INTELLIGENT MEDICAL NETWORK EDGE ROUTER

• US 20140077956A1
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Published: 03/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Masimo Corporation
• Inventors: Sampath, Anand, Muhsin, Bilal
• Granted Patent: US 9,749,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/16 Security signalling or alarm systems, e.g. redundant systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/20 Calibration, including self-calibrating arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results

Abstract

A medical network service can replace or supplement some or all of an expensive internally staffed clinical facility network with a cloud-based networking service. The medical network service in certain embodiments can provide networking services via software as a service technologies, platform as a service technologies, and/or infrastructure as a service technologies. The medical network service can provide these services to large existing clinical facilities such as metropolitan hospitals as well as to smaller clinical facilities such as specialized surgical centers. The medical network service can replace and/or supplement existing IT networks in hospitals and other clinical facilities and can therefore reduce costs and increase security and reliability of those networks. In addition, the medical network service can provide synergistic benefits that can improve patient outcomes and patient care. In addition, a medical edge router can provide redundant communications features for transmitting patient data to the medical network service.

Claims

1. A method of providing patient monitoring data over a network, the method comprising:

by a medical edge router comprising one or more hardware processors;

receiving input packets with the medical edge router, the input packets comprising information related to patient monitoring data;

analyzing the input packets to identify any patient monitoring alarms in the input packets;

transmitting first ones of the input packets that do not correspond to a patient alarm over a first communications channel; and

in response to detecting a patient monitoring alarm in second ones of the input packets, transmitting the second packets over multiple second communications channels.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one or both of said transmitting the first packets and said transmitting the second packets comprises transmitting the respective first or second packets to a medical network service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one or both of said transmitting the first packets and said transmitting the second packets comprises transmitting the respective first or second packets to a clinician device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second packets comprise parameter data of the patient as well data representing the patient monitoring alarm.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the first packets comprises transmitting the first packets through a first internet service provider.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said transmitting the second packets comprises transmitting the second packets through a second internet service provider and through the first internet service provider.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said transmitting the second packets comprises transmitting the second packets through a cellular network and through the first internet service provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the second packets comprises transmitting the second packets through a wired internet service provider and through a wireless internet service provider.

9. A system for providing patient monitoring data over a network, the system comprising:

a medical edge router having one or more hardware processors, the medical edge router comprising;

a traffic inspector configured to receive input packets comprising information related to patient monitoring data and to analyze the input packets to identify any patient monitoring alarms in the input packets; and

a routing module configured to transmit first ones of the input packets that do not correspond to a patient alarm over a first communications channel and transmit second ones of the input packets over multiple second communications channels in response to detecting a patient monitoring alarm in the second input packets.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing module is further configured to perform one or both of said transmitting the first packets and said transmitting the second packets by at least transmitting the respective first or second packets to a medical network service.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing module is further configured to perform one or both of said transmitting the first packets and said transmitting the second packets by at least transmitting the respective first or second packets to a clinician device.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the second packets comprise parameter data of the patient as well data representing the patient monitoring alarm.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing module is further configured to transmit the first packets by at least transmitting the first packets through a first internet service provider.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the routing module is further configured to transmit the second packets by at least transmitting the second packets through a second internet service provider and through the first internet service provider.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the routing module is further configured to transmit the second packets by at least transmitting the second packets through a cellular network and through the first internet service provider.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing module is further configured to transmit the second packets by at least transmitting the second packets through a wired internet service provider and through a wireless internet service provider.

17. A method of providing patient monitoring data over a network, the method comprising:

by a medical edge router comprising one or more hardware processors;

receiving input data with the medical edge router, the input data comprising information related to patient monitoring data;

attempting to transmit the input data over a first communications channel;

in response to determining that the first communications channel is unavailable, attempting to transmit the input data over a second communications channel; and

in response to determining that the second communications channel is unavailable, transmitting a reduced form of the input data over a third communications channel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second communications channels comprise Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the third communications channel comprises a cellular network.

20. The method of claim 17, said transmitting the reduced form of the input data comprises transmitting a text message with a summary of the patient monitoring data.

21. The method of claim 17, said transmitting the reduced form of the input data comprises transmitting an email with a summary of the patient monitoring data.