Personal area network pairing

• US 9,662,016 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Inventors: Baker, Steven D., Kahlke, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, QUANG
• Application Number:
  US15/331,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20170035296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 218 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• 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 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0028 Body tissue as transmission medium, i.e. transmission systems where the medium is the human body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0836 Measuring rate of CO2 production
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/98 using electromagnetic means, e.g. transponders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 : for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 : using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 : Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 : Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 : Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method for automatically adding a first sensor device to a first personal area network in a healthcare application includes receiving a signal with out-of-band pairing data at the first sensor device. The first sensor device is disposed on a patient'"'"'s body. The out-of-band pairing data is injected into the patient'"'"'s body by a second sensor device disposed on the patient'"'"'s body. Pairing data is extracted from the received signal at the first sensor device. Using the pairing data, the first sensor device is added to the first personal area.

Claims

1. A method for automatically determining if physiological sensors are detecting physiological data from the same patient, the method comprising:

pairing a first sensor device with a patient monitor in a first personal area network using at least one of manually entering pairing information into the patient monitor and touching the first sensor device to the patient monitor;

the first sensor device being provided with an out-of-band (OOB) pairing data in response to said pairing the first sensor device with the patient monitor;

placing the first sensor device on a patient'"'"'s body, the first sensor device adapted for joining the first personal area network;

placing a second sensor device on the patient'"'"'s body, the second sensor device adapted for joining the first personal area network in response to receiving, at the second sensor device, the OOB pairing data injected into patient'"'"'s body by the first sensor device once the first sensor device is paired with the patient monitor;

measuring first physiological data from the patient'"'"'s body using the first sensor device;

measuring second physiological data from the patient'"'"'s body using the second sensor device;

correlating the first and second physiological data of the first and second sensor devices using a correlation factor between the first physiological data and the second physiological data wherein the correlation factor is calculated by the patient monitor using one of the following physiological parameters, detected by the first sensor device and the second sensor device, including blood pressure, saturated oxygen content, heart rate, respiration rate or end-tidal carbon dioxide;

determining, by the patient monitor, whether the first and second sensor devices are associated with the same patient based on said correlation factor of the first and second physiological data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing the first sensor device from the patient'"'"'s body, the removing of the first sensor device from the patient'"'"'s body disconnecting the first sensor device from the first personal area network; and

after the first sensor device is removed from the patient'"'"'s body, re-attaching the first sensor device to the patient'"'"'s body, the re-attaching of the first sensor device to the patient'"'"'s body reconnecting the first sensor device to the first personal area network.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing the first sensor device from the patient'"'"'s body, the removing of the first sensor device from the patient'"'"'s body disconnecting the first sensor device from the first personal area network; and

after the first sensor device is removed from the patient'"'"'s body, re-attaching the first sensor device to a second patient'"'"'s body, the re-attaching of the first sensor device to the second person'"'"'s body causing the first sensor device to transmit an alert message, the alert message indicating that the first sensor device is connected to a wrong patient.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising using non-physiological data to determine whether the first and second sensor devices are associated with the same patient.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the non-physiological data includes noise data from the patient.