Wireless relay module for remote monitoring systems

• US 8,798,527 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kpr U.S., LLC (Cardinal Health, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Covidien LP (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Gaines, Robert B., Wiesner, Joel D., Holste, John, Breitweiser, Kenneth M.
• Primary Examiner(s): GESESSE, TILAHUN
• Application Number:
  US13/241,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20120182894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 455/11.1, 455/15, 455/16, 455/41.1
• US Class Current: 455/11.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3592 using telemetric means, e.g. radio or optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/142 Pressure infusion, e.g. using pumps
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15542 Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15592 Adapting at the relay station communication parameters for supporting cooperative relaying, i.e. transmission of the same data via direct - and relayed path cooperative diversity H04B7/024
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A wireless relay module for networked communications between a series of medical devices and a remote monitoring device. The relay module communicates with the remote monitoring device over one or more internet-accessible wireless communication networks, and includes a receiver, transmitter for communicating over wireless relay networks, other transmitters for the one or more internet-accessible wireless communications networks; and a controller. The controller determines a status of the one or more internet-accessible wireless communications networks. When the status indicates that at least one of the interne-accessible wireless communications network is available, the appropriate transmitter is selected for the transmitting medical device data over the available internet-accessible wireless communications networks. When internet-accessible wireless communications networks are not accessible, the appropriate wireless relay network transmitter is selected for transmitting the data to another wireless relay module.

Claims

1. A wireless relay module comprising:

a first receiver capable of wirelessly receiving medical device data over a first wireless relay network from at least one medical device, wherein the at least one medical device is coupled to an interface circuit which is configured for communicating with at least one of a plurality of wireless relay modules via at least one of a plurality of wireless relay networks;

a first transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting data over a first internet-accessible wireless communications network;

a second transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting data over a second, different internet-accessible wireless communications network;

a third transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting medical device data to a second wireless relay module over the first wireless relay network; and

a processor coupled to said first, second, and third transmitters of the wireless relay module, wherein said processor is capable of determining a device status for each of the at least one medical devices and a connection status of each of said first, second, and third transmitters of the wireless relay module; and

a status module in communication with said processor, wherein said status module is capable of determining an access status of the first wireless relay network, the first internet-accessible wireless communications network, the second internet-accessible wireless communications network and providing the access status to said processor for selecting the first, second, or third transmitter for medical device data transmission based upon at least two of;

(1) the access status of the first wireless relay network, the first internet-accessible wireless communications network, the second internet-accessible wireless communications network determined by the status module;

(2) the device status for each of the at least one medical devices determined by the processor; and

(3) the connection status of said first, second, and third transmitters of the wireless relay module determined by the processor

wherein said first transmitter is configured to securely transmit data over a first internet-accessible wireless communications network;

said second transmitter is configured to securely transmit data over a second, different internet-accessible wireless communications network; and

said third transmitter is configured to securely transmit medical device data to a second wireless relay module over the first wireless relay network.

2. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein said third transmitter is further capable of transmitting operating instructions to said at least one medical device.

3. The wireless relay module of claim 2, further comprising:

a second receiver capable of wirelessly receiving said operating instructions from at least one of said first or second internet-accessible wireless communications networks; and

a memory electrically connected to said processor, said memory capable of buffering said received operating instructions destined for respective ones of said medical devices, wherein said processor controls the order and/or priority for transmission of said operating instructions to said respective ones of said medical devices.

4. The wireless relay module of claim 3, wherein the second receiver is capable of wirelessly receiving said operating instructions from said first internet-accessible wireless communications network, further comprising:

a third receiver capable of wirelessly receiving said operating instructions from said second internet-accessible wireless communications network.

5. The wireless relay module of claim 4, further comprising:

a fourth transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting medical device data;

wherein said processor is further coupled to said first receiver, is capable of determining a type of the wireless relay network according to the medical device data received from the at least one medical device, and is further capable of selecting one of the third transmitter or the fourth transmitter according to the type of the wireless relay network for transmitting operating instructions to the at least one medical device.

6. The wireless relay module of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless communications network indicator on communication with said status module for providing a status indication of a determined status of potential communications over at least one of said first or second wireless communications networks by said wireless relay module.

7. The wireless relay module of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless relay network indicator electrically connected to said processor for providing a status indication of a determined status of potential communications over said wireless relay network.

8. The wireless relay module of claim 1 wherein said wireless relay network is a mesh network.

9. The wireless relay module of claim 1 wherein said wireless relay network is a relay-enable Bluetooth network.

10. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein one of said first or second internet-accessible wireless communications networks is a mobile communications network.

11. The wireless relay module of claim 10 wherein one or more of said first or second mobile communications networks is a CDMA-based, GSM-based or WiMax-based network.

12. The wireless relay module of claim 10, wherein the second internet-accessible wireless communications networks is selected from the group consisting of metropolitan area networks (MANs), campus area Networks (CANs), local area networks (LANs), home area networks (HANs), personal area networks (PANs) and body area networks (BANs).

13. The wireless relay module of claim 1 wherein said first, second and third transmitters are configured to securely transmit encrypted medical device data.

14. The wireless relay module of claim 1 further comprising:

a second receiver coupled to the processor and capable of wirelessly receiving medical device data over a second wireless relay network; and

a fourth transmitter coupled to the processor and capable of wirelessly transmitting medical device data to a second wireless relay module over the second wireless relay network.

27. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the second internet-accessible wireless communications network is different from the first internet-accessible wireless communications network.

28. The wireless relay module of claim 1, wherein the access status is indicative of access for the transceiver to a wireless wide-area networks (WWAN).

15. A process for operating a relay module in a medical device wireless network, comprising:

receiving data from at least one medical device over a wireless relay network, each of the at least one medical devices coupled to an interface circuit which is configured for communicating with one of a plurality of wireless relay modules via one of a plurality of wireless relay networks;

determining an access status of first and second internet-accessible wireless communications networks in respective communication with a first transmitter and a second transmitter of said relay module;

determining an access status of the first wireless relay network in respective communication with a third transmitter of said relay module;

determining a device status for each of the at least one medical devices;

determining a connection status of the first, second, and third transmitters of the relay module;

in response to the determined access status of the first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network, device status for each of the at least one medical devices, and the connection status of the first and second transmitters of the relay module and the first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network satisfying a particular criteria, transmitting said data from said at least one medical device over said first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network by said first or second transmitter; and

in response to the determined access status of the first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network, device status for each of the at least one medical devices, and connection status of the first and second transmitters of the relay module and the first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network failing to satisfy the particular criteria, and the access status of the first wireless relay network satisfying a particular criteria, transmitting said data from said at least one medical devices by a third transmitter in communication with the wireless relay network to a second relay module over the wireless relay network wherein;

said first transmitter is configured to securely transmit data over a first internet-accessible wireless communications network;

said second transmitter is configured to securely transmit data over a second, different internet-accessible wireless communications network; and

said third transmitter is configured to securely transmit medical device data to a second wireless relay module over the first wireless relay network.

16. The process of claim 15 further comprising:

receiving operating instructions over the first or second internet-accessible wireless communications network intended for said at least one medical devices; and

transmitting said received operating instructions to said intended ones of said at least one medical device.

17. The process of claim 15 further comprising:

buffering said received operating instructions destined for respective ones of said medical devices; and

controlling at least one of an order or priority for transmission of said operating instructions to said respective ones of said medical devices.

18. The process of claim 15, wherein said wireless relay network is a ZIGBEE network.

19. The process of claim 15, wherein said wireless relay network is a relay enabled Bluetooth network.

20. The process of claim 15, wherein at least one of said first or second wireless communications networks is a communications channel of a mobile communications network.

21. The process of claim 20, wherein said mobile communications network is a CDMA, GSM or WiMax-based network.

22. The process of claim 15, wherein the determining further comprises measuring a state of each of said first and second wireless communications networks;

and determining said status of said first and second wireless communications networks as a function of said measured states of said first and second wireless communications networks.

23. The process of claim 22, wherein the measured state is related to a signal strength of the measured wireless communication network.

24. The process of claim 22, wherein the measured state is related to a latency of communications in the measured wireless communication network.

25. The process of claim 15, wherein the particular criteria includes the identification of a user selection of one of the first or second wireless communications networks.

26. The process of claim 15, wherein the said status is determined as a function of a value of a data element stored by a storage element of said relay module.

29. The process of claim 15 further comprising issuing an alarm notification if the access status of the first wireless relay network fails to satisfy the particular criteria.