Communications hub for use in life critical network
First Claim
1. A communications device for effecting secured communications between a plurality of portable patient communicators (PPC) and a central authority (CA), each of the plurality of PPCs configured to effect connectivity with a patient implantable medical device (PIMD), the communications device comprising:
- a housing;
a logical network port provided at the housing and configured to facilitate communications between the device and an unsecured network;
a plurality of logical local ports provided at the housing and configured to implement a plurality of disparate communication protocols for effecting connectivity between the device and the plurality of PPCs;
a processor provided at the housing and coupled to the logical network port and the plurality of logical local ports; and
memory provided at the housing and coupled to the processor, the memory storing life critical network (LCN) software comprising program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect presence of entities that come into proximity with the communications device, determine whether or not the entities requesting a network connection via the device are PPCs, authenticate only PPCs to the CA to establish a secured connection between each PPC and the CA, initiate interrogation of each PPC in response to the PPC coming into proximity with the communications device, facilitate communication between the PPCs and the CA via the logical local ports, the logical network port, and the unsecured network upon successful PPC authentication, and transfer PPC data to the CA, at least a portion of the PPC data comprising PIMD data.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Secured communications between patient portable communicators (PPC) and a central authority (CA) via an unsecured network are implemented using software implemented by a communications device. The communications device provides for detecting, using a multiplicity of disparate communication protocols, presence of entities requesting a network connection and determining whether or not each of the entities is a PPC, establishing, only for the entities determined to be PPCs, a connection to the CA via the unsecured network using the disparate communication protocols, authenticating only the PPCs to the CA, and facilitating communication of PPC data between the PPCs and the CA via the communications device and the unsecured network upon successful PPC authentication. The PPC data comprises at least some patient implantable medical device data acquired by the PPCs.
437 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A communications device for effecting secured communications between a plurality of portable patient communicators (PPC) and a central authority (CA), each of the plurality of PPCs configured to effect connectivity with a patient implantable medical device (PIMD), the communications device comprising:
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a housing; a logical network port provided at the housing and configured to facilitate communications between the device and an unsecured network; a plurality of logical local ports provided at the housing and configured to implement a plurality of disparate communication protocols for effecting connectivity between the device and the plurality of PPCs; a processor provided at the housing and coupled to the logical network port and the plurality of logical local ports; and memory provided at the housing and coupled to the processor, the memory storing life critical network (LCN) software comprising program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect presence of entities that come into proximity with the communications device, determine whether or not the entities requesting a network connection via the device are PPCs, authenticate only PPCs to the CA to establish a secured connection between each PPC and the CA, initiate interrogation of each PPC in response to the PPC coming into proximity with the communications device, facilitate communication between the PPCs and the CA via the logical local ports, the logical network port, and the unsecured network upon successful PPC authentication, and transfer PPC data to the CA, at least a portion of the PPC data comprising PIMD data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for effecting secured communications between a plurality of portable patient communicators (PPC) and a central authority (CA) using a communications device via an unsecured network, each of the plurality of PPCs configured to effect connectivity with a patient implantable medical device (PIMD), the method comprising:
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detecting, using a plurality of disparate communication protocols implemented by the communications device, presence of each of a plurality of entities requesting a network connection; determining whether or not each of the entities is a PPC; establishing, only for the entities determined to be PPCs, a connection to the CA via the unsecured network using the disparate communication protocols implemented by the communications device; authenticating only the PPCs to the CA via the communications device and the unsecured network; facilitating communication of PPC data between the PPCs and the CA via the communications device and the unsecured network upon successful PPC authentication, the PPC data comprising at least some PIMD data acquired from PIMDs by their respective PPCs;
interrogating PPCs coming into proximity with the communications device;requesting each of the PPCs interrogate their respective PIMDs; transferring data from the PPCs to the memory of the communications device; authenticating the communications device with the CA; and transferring the PPC data from the memory of the communications device to the CA via the logical local ports, the logical network port, and the unsecured network upon successful communications device authentication, at least a portion of the PPC data comprising PIMD data. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a data processing arrangement disposed in a communications device configured to be coupled to an unsecured network, wherein the instructions, when executed, causes the communications device to perform the steps comprising:
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detecting, using a plurality of disparate communication protocols implemented by the communications device, presence of each of a plurality of entities requesting a network connection; determining whether or not each of the entities is a portable patient communicator (PPC), each of the PPCs configured to effect connectivity with a patient implantable medical device (PIMD); establishing, only for the entities determined to be PPCs, a connection to the CA via the unsecured network using the disparate communication protocols implementable by the communications device; authenticating only the PPCs to the CA via the communications device and the unsecured network; interrogating PPCs coming into proximity with the communications device; facilitating communication of PPC data between the PPCs and the CA via the communications device and the unsecured network upon successful PPC authentication, the PPC data comprising at least some PIMD data acquired from PIMDs by their respective PPCs; and facilitating communication between non-PPC entities and the Internet via the logical local ports, the logical network port, and the unsecured network.
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Specification