Wireless relay module having emergency call functionality

• US 8,855,550 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kpr U.S., LLC (Cardinal Health, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Covidien LP (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Gaines, Robert B., Holste, John, Lewis, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US13/334,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20120184237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 455/7, 455/9, 455/15, 455/16, 455/41.1, 455/11.1
• US Class Current: 455/11.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15542 Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A system for networked communications between a series of medical devices, wireless relay modules, and a remote device wireless relay network and an internet-accessible wireless communication network. At least one relay module includes a receiver, a first transmitter coupled to the wireless relay network, a second transmitter coupled to the internet-accessible wireless communication network, and a controller. The controller determines whether the internet-accessible wireless communications network is accessible. If accessible, then medical device data is transmitted to a remote device over that network using the second transmitter. If not accessible, then the first transmitter is used to transmit medical device data to another wireless relay module over the wireless relay network. Additionally, the controller analyzes the medical device data to determine whether an emergency condition exists, and transmits the medical device data to an emergency responder if such condition occurs together with location data for an associated medical device.

Claims

1. A wireless relay module comprising:

a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving medical device data over a wireless relay network from at least one medical device;

a first transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting medical device data to a second wireless relay module over the wireless relay network;

a second transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting the medical device data over an internet-accessible wireless communication network;

a controller coupled to the first and second transmitters, the controller capable of controlling the wireless relay module to select one of said first or said second transmitter for transmitting the medical device data received by the receiver and the controller capable of establishing a connection via the first or second transmitter with an emergency responder when an emergency condition exists;

a phone device coupled to the controller, the phone device capable of initiating the connection with the emergency responder; and

a signal generator coupled to the phone device, the signal generator capable of producing a signal indicative of the emergency condition for transmission over the connection with the emergency responder.

2. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the controller is capable of determining whether the emergency condition exists based on comparing the medical device data to emergency condition data stored in a memory associated with the controller.

3. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the medical device data includes emergency condition data indicating that an emergency condition is present.

4. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the controller is capable of determining whether the emergency condition exists based on emergency condition data received or relayed from an internet-accessible source.

5. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the controller is capable of determining whether the emergency condition exists based on emergency condition data received by the receiver from a wireless relay network source.

6. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the controller is capable of controlling at least one of the first transmitter or the second transmitter to transmit a message containing information about the emergency condition to a remote location.

7. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the controller is further capable of determining that the connection with the emergency responder is not established and controlling at least one of the first transmitter or the second transmitter to transmit a non-response message.

8. The wireless relay module of claim 1 further comprising:

a memory for storing emergency condition data representing the emergency condition and one or more of a timestamp, an identifier for each of the one or more medical devices transmitting the emergency condition, a location of the one or more medical devices; and

a monitoring unit associated with the controller for analyzing the data stored in the memory to identify trends in the stored emergency conditions.

9. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the signal generator is configured to generate an electronic text message containing information about the emergency condition to be transmitted to the emergency responder.

10. The wireless relay network of claim 1, wherein the medical device data comprises a serial number used to uniquely identify the wireless relay module.

11. The wireless relay network of claim 1, wherein the receiver and at least one of the first transmitter and the second transmitter are implemented as a transceiver device.

12. A computerized method comprising the steps of:

receiving medical device data at a wireless relay module wirelessly transmitted from one or more medical devices;

determining at the wireless relay module that at least a portion of the received data is indicative of an emergency condition;

generating an emergency signal at the wireless relay module indicative of the emergency condition;

selecting by the wireless relay module one of a first transmitter capable of transmitting the emergency signal over a wireless relay network and a second transmitter capable of transmitting the emergency signal over an internet-accessible wireless communication network;

establishing a wireless connection with an emergency responder by the selected one of the first transmitter or the second transmitter; and

transmitting the generated emergency signal to the emergency responder by the selected one of the first transmitter or the second transmitter.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining step further comprises the step of comparing the received data to emergency condition data stored in the wireless relay module to determine whether an emergency condition exists.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the received medical device data includes the emergency condition data indicating that an emergency condition is present.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining step further comprises the step of receiving emergency condition data via the internet-accessible wireless communication network to determine whether the data is indicative of an emergency condition.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining step comprises receiving emergency condition data from a wireless relay network source to determine whether the data is indicative of an emergency condition.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

detecting a failed attempt or an interrupted connection to the emergency responder; and

transmitting a non-response message by the first transmitter to the one or more medical devices.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

storing in a memory emergency condition data representing the emergency condition and one or more of a timestamp, an identifier for each of the one or more medical devices transmitting the emergency condition, and a location of the one or more medical devices;

analyzing the stored data to identify trends in the emergency conditions; and

monitoring at least one or more medical devices based on any identified trends.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmitting step further comprises the step of transmitting an electronic text message containing information about the emergency condition to an emergency responder.

20. The wireless relay network of claim 12, wherein the emergency signal comprises a serial number used to uniquely identify the wireless relay module.

21. A wireless relay network comprising:

at least a first wireless relay module and a second wireless relay module, wherein each wireless relay module comprises a receiver capable of receiving a signal comprising medical device data from one or more medical devices over a wireless relay network, a first transmitter capable of transmitting the medical device data over an internet-accessible wireless communication network, and a second transmitter capable of transmitting the medical device data over a wireless relay network;

said first and second wireless relay modules including respective controllers, wherein each controller is capable of processing the received medical device data to detect information associated with the location of said one or more medical devices and of generating location information data for the one medical device; and

said controller further being capable of selecting one of the first or second transmitter for transmitting said location information data to a remote monitoring device.

22. A wireless relay module comprising:

a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving medical device data over a wireless relay network from at least one medical device;

a first transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting medical device data over the wireless relay network;

a second transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting data over an internet-accessible wireless communication network;

a location device capable of generating a location signal;

a controller coupled to the first and second transmitters, the controller capable of selecting one of said first or second transmitter for transmitting medical device data received by the receiver, and establishing a connection using the first or second transmitter with an emergency responder when an emergency condition exists;

a phone device coupled to the controller, the phone device capable of initiating the connection with the emergency responder; and

a signal generator coupled to the phone device, the signal generator capable of producing a signal indicative of the emergency condition and including the location signal, for transmission by the first or second transmitter to the emergency responder.

23. The wireless relay network of claim 22, where the location signal is based on a global positioning system (“

GPS”

) signal.

24. The wireless relay network of claim 22, wherein the location signal is based on a mobile device position signal generated by the internet-accessible wireless communication network.