Instrument monitoring system

• US 20090306934A1
• Filed: 06/04/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Incorporated (Kimberly-Clark Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Incorporated (Kimberly-Clark Corporation)
• Inventors: Anderson, Joel P., Gakhar, Sudhanshu, Timmers, Richard
• Application Number:
  US12/156,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20090306934A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/182
• 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

Abstract

An instrument monitoring system comprises a monitoring device including a sensor for measuring an instrument and a control unit, where the control unit includes a data flow microcontroller processor; a wireless transmitter configured to receive a data signal from the monitoring device and to transmit the data signal using a wireless data transmission protocol; a wireless reader capable of receiving the data signal from the wireless transmitter; a computing device in communication with the wireless reader, where the computing device includes software configured to present the data signal as user-readable data; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is capable of storing the data.

Claims

1. An instrument monitoring system comprising:

a monitoring device comprising a sensor for measuring an instrument and a control unit, wherein the control unit includes a data flow microcontroller processor;

a wireless transmitter configured to receive a data signal from the monitoring device and to transmit the data signal using a wireless data transmission protocol;

a wireless reader capable of receiving the data signal from the wireless transmitter;

a computing device in communication with the wireless reader, wherein the computing device includes software configured to present the data signal as user-readable data; and

a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is capable of storing the data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit further includes an analog/digital converter.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring device is attached to the instrument.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring device is configured to measure at least one instrument parameter.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is configured to execute instructions embodied in the computer-readable storage medium based on a response model.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a proximity detection system capable of determining the location of the instrument.

7. The system of claim 1 comprising multiple monitoring devices and a single computing device.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the instrument is a healthcare instrument.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the data relates to an instrument parameter.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the instrument parameter is a healthcare instrument parameter.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the instrument parameter does not include battery health.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the wireless transmission protocol is Zigbee.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the software is capable of analyzing the data.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the wireless transmitter includes an antenna.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the wireless reader includes an antenna.

16. A healthcare instrument monitoring system comprising:

a monitoring device comprising a sensor and a control unit, wherein the sensor is configured to collect information relating to at least one healthcare instrument parameter, wherein the control unit comprises an analog/digital converter in communication with the sensor configured to convert an analog signal from the sensor to a digital signal, and wherein the control unit further comprises a data flow microcontroller processor in communication with the analog/digital converter configured to control the flow of the data signal;

a wireless transmitter configured to receive the data signal from the monitoring device and to transmit the data signal using a wireless data transmission protocol;

a wireless reader capable of receiving and reading the data signal from the wireless transmitter;

a computing device in communication with the wireless reader, wherein the computing device includes software capable of presenting the data signal as user-readable data; and

a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device capable of storing data, wherein the computing device can access the data stored onto the computer-readable storage medium.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the software is capable of analyzing the data.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising a response model.

19. A method for monitoring a healthcare instrument comprising:

(a) providing a monitoring device configured to collect data relating to at least one parameter of a healthcare instrument;

(b) Connecting the monitoring device to the healthcare instrument to obtain an instrument parameter data signal;

(c) Transferring the data signal from the monitoring device to a wireless transmitter;

(d) Wirelessly transmitting the data signal from the wireless transmitter to a wireless reader using a wireless transmission protocol;

(e) Transferring the data signal from the wireless reader to a computing device comprising software capable of analyzing the data signal;

(f) Analyzing the data signal to provide analyzed data;

(g) Performing an action based on the analyzed data using a response model; and

(h) Updating the instrument parameter in a database stored on a computer-readable storage medium.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising comparing the analyzed data to a historical database.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the wireless transmission protocol is ZigBee.

22. The method of claim 19 further including detecting the proximity of the healthcare instrument.