OPTIMIZING PHYSIOLOGIC MONITORING BASED ON AVAILABLE BUT VARIABLE SIGNAL QUALITY

• US 20110002223A1
• Filed: 02/02/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Gross, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 9,577,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

When transmitting patient data over a hospital network, data types are prioritized into a data type hierarchy (26) that is employed to rank data types in order of criticality for transmission during periods of diminished signal quality. As signal quality decreases, less critical data types are omitted from transmission and stored to a gap data buffer for later transmission. As signal quality recovers, the less critical data types are restored to current data transmissions. Once all data types are restored during current transmission, previously omitted gap data is transmitted to fill in the gaps in a receiving device such as a network server to ensure that a complete data set is provided to the network and/or other devices coupled thereto.

Claims

1. A network communication optimization system, including:

a transceiver that transmits and receives data over a network;

a signal quality analyzer that detects network congestion and latency as a function of actual data delivery and application-based latency measurement;

a transmission controller that selectively reduces current data types to be transmitted by the transceiver during periods of diminished signal quality according to a predetermined data type hierarchy;

a buffer that stores gap data omitted during reduced data transmission.

2. The system according to claim 1, employed in a hospital network, and further including a central server that receives data from the transceiver derived from one or more physiologic sensors or/and devices capable in providing device data or patient physiologic data.

3. The system according to claim 2, further including an acknowledgement analyzer and a latency analyzer that evaluate acknowledgements received for transmitted data packets to determine a level of network congestion or latency, respectively.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the transmission controller varies the amount of current data transmitted by the transceiver from full data transmission during periods of no or low congestion down to transmission of alerts during periods of high congestion.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the signal quality analyzer continuously evaluates signal quality availability, and the transmission controller increases or decreases current data transmission as a function of current signal quality availability.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the transmission controller initiates transmission of buffered gap data when signal quality availability increases to a level sufficient for full current data transmission to fill in data gaps caused by data omission during reduced data transmission.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the transmission controller suspends transmission of buffered gap data before reducing current data transmission in response to detected network congestion or latency.

8. The system according to claim 2, wherein the data type hierarchy includes a plurality of data types, of which the “

alert”

data type has a highest priority relative to other data types to ensure that alerts are transmitted even during periods of high network congestion.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein alert-type data includes a minimum number of waveforms, alerts, and parameters for monitoring a patient.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the data type hierarchy includes, in order of priority from highest to lowest where lower priority data types are omitted from transmission before higher priority data types, the following groups of data types:

alert data;

alert reflector overview data and down-sampled waveform data;

overview data;

waveform data;

parameter data and event data; and

trend upload data, local cache data, and document upload data.

11. A method of varying data transmission in response to network congestion using the system of claim 1, including:

continuously monitoring signal quality availability on the network;

transmitting all current data types when signal quality availability is above a first predetermined threshold;

incrementally reducing current data type transmission according to the predetermined data hierarchy to be omitted when signal quality availability drops below each of N successive predetermined thresholds, wherein N is a positive number and includes the first predetermined threshold;

buffering omitted data for later transmission;

incrementally increasing current data transmission according to the predetermined data type hierarchy when signal quality availability rises above any of the N successive predetermined thresholds, including the first predetermined threshold; and

transmitting the omitted data when signal quality availability returns to a level above the first predetermined threshold.

12. A method of optimizing data transmission in response to network congestion, including:

continuously monitoring signal quality availability on a network;

transmitting all current data when signal quality availability is above a first predetermined threshold;

incrementally reducing current data transmission according to a predetermined data type hierarchy to be successively omitted when signal quality availability drops below each of N successive predetermined thresholds, wherein N is a positive number and includes the first predetermined threshold;

buffering omitted data for later transmission;

incrementally increasing current data transmission according to the predetermined data type hierarchy of when signal quality availability rises above any of the N successive predetermined thresholds, including the first predetermined threshold; and

transmitting the omitted data when signal quality availability returns to a level above the first predetermined threshold.

13. The method according to claim 12, employed in a hospital network that receives the transmitted data, which comprises information collected by one or more sensors, patient monitors, or physiological data sending device.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising analyzing acknowledgement and latency information for transmitted data packets to determine signal quality availability.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein only patient monitoring alert information is transmitted when signal quality availability is below the Nth predetermined threshold.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the alert information includes an alarm and a waveform for a monitored parameter causing the alarm.

17. The method according to claim 12, further comprising determining whether signal quality availability has been restored to a level at or above the first predetermined threshold and transmitting a full current data set when signal quality availability has been restored to a level at or above the first predetermined threshold.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising transmitting buffered gap data once full current data transmission is reinstated and acknowledgements are received for a predefined percentage of current data packets.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising terminating transmission of gap data if acknowledgements for transmitted current data packets drop below a predefined acceptable threshold level.

20. A computer readable medium or processor carrying software to execute instructions for performing the method of claim 12.

21. An apparatus for optimizing data transmission, including:

means for performing the method of claim 12.