Method and system for multi-device communication

• US 7,979,136 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Cummings, Allen B., Scroggin, Adam R., Markisohn, David Bradley, Young, Morris J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MANUEL, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US11/999,866
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,313 Days
• Field of Search: 607/5, 607/60, 455/41.2
• US Class Current: 607/60
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• 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: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/753 where the polling of the sub-stations is synchronous
• 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

A medical data system including a plurality of receivers configured to wirelessly receive medical data via a signal.

Claims

1. A medical data transmission system including:

a first transceiver coupled to a first computing entity at a first port and configured to detect the presence of and wirelessly receive data via a signal generated by a first medical device;

a second transceiver coupled to the first computing entity at a second port and configured to detect the presence of and wirelessly receive data from a second medical device; and

software running on the first computing device, the software including a first module that simultaneously scans the ports to determine whether the transceivers have detected a medical device and a second module automatically invoked by the first module when a transceiver has detected a medical device, the second module being configured to execute one of automatic downloading of patient related medical data from the detected medical device and prompting a user to authorize downloading of patient related medical data from the detected medical device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first transceiver is a first dongle and the second transceiver is a second dongle.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first and second dongles includes an externally perceptible indicator of strength of a signal generated by a detected medical device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the indicator includes a set of intensity indicators such that a greater number of activated intensity indicators indicates a greater signal strength than a signal strength indicated by a smaller number of activated intensity indicators.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first and second dongles further includes an externally perceptible indicator of data transmission.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the indicator of data transmission is activated concurrently with the data transmission.

7. The system of claim 1, further including a processor within the first computing entity configured to execute the first and second modules to effect automatic data transfer when one of the transceivers detects a signal from a medical device of sufficient strength for data transfer.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first and second dongles includes an emitter that emits a beacon to be detected by at least one of the first and second medical devices thereby causing the at least one medical device to engage in a handshaking operation with the dongle that is emitting the detected beacon.

9. A medical data transmission system including:

a first dongle integrated into a first medical device and coupled to a first computing entity configured to wirelessly receive data via a signal generated by the first medical device, the first medical device having a glucose measurement engine therein; and

a second dongle coupled to the first computing entity configured to wirelessly receive data via a signal generated by a second medical device;

the second dongle being configured to wirelessly receive data simultaneously with the first dongle wirelessly receiving data.

10. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for activating an application programming interface that scans in parallel a plurality of ports of a computing device configured to couple to a plurality of transceivers for detecting and wirelessly receiving medical data from any of a plurality of medical devices within range of at least one of the plurality of transceivers, automatically simultaneously downloading patient medical data from at least two medical devices each within range of a respective at least one of the plurality of transceivers, and prompting a user to authorize downloading of the medical data when a medical device is within range of at least one of the plurality of transceivers.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions for automatically downloading the medical data further include instructions for storing the medical data in a database, transferring the medical data to another device, and creating a report including the medical data.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further including instructions for causing the plurality of transceivers to emit beacons for reception by the medical devices to initiate communication between the medical devices and the transceivers.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the transceivers are dongles coupled to the computing device and the ports are USB ports.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further including instructions for

providing an indication of signal strength of a signal received from a detected medical device.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further including instructions for

providing an indication to a user of data transfer from a detected medical device to a transceiver.

16. A medical data transmission system including:

a first transceiver configured to detect the presence of and wirelessly receive medical data from a first medical device via a first data signal;

the first transceiver emitting a first beacon signal detectable by the first medical device,

a second transceiver configured to detect the presence of and wirelessly receive medical data from a second medical device via a second data signal;

the second transceiver emitting a second beacon signal detectable by the second medical device, and

a computing device coupled to the first and second transceivers via a first port and a second port, respectively, the computing device executing software including a first module that simultaneously scans the ports to determine whether the transceivers have detected a medical device and a second module invoked by the first module when a transceiver has detected a medical device, the second module being configured to execute one of automatic downloading of data from the detected medical device and prompting a user to authorize downloading of data from the detected medical device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the beacon signals, when received by a medical device causes the medical device to enter an active state.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the first transceiver is configured to wirelessly receive medical data from the second medical device via the second data signal;

the first beacon signal being detectable by the second medical device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the first and second medical devices have a listening mode of decreased power consumption relative to an active state.

20. A medical data communication system, comprising:

a plurality of healthcare management devices capable of generating, storing, and communicating medical information including at least one of blood glucose values, A1c values, Albumin values, Albumin excretion values, body mass index values, blood pressure values, carbohydrate values, cholesterol values, creatinine values, fructosamine values, HbA1 values, height values, insulin dose values, insulin rate values, total daily insulin values, ketone values, microalbumin values, proteinuria values, heart rate values, temperature values, triglyceride values, and weight values, the plurality of healthcare management devices each having a housing, an infrared transmission window, a machine executable program, a light-emitting diode indicator configured to indicate the detection of an infrared dongle compatible with the machine executable program of the healthcare management device, wherein the machine executable program includes a plurality of modes including a noncommunication mode configured to execute when the healthcare management device is not in communication with an infrared dongle and an active mode configured to execute upon the healthcare management device communicating with an infrared dongle, further wherein the healthcare management device is configured to initiate a handshake protocol when an infrared dongle compatible with the machine executable program of the healthcare management device is recognized and upon completion of the handshake protocol the healthcare management device is configured to communicate the generated medical information to the infrared dongle;

a computing device, including a display, a plurality of universal serial bus ports configured to receive universal serial bus interface cables, a memory capable of receiving and storing medical information and having a machine readable program with a first module and a second module, and a processor configured to execute the machine readable program of the memory, wherein the first module includes a plurality of machine executable instructions configured to operate independently of the display and configured to scan the plurality of universal serial bus ports for detection of a state of connectivity of at least one of the plurality of healthcare management devices and upon detection of the state of connectivity the first module being configured to invoke the second module having a second plurality of machine executable instructions capable of downloading the medical information generated and stored in the at least one of the plurality of healthcare management devices, wherein the second module is capable of automatically downloading the medical information generated and stored in the at least one of the plurality of healthcare management devices and downloading the medical information generated and stored in the at least one of the plurality of healthcare management devices upon execution of a user command, and further wherein the computing device is capable of communication with a wireless network; and

a plurality of infrared dongles each having a housing, an infrared transmission window configured for transmitting and receiving infrared transmissions from the plurality of healthcare management devices, a reception indicator having a plurality of reception bar indices and configured to indicate the communication ability of the infrared dongle with a detected healthcare management device, a communication indicator configured to indicate communication of medical information from a healthcare management device to the infrared dongle, and an emitter capable of repeatedly transmitting an infrared communication beacon, wherein the infrared communication beacon is configured to be detectable by a compatible healthcare management device and elicit an infrared transmission response from the healthcare management device, further wherein each infrared dongle of the plurality of infrared dongles is capable of connecting to a universal serial bus cable such that each infrared dongle is capable of coupling to a computing device at one of the plurality of universal serial bus ports of the computing device, and further wherein each infrared dongle of the plurality of infrared dongles is configured to communicate with the machine executable program of the computing device and the machine executable program of the healthcare management device and facilitate communication of the medical information generated by the medical device to the memory of the computing device.