Medical monitoring system having multiple communications channels
First Claim
1. A medical monitoring system comprising:
- a sensor unit configured to sense one or more physiological characteristics of a patient;
a monitoring unit in communication with the sensor unit and operable to communicate information relating to the sensed physiological characteristics to a central unit; and
a plurality of communications channels operable to communicate between the monitoring unit and the central unit, the monitoring unit operable to specify for transmission a data set that is tailored to a particular communications channel to be used to communicate the information relating to the sensed physiological characteristics to the central unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A medical monitoring system has a sensor system including a sensor associated with a patient and a remote monitoring unit. The remote monitoring unit includes a microprocessor in communication with the sensor system, and a portable-monitoring unit transceiver system in communication with the microprocessor. The portable-monitoring unit transceiver system has a land-line telephone transceiver and/or a cellular telephone transceiver, and a third-network transceiver such as a paging-network transceiver. A full data set is transmitted over the land-line telephone transceiver or the cellular telephone transceiver when communications links over these transceivers are available, and a reduced data set is transmitted over the third-network transceiver when communications links over the land-line telephone transceiver and the cellular telephone transceiver are not available.
297 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A medical monitoring system comprising:
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a sensor unit configured to sense one or more physiological characteristics of a patient; a monitoring unit in communication with the sensor unit and operable to communicate information relating to the sensed physiological characteristics to a central unit; and a plurality of communications channels operable to communicate between the monitoring unit and the central unit, the monitoring unit operable to specify for transmission a data set that is tailored to a particular communications channel to be used to communicate the information relating to the sensed physiological characteristics to the central unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of controlling a portable medical monitoring unit, the method comprising:
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receiving sensor data from a sensor, the received sensor data representative of one or more physiological characteristics of a patient being monitored; selecting a communications channel from among a plurality of potential communications channels; specifying a data set for transmission to a central unit, the specified data set being adapted to the selected communications channel; and transmitting the specified data set over the selected communications channel to the central unit. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification