patient monitoring device associated with a patient having a sensor for detecting at least one physical attribute from the patient and at least a transmitter for transmitting patient data corresponding to the detected physical attribute out to a device transmission area; and

a plurality of mobile communicators adapted to be positioned at different locations, each of said communicators having a transceiver for at least receiving data transmitted from said patient monitoring device when located within said device transmission area and to communicate with other communicators within a communicator transceiving area;

wherein one of said communicators, when located within said device transmission area, receives the patient data from said patient monitoring device, and wherein after receipt of the patient data from said patient monitoring device, said one communicator broadcasts the patient data to other communicators that are located within its communicator transceiving area;

wherein each of said plurality of communicators includes a memory for storing patient data of the patient, said each communicator receiving the patient data broadcast by said one communicator when moved to within the transceiving area of said one communicator, and wherein if there is patient data of the patient previously stored in the memory and if the received patient data is more recent than the stored patient data, the memory is updated with the received patient data so that the patient data stored in the memory of said each communicator is the most recent patient data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of other of said plurality of communicators within the communicator transceiving area of said one communicator, upon receiving the patient data from said one communicator, updates patient data of the patient, if any, previously stored in said each other communicator with the received patient data, and broadcasts the updated patient data for dissemination to other communicators located within the communicator transceiving area of said each other communicator.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein there are at least two communicators located within said device transmission area, first of said two communicators broadcasting the patient data it received from said patient monitoring device in accordance to an assigned time slot time synchronized with another time slot assigned to second of said two communicators so that there is no interference in the transmission and reception of signals between the two communicators.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said each communicator in receipt of the patient data aggregates the received patient data with data, if any, previously stored in its data store and thereafter broadcasts the aggregated patient data to its transceiving area.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a remote communicator that is located out of the range of the device transmission area of said patient monitoring device is capable of receiving patient data of the patient so long as said remote communicator is within the transceiving area of said one communicator or is telecommunicatively linked to said one communicator indirectly via at least an other communicator so that a telecommunications path is established between said one communicator and said remote communicator.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient monitoring device comprises an oximeter having a transceiver including said transmitter, said patient monitoring device wearable by the patient.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each of said communicators comprises an oximeter having a radio transceiver adapted to both receive and transmit signals within its transceiving area, said each communicator including at least one memory for storing the patient data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein there are multiple patient monitoring devices each associated with a particular patient, each of said multiple patient monitoring devices having a sensor means for detecting at least one physical attribute from its associated patient and at least a transceiver to at least transmit patient data corresponding to the detected physical attribute of the particular patient within a device transmission area;

and

wherein each of said plurality of communicators, when located within the device transmission area of said each patient monitoring device, receives the patient data transmitted from said each patient monitoring device in accordance to an assigned time slot time synchronized with respective time slots assigned to said multiple patient monitoring devices and others of said plurality of communicators so that there is no interference in the transmission and reception of data and/or signals among the multiple patient monitoring devices and the plurality of communicators.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient monitoring device and each of said plurality of communicators are time synchronized with respect to a communications schedule for the transmission, reception and/or broadcasting of signals and/or data.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said transmitter comprises an other of said communicators, and wherein said other communicator is located fixedly relative to said sensor so that a communications path is established between said other communicator and said one communicator.

11. A system for communicating information relating to physical attributes of patients, comprising:

multiple patient monitoring devices each associated with a particular patient, each of the multiple patient monitoring devices having a sensor for detecting at least one physical attribute from the patient associated therewith and at least one transmitter for transmitting patient data corresponding to the physical attribute detected for the particular patient out to a transmission area of said each patient monitoring device; and

a plurality of mobile communicators adapted to be positioned at different locations, each of said communicators having a transceiver adapted to receive patient data transmitted from patient monitoring devices when located within respective transmission areas of the patient monitoring devices, and to communicate with other communicators within its transceiving area;

wherein each of said communicators, when located within the transmission area of any one of said patient monitoring devices, receives the patient data from said any one patient monitoring device and broadcasts the received patient data out to its communicator transceiving area;

wherein said each communicator includes a memory for storing patient data of the patients, said each communicator storing the received patient data in its memory, and wherein if there is patient data of a particular patient previously stored in the memory and if the received patient data of the particular patient is more recent than the stored patient data of the particular patient, the previously stored patient data is updated with the received patient data so that the patient data for the particular patient stored in the memory of said each communicator is the most recent patient data for the particular patient.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein other communicators located within the communicator transceiving area of said each communicator, when in receipt of the patient data broadcasted by said each communicator, thereafter broadcast the received patient data out to their respective transceiving areas.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein a remote communicator that is located out of the range of the device transmission area of any one of said patient monitoring devices receives the patient data of the patient associated with said any one patient monitoring device so long as said remote communicator is within the transceiving area of a given communicator located within the device transmission area of said any one patient monitoring device and is in receipt of the patient data from said any one patient monitoring device, or is telecommunicatively linked to said given communicator indirectly via at least an other communicator so that a telecommunications path is established between said given communicator and said remote communicator.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said each communicator aggregates the received patient data with patient data, if any, previously stored in its data store and, provided that the received patient data is more up to date than the previously stored patient data, thereafter broadcasts the aggregated patient data to its transceiving area.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said each communicator in receipt of patient data of a particular patient associated with a particular one of said multiple patient monitoring devices aggregates the received patient data with data, if any, previously stored in its data store and thereafter broadcasts the aggregated patient data of said particular patient to its transceiving area so that the aggregated patient data may be propagated further along by being broadcast by any other communicator located within the range of the transceiving area of said each communicator.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein each of said plurality of communicators, when located within the device transmission area of any one of said multiple patient monitoring devices, receives the patient data transmitted from said any one patient monitoring device in accordance to an assigned time slot time synchronized with respective time slots assigned to said multiple patient monitoring devices and others of said plurality of communicators so that there is no interference in the transmission and reception of signals among the multiple patient monitoring devices and the plurality of communicators.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein each of said multiple patient monitoring devices and each of said plurality of communicators are time synchronized with respect to a communications schedule for the transmission, reception and/or broadcasting of signals and/or data.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitter associated with at least one of said multiple patient monitoring devices comprises an other communicator located fixedly relative to the sensor of said at least one patient monitoring device adapted to communicate with said each communicator of said plurality of communicators.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of communicator is movable to different locations relative to at least one other of said communicators and/or at least one of said multiple patient monitoring devices.

20. A system for disseminating information relating to physical attributes of patients remotely, comprising:

at least one oximeter associated with a patient having a sensor for detecting at least SP02 of the patient, said oximeter including a transceiver to at least transmit patient data corresponding to the detected SP02 away from said device;

a plurality of mobile communicators adapted to be positioned at different locations, each of said communicators having a transceiver for receiving data transmitted from said patient oximeter when located within the transmission range of said patient oximeter, said each communicator further can communicate with other communicators;

wherein one of said communicators, when located within the transmission range of said patient oximeter, receives the patient data from said patient oximeter, said one communicator including a memory for storing patient data of the patient, and wherein if there is patient data of the patient previously stored in the memory and if the received patient data is more recent than the stored patient data, the memory is updated with the received patient data, said one communicator thereafter broadcasting the received patient data to other communicators that are located within its transmission range.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein each of said communicators comprises an oximeter having means to display at least the received patient data, and a memory for storing patient data, wherein the patient data of the patient stored in the memory is updated when new patient data of the patient is received for said each communicator.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

another communicator located out of the transmission range of said patient oximeter but nonetheless receives the patient data when it is within the broadcast range of said one communicator so that it is able to receive the patient data broadcast by said one communicator, said communicator movable relative to said patient oximeter.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein said patient oximeter and the plurality of communicators each are assigned a given time slot synchronized with other time slots to effect time scheduled communications among said patient oximeter and the plurality of communicators.