System and method for simple pairing of wired and wireless healthcare devices to a gateway

• US 9,137,312 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2014
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Simons, David Peter Louis, Wartena, Frank, Mulder, Robbert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): KHIRODHAR, MAHARISHI V
• Application Number:
  US14/163,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20140142974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A system and method for effecting communication between a plurality of healthcare measurement devices and a remote patient monitoring server is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of effecting communication between the healthcare measurement devices and the remote patient monitoring server, includes communicating with an healthcare gateway device using a common gateway protocol to receive translated data via a plurality of translation units associated with a plurality of device communication modules residing in wired and wireless healthcare measurement devices, and communicating with the remote patient monitoring server using a plurality of remote protocols residing in a plurality of remote communication modules to transmit the received translated data. In some embodiments, the healthcare gateway device is communicatively coupled between the healthcare management devices and the remote patient monitoring server.

Claims

1. A method for effecting communication between a plurality of healthcare measurement devices and a remote patient monitoring server, wherein an healthcare gateway device is communicatively coupled between the plurality of healthcare measurement devices and the remote patient monitoring server, comprising:

receiving data from the plurality of healthcare measuring devices with a selected one of a plurality of different device protocols, each according to a predefined protocol of the device, and each at a wired or wireless port of a corresponding selected one of a plurality of different translation units;

translating the received data of each healthcare measuring device to a common gateway protocol from the device protocol by the translation unit connected to a plug and play port of the healthcare gateway device using a translation routine selected from a set of predefined translation routines based upon a type of the healthcare measurement device;

transmitting the received translated data from the healthcare gateway device to the remote patient monitoring server using at least one of a plurality of remote protocols residing in a plurality of remote communication modules; and

receiving information from the remote patient monitoring server using the at least one of a plurality of remote protocols.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

translating information transmitted from the healthcare gateway device in accordance with the common gateway protocol to the plurality of different healthcare measurement devices in accordance with the corresponding selected one of the plurality of device protocols.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

translating the information received from the remote patient monitoring server according to one of the remote protocols to the healthcare gateway device in accordance with the common gateway protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, further including:

detecting the type of one or more of the different healthcare measurement devices and connecting to the detected healthcare measurement device in accordance with the common gateway protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting comprises:

selecting translation routines from a set of predefined translation routines based on wireless different healthcare measurement devices and wired different healthcare measurement devices.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting comprises:

selecting wireless translation routines which include Bluetooth technology, Zigbee technology, and Wireless universal serial bus (USB).

7. An article, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having instructions, that when executed by a computing platform, result in execution of a method for effecting communication between a plurality of healthcare measurement devices and a remote patient monitoring server via a healthcare gateway device that is communicatively coupled between the plurality of healthcare measurement devices and the remote patient monitoring server, the method comprising;

communicating between the plurality of healthcare measurement devices and the healthcare gateway device using a common gateway protocol to communicate data translated via a plurality of translation units with one of a plurality of different device protocols each associated with a corresponding selected one of a plurality of predefined device communication modules residing in wired and wireless healthcare measurement devices and each device communication module communicating according to the predefined protocol of the healthcare measurement device in which it resides with the translation unit performing translation using a translation routine selected from a set of predefined translation routines based upon a type of the healthcare measurement device;

communicating with a remote patient monitoring server using a plurality of remote protocols residing in a plurality of remote communication modules to transmit the communicated translated data; and

receiving information from the remote patient monitoring server using at least one of the plurality of remote protocols.

8. The article of claim 7, wherein the translation includes:

translating data received from one or more of the plurality of healthcare measurement devices in accordance with the corresponding plurality of device protocols into translated data adapted for the healthcare gateway device in accordance with the common gateway protocol.

9. The article of claim 7, wherein the translation includes:

translating information received from the healthcare gateway device in accordance with the common gateway protocol into translated information adapted for the selected one of the plurality of healthcare measurement devices in accordance with the corresponding one of the device protocols.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein communicating with the plurality of health care measurement devices comprises:

detecting the type of one or more of the different healthcare measurement devices and connecting to the detected healthcare measurement device in accordance with the common gateway protocol.

11. The article of claim 7, wherein:

translation routines are selected from the set of predefined translation routines based on wireless different healthcare measurement devices and wired different healthcare measurement devices.

12. The article of claim 7, wherein the plurality of remote protocols include Foreign Exchange Office (FXO) and Ethernet.

13. A healthcare gateway device for effecting transport-agnostic communication between a plurality of different healthcare measurement devices and a remote patient monitoring server, comprising:

a plurality of gateway communication modules each including a plug and play port which uses a common gateway protocol;

a plurality of different translation units, each connected to a plug and play port of one gateway communication module and each connected to a corresponding selected one of the healthcare measurement devices, configured to transmit according to a predefined protocol of the selected healthcare measurement device, and each translation unit translates between the protocol of the connected selected healthcare measurement device and the common gateway protocol using a translation routine selected from a set of predefined translation routines based upon a type of the selected healthcare measurement device; and

a plurality of remote communication modules communicatively connected to the plurality of gateway communication modules and the remote patient monitoring server, each remote communication module being configured to communicate according to a remote protocol and translating between the common gateway protocol and the remote protocol, the plurality of remote communication modules receiving information from the remote patient monitoring server for the different healthcare measurement devices according to the remote protocols.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein one of the remote communication modules receives information communicated from the remote patient monitoring server according to one of the remote protocols and translates the information to the common gateway protocol and transmits the translated information to one of the gateway communication modules according to the common gateway protocol;

wherein the one of the gateway communication modules transmits the information to one or more of the selected translation units according to the common gateway protocol; and

wherein the one or more selected translation units translates the information from the common gateway protocol to the device protocol and transmits the translated information to the corresponding healthcare measurement device.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein one of the translation units receives data communicated from one or more selected healthcare measurement devices and translates the data to the common gateway protocol and transmits the translated data to one of the gateway communication modules connected by the plug and play port according to the common gateway protocol;

wherein the one of the gateway communication modules transmits the data to one of the remote communication modules according to common gateway protocol; and

wherein the one remote communication module translates the data to one of the remote protocols and transmits the data to the remote patient monitoring server according to the one remote protocol.

16. The device according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of remote communication modules translate the received information to the common gateway protocol and transmit the translated information to the gateway communication modules, and receive data from the common gateway modules according to the common gateway protocol, translate the received data from the common gateway protocol to the remote protocols, and transmit the received data to the remote patient monitoring server according to the remote protocols.

17. The device according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of different translation units receive data from the corresponding healthcare measurement devices, translate the data from the corresponding healthcare measurement device protocol to the common gateway protocol, and transmit the translated data to the common gateway modules according to the common gateway protocol, and receive information from the common gateway modules according to the common gateway protocol, translate the information from the common gateway protocol to the corresponding healthcare device protocol, and transmit the translated information to the corresponding healthcare device according the healthcare device protocol.

18. The device according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of remote communication modules include at least one of Foreign Exchange Office (FXO) and Ethernet.