Order for the management of medical patient data derived from a multitude of medical units

Abstract

Arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from multiple medical units that collect corresponding medical data of a patient, comprising: a distance detector for use by a first medical unit to detect the distance of a second medical unit; a control command processor for initiating, in response to said detection of the distance, the generation of signals to: (a) associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical unit with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical unit, and (b) process the medical patient data obtained by said second medical unit together with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical unit.to provide a summarized representation of the medical patient data, and a confirmation button which is operated to cause the control command processor to initiate the generation of signals to link the medical patient data obtained by said second medical unit with the medical patient data obtained by the first medical unit, when the correctness of the linking of the medical patient data by the respective medical units with patient identification information has been verified.

Description

This application derives priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60 / 674,260, filed April 22, 2005.Field of the InventionThe present invention relates primarily to the field of medical arrangements and, more particularly, to the processing of data generated by a plurality of sensors in the vicinity of a patient.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONClinicians often need to observe the physiological parameters of patients admitted to the hospital. The type of physiological or patient monitoring device used depends on the severity and urgency (designated sharpness) of the patient's medical condition. Occasionally, a patient may be connected to more than one monitor simultaneously. For example, a patient may be connected to a limited parameter monitor while the clinician periodically must monitor some physiological parameters. In other cases, the patient's sharpness level may change suddenly, requiring the patient to be immediately connected to a more complex monitoring unit that monitors many physiological parameters. Existing systems provide the individual patient monitoring and / or treatment devices to generate their data separately from the data of the different arrangements. Thus, the clinician monitors the separate data views from the different arrays. US 2003 / 0 227 386 A1, for example, shows a system for selectively collecting location information in a specific environment. Such systems do not, in such cases, provide for handling the medical patient data in a manner that will aid in understanding the clinician and rendering the patient's condition. An arrangement according to the principles of the invention addresses this deficiency and the associated problems. It is an object of the invention to provide arrangements and a method for handling medical patient data to aid in both the understanding of the clinician and the reproduction of the patient's condition. This object is achieved by arrangements according to any of claims 1, 14, 15 or 17 and by a method according to claim 19.Brief Summary of the InventionIn accordance with the principles of the present invention, an arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from at least first and second medical devices that acquire corresponding medical data from a patient includes a distance detector for use by the first medical device to detect the distance of the second medical device. A control command processor responds to detection of the distance by initiating generation of signals: (a) to associate the medical patient data acquired by the second medical device with the medical patient data acquired by the first medical device, and (b) to process medical patient data acquired by the second medical device along with the medical patient data acquired by the first medical device to provide a composite representation of the medical patient data.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGIn the drawing: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a patient interacting with a system consistent with the principles of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic view of distance detection and message functions performed by the system of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the relationship of the communication network and the control command processor of the system of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1; and Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment of the system according to the principles of the present invention.DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONThe runtime processor as used herein is an arrangement and / or set of machine readable instructions for performing tasks. A processor includes one or more of: hardware, firmware, and / or software. A processor acts upon information by obtaining information from an input unit; by affecting, analyzing, modifying, processing, or transmitting information for use by an executable application and / or procedure or an information unit; and / or by directing the information to an output unit. A processor may use or incorporate the resources of a controller or microprocessor, for example. A processor may include a display processor or display generator. A display processor or generator is a known element comprising electronic circuitry or software or a combination of both for generating display images or portions thereof. An executable application as used herein includes code or machine readable instructions for implementing predefined functions including those of an operating system, a medical patient data management system, or other information processing system, for example, in response to a user command or input. An executable procedure is a segment of code (machine readable instruction), a subroutine, or other distinct portion of code or portion of an executable application for performing one or more particular processes, and may include executing operations on received input parameters (or in response to received input parameters) and delivering the resulting output parameters.Referring to Figure 1, a medical patient data management arrangement 18 according to the principles of the present invention may be utilized in conjunction with a patient 1 connected to a plurality of medical devices, such as medical monitoring and / or treatment elements. The plurality of medical monitoring and / or treatment units acquire corresponding medical data from the patient 1. for example, a ventilator 2 suitable for delivering either medical grade 3 oxygen-rich air or pure oxygen 4 is connected to the patient 1 and acquires the medical data associated with ventilation. A suction unit 5 is also connected to the patient 1, for example for clearing an airway or for suctioning a wound, and provides data representing, for example, the amount and / or volume of material removed. The patient 1 is further connected to an electrocardiogram monitoring device (ECG) 6 for generating ECG conduction signals and a blood pressure measurement unit 11.In Figure 1, physiological monitors and treatment units 2, 5, 6 and 11 are referred to as low sharpness arrangements, i.e., they typically acquire medical data from the patient 1, but they lack a display unit, such as a screen. Rather, such arrangements typically serve as telemetry transmitters which transmit the medical data acquired from the patient 1 to another unit which receives that data and displays it for use by a clinician. The patient 1 is also connected to a physiological monitoring unit 8. The physiological monitoring unit 8 is a multi-monitoring device having a display screen 9. the physiological monitoring unit 8 is capable of acquiring the medical patient data of the patient and displaying this data on the display screen 9, and is referred to as a high-sharpness arrangement.At least one of the plurality of medical devices includes a radio detection chip reader (RFID= Radio frequency identification). In a preferred embodiment, a high sharpness medical device includes an RFID chip reader. More specifically, in the illustrated embodiment, the physiological monitoring device unit 8 includes an RFID chip reader 10. In the illustrated embodiment, the respective low sharpness arrays include 2, 5, 6, and 11 RFID chips 7.Referring to FIG. 2 simultaneously, the high sharpness monitor 8 is capable of communicating with the low sharpness medical elements 2, 5, 6, and 11 (of FIG. 1 ). (Only the ECG monitor 6 and the blood pressure monitor 11 are shown in Fig. 2 to simplify the figure.) The medical elements 2, 5, 6, 8, and 11 may communicate with each other or with other elements through a communication device such as a network 19. The network may include wireless connections (e.g., 16, 17) and / or wired connection (e.g., 23). The network 19 also typically connects to a control command processor 20. Some or all of the functions of the control command processor 20 may be performed by an executable application or executable procedure operating in conjunction with a processor. In FIG. 2, the control command processor 20 is shown as a separate element. However, the control command processor 20 may be incorporated into the high sharpness monitor 8.In the present example, a patient 1 is first monitored by the high sharpness monitor 8. The medical data acquired by the high sharpness monitor 8 is associated with the patient identification information, and an image representing the data is displayed on the display screen 9 of the high sharpness monitor 8. The medical data and associated patient identification information may also be transmitted over a wireless path 17 to an access point 12 which connects the wireless portion of the network 19 (e.g., 16, 17) to the wired portion of the network (e.g., 23). This allows the data to be passed via the network 19 from the high sharpness monitor 8 to a remote display element which includes a display processor or generator and a display screen such as a central station 13. The medical personnel at the central station 13 can simultaneously monitor the medical data of more than one patient, which were acquired by the medical units connected to the respective patients.In providing medical services to the patient 1, a clinician may wish to measure, for example, a supplemental physiological parameter, such as the patient's blood pressure, by utilizing the low sharpness blood pressure monitor 11. the clinician brings the low sharpness monitor 11 into proximity with the patient 1, connects the patient 1 to a pressure cuff 21 (FIG. 1 ), and initiates blood pressure measurement. Thus, both the first medical unit (high sharpness monitor 8) and the second medical unit (blood pressure monitor 11) are connected to the same patient. At the same time, the RFID chip reader 10 in the high sharpness monitor 8 emits a radio signal 15 that activates a response signal 4 in the RFID chips 7 in the nearby low sharpness medical units. At any point during the movement of the blood pressure measurement unit 11 toward the patient 1, the RFID chip reader 10 in the high sharpness monitor 8 recognizes the proximity of the RFID chip 7 connected to the low sharpness blood pressure measurement unit 11. That is, generally, the RFID chip reader 10 in a first of the plurality of medical devices (e.g., the high sharpness monitor 8) operates as a distance detector for use by a first medical device to detect the distance of a second medical device (e.g., the ECG monitor 6 and / or blood pressure monitor device 11).The high sharpness monitor 8 communicates with the control command processor 20 (e.g., via the network 19) to indicate that a second medical device (e.g., blood pressure monitor device 11) has been detected to be in proximity. In response to detecting the proximity, the control command processor 20 initiates the generation of signals that associate the medical patient data acquired by the second medical unit (blood pressure monitor 11) with the medical patient data acquired by the first medical unit (high sharpness monitor 8). The network 19, and in particular the wireless portion (16,17), functions as a communication interface for establishing bidirectional communication between the first and second medical devices to enable acquisition by the first medical device of patient medical data from the second medical device in response to the signals generated by the control command processor 20. The network 19 also functions as a connection site for establishing communication with a third unit (e.g., central station 13) for transmitting medical patient data to the third unit. In the illustrated embodiment, the communication link used to establish communication between the first and second medical devices, e.g., network 19, is different than the link used to detect the distance of the second medical device from the first medical device, e.g., RFID chip 7 and RFID chip reader 10.The signals generated by the control command processor 20 also initiate processing of the medical patient data acquired by the second medical device (blood pressure monitor 11) along with the medical patient data acquired by the first medical device (high sharpness monitor 8) to provide a composite listing of the medical patient data. The summarized listing of the medical patient data may include mixed data that takes into account the medical patient data acquired by the first and second medical devices. The combined list of medical patient data can be a signal which reproduces a combined image representation which takes into account the medical patient data acquired by the first and second medical units. This composite image representation can be displayed on the display screen 9 of the high sharpness monitor 8 and / or sent to the central station 13 by means of the network 19, where it is displayed on the display unit at the central station 13.In addition, the medical blood pressure data of the blood pressure monitor 11 is associated with the patient identification information associated with the patient 1. That is, the signals generated by the control command processor 20 also associate the medical data acquired by the second medical unit (blood pressure monitor 11) with the patient identification information. The patient identification information may be integrated into the composite representation of the medical patient data and displayed on the display screen of the high sharpness monitoring device 8 and / or the central station 13.In one embodiment, the signal for associating the medical patient data acquired by the second medical unit with data acquired by the first medical unit is generated in response to the detection of a user command. This may be desired at some settings to increase security. More specifically, an acknowledge button 22 is provided on the high sharpness monitor 8 so that the clinician can see and verify the correctness of the connection of the medical patient data from respective medical devices to patient identification information. In this embodiment, before the control command processor 20 generates the signals associating the medical patient data acquired by the blood pressure monitor 11 with the medical patient data acquired by the high sharpness monitor 8 and the identification information of the patient 1, a clinician views a display showing the details of the proposed connection. If correct, the clinician activates the confirmation button 22 This conditions the control command processor 20 to generate the signals to associate the patient medical data acquired by the second medical device with the data acquired by the first medical device and with the patient identification information.In another embodiment, the control command processor 20 detects a particular physiological signal. The signal for linking the medical patient data acquired by the second medical unit to the data acquired by the first medical unit is generated in response to the detection of this physiological signal. More specifically, the control command processor 20 recognizes the signal representative of the blood pressure from the blood pressure monitor 11. In response to the recognition of the signal, the control command processor 20 generates the signals associating the medical patient data acquired by the blood pressure monitor 11 with the medical patient data acquired by the high sharpness monitor 8 and with the identification information of the patient 1. This embodiment may also include user confirmation as described above.Referring to FIG. 3, the operation flow of the high sharpness monitoring apparatus 8 can be understood. The high sharpness monitor 8 provides a clinician 100 with a representation of the medical patient data possibly acquired by a plurality of medical devices via the display screen 9. the high sharpness monitor 8 is capable of opening a network communication interface 24 to at least one low sharpness monitor (e.g., ECG monitor 6 and / or blood pressure monitor 11) using the identification information provided by the RFID chip 7. The control command processor 20 stores the data associating the identification information included in the RFID chip 7 with the specific patient 1 and the corresponding low-sharpness units 6, 11. In particular, the associated data contains the physical and / or network address of the low sharpness units 6, 11 connected to the patient 1. This patient / unit link data 25 is then passed to the high sharpness monitor 8 by the control command processor 20. This allows the high sharpness monitor 8 to accurately address a network message to the detected low sharpness monitors 6, 11 via the network communication interface 24.The high sharpness monitor 8 is then able to retrieve, by way of example, the ECG data from the low sharpness monitor 6 and / or the medical blood pressure data from the low sharpness monitor 11 via the network communication interface 24, and to merge the retrieved data with the medical patient data acquired by the high sharpness monitor 8. The high sharpness monitor 8 displays this data on the local screen 9. If other patient data is available from the low sharpness monitor 6, such as the patient's name or sex, the high sharpness monitor 8 also retrieves and records this data. The clinician 100 is then able to view an image representing the mixed patient-acquired data 26 by viewing the high sharpness monitor 9. the high sharpness monitor 8 is also able to communicate the mixed data 26 to the central station 13 via the network communication interface 24. The central station 13 displays an image representing the mixed data, rather than separate images representing the corresponding medical data signals 41a, 41b coming from the low sharpness monitors 6, 11.In another embodiment of the present invention, the high sharpness monitor 8 and the low sharpness monitors 6 and 11 send corresponding signals to the central station 13 representing the medical patient data acquired by the individual monitors. At the same time, the high sharpness monitor 8 sends a message to the central station 13 indicating that the signals 41a, 41b representing the individual medical patient data, which were supplied to the central station 13 by way of the network communication interface 24 from the low sharpness monitors 6 and 11, are to be mixed with the signal of the high sharpness monitor 8 representing the medical patient data, and the mixed data is to be combined with the same patient 1 and to be displayed by the central station 13.FIG. 4 illustrates additional details of the system 18. For example, other distance detection units 27 and 31 may be used instead of or in addition to the RFID units 7, 10 (FIGS. 1, 2 ). As described above, an RFID chip may be used as the distance detection unit 27 in the low sharpness monitor 28 and an RFID chip reader may be used as the distance detection unit 31 in the high sharpness monitor 29. The high sharpness monitor 29 incorporating an RFID chip reader 31 may be designed with a limited range to prevent errors in the association of multibler units with a single patient. Other technologies may be used to perform the distance detection function. For example, distance-related communications may be achieved via a wireless network 19 using a relatively low-power master / slave wireless protocol such as Bluetooth 802.15 standard compatible distance detection. In this case, the high sharpness monitor 29 includes a master unit 32 and the low sharpness monitor 28 includes a slave unit 33. Similarly, distance detection may be performed by an infrared data link (IRDA) peer-to-peer protocol or standard compatible distance detection using the global system for mobile communication / general packet radio service / global positioning system (GSM / GPRS / GPS), or any other similar technology in a first medical unit that can detect distance and provide identifying information for a second medical unit that comes in proximity.The connection between the first and second medical devices, for example, low sharpness monitor 28 and high sharpness monitor 29, may be made in several different ways. In one embodiment, the detection of the distance allows the two units 28 and 29 to be linked to one another and to the patient 30 automatically. In operation, the high sharpness monitor 29 is connected to the patient 30, and the proximity detection unit, e.g., RFID reader 31, operates, for example, continuously. The high sharpness monitor 29 is thus capable of directly detecting and processing the presence of the proximity detection unit, e.g., RFID chip 27 in the low sharpness monitor 28, regardless of the working status of the low sharpness monitor 28. Specifically, the identification processor 38 in the high sharpness monitor 29 detects whether the patient identification information and associated medical patient data received from the low sharpness monitor 28 match the patient 30 associated with the high sharpness monitor 29, thereby either confirming or rejecting a match between the patient and the received data. If the patient identification information matches, communication is then established between the low sharpness monitor 28 and the high sharpness monitor 29. A data processor 40, in response to the established communication (e.g., detection of unit distance and patient compliance), initiates the generation of signals to associate medical patient data acquired by the medical unit 29 with data acquired by use of the medical unit 28 and processes the medical patient data acquired by the medical unit 29 along with the medical data acquired by the medical unit 28 to provide a composite representation of the medical patient data.In an alternative embodiment, the association of units 28 and 29 with patient 30 requires detection of distance and a physiological trigger, such as initiation of a blood pressure measurement or detection of a plethysmographic signal. In this embodiment, the absence of a physiological signal from the low sharpness monitor 28 prevents the monitor 28 from associating with the patient 30. in a third embodiment, a connection occurs when detection of the distance is confirmed by the clinician 100 (FIG. 3 ) operating the confirmation button 22 (FIG. 1 ) in response to a prompt. In a fourth embodiment, the connection may only be made upon receipt of a physiological data signal from the low sharpness monitor 28 and confirmation of the connection by the clinician 100.Once the connection is established as described above, one of the two monitors, such as the low sharpness monitor 28, initiates communication with the other monitor (e.g., high sharpness monitor 29) using a separate bidirectional communication medium different from that used to detect the distance and connect the units. Such a communication medium may be, for example, a connection via a wired network 35 or a wireless network 39, or via a connection including wired and wireless network portions. By using the communication medium, the low sharpness monitor 28 is able to merge the medical patient data 36 it acquires with the medical patient data 37 the high sharpness monitor 29 acquires from the patient 30 to generate a merged data stream 26. More specifically, in the illustrated embodiment, data processor 40 receives medical patient data from low sharpness monitor 28 and high sharpness monitor 29 via network 35, 39 and processes this data to generate mixed medical patient data. The mixed data 26 is provided to the network 35, 39 and specifically to the high sharpness monitor 29. This makes it possible to locally display the medical patient data from the low sharpness monitor 28 on the high sharpness monitor 29. Alternatively, the low sharpness monitor 28 may send the mixed data 26 to other entities in the hospital via the network 35, 39 so that a clinician 100 can view the mixed data stream 26 as a single set of data even though the data has been collected by two separate entities 28 and 29. Once the patient / unit connection is established between the low sharpness monitor 28 and the high sharpness monitor 29, one of the two monitors may route a signal to a third unit, such as the central station 13, to connect the data coming from the two associated units to the patient 30.While certain forms of the invention 18 have been illustrated, the invention is not limited to the specific form and arrangement of parts as described and shown. Various changes may be made by those skilled in the art to the specific embodiments as described without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

An arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from a plurality of medical devices that acquire respective medical data of a patient, comprising: a distance detector for use by a first medical device to detect the distance of a second medical device; a control command processor for, in response to said detection of the distance, initiating generation of signals to: (a) associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device, and (b) process the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device together with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device to provide an aggregate representation of the medical patient data, and an acknowledgment button, the control command processor is operable to cause the control command processor to initiate generation of the signals to associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical unit with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical unit when correctness of the association of the medical patient data from the respective medical units with patient identification information has been checked.The arrangement of claim 1, characterized in that said first medical unit acquires the medical data from said patient having a first patient identifier; said first and second medical units are connected to the same patient; and said signal for associating the medical patient data acquired by said second medical unit with the data acquired by said first medical unit associates said medical patient data acquired by said second medical unit with said first patient identifier.The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said composite medical patient data representation comprises a composite image display containing said medical patient data acquired by said first and second medical devices.The arrangement of claim 3, characterized in that said composite image display comprises mixed data including said medical patient data acquired by said first and second medical devices.The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the composite representation of the medical patient data comprises mixed data including said medical patient data acquired by said first and second medical devices.The arrangement of claim 5, further comprising a communication interface for establishing communication with a third entity and communicating said mixed data to said third entity.The arrangement of claim 1, characterized in that said signal for associating the medical patient data acquired by said second medical device with the data acquired by said first medical device is generated in response to at least one of (a) detection of a particular physiological signal and (b) detection of a user command.The arrangement of claim 1, further comprising a communication interface for establishing communication between said first and second medical devices to enable acquisition by said first medical device of patient medical data from said second medical device in response to a signal generated by said control command processor.An arrangement according to claim 8, characterized in that said communication interface establishes communication between said first and second medical units by establishing a communication connection different from the connection used upon detection of the distance of said second unit.An arrangement according to claim 8, characterized in that said communication interface establishes bidirectional communication between said first and second medical devices.The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a data processor for processing the medical patient data acquired by said first and second medical devices to provide said composite representation of the medical patient data in response to said established communication.The assembly of claim 11, further comprising a display processor for initiating display of an image comprising said composite representation of the medical patient data.The arrangement of claim 1, characterized in that said distance detector comprises a detector using at least one of: (a) RFID compatible distance detection, (b) blue-tooth 802, 15 standard compatible distance detection, (c) an infrared distance detector, and (d) GSM / GPRS standard compatible distance detection.An arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from a plurality of medical devices, comprising: a distance detector for use by a first medical device that detects medical data from a patient to detect the distance of a second medical device that detects medical data from a patient, said first and second medical devices being connected to the same patient; a control command processor for, in response to said distance detection, initiating generation of signals to: (a) associate medical patient data acquired by said second medical device with the data acquired by said first medical device, and (b) process the medical patient data acquired by said second medical device along with the medical patient data acquired by said first medical device to provide an aggregate representation of the medical patient data; an interface for establishing communication between said first and second medical devices to enable acquisition of patient medical data acquired by said second medical device for mixing with patient medical data acquired by said first medical device in response to a signal generated by said control command processor, and an acknowledge button operated to operate to cause said control command processor to initiate generation of said signals to associate patient medical data acquired by said second medical device with patient medical data acquired by said first medical device when correctness of association of patient medical data from respective medical devices with patient identification information has been checked.An arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from a plurality of medical devices, comprising: a distance detector for use by a first medical device that detects medical data from a patient, for detecting the distance of a second medical device that detects medical data from a patient; a control command processor for, in response to said detection of the distance, initiating generation of signals to: (a) associate medical patient data detected by said second medical device with the data detected by said first medical device; and (b) process the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device along with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device to provide an aggregate representation of the medical patient data; An interface for establishing communication with a third unit and communicating said composite representation of the medical patient data to said third unit, and an acknowledge button operable to cause the control command processor to initiate generation of the signals to associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical unit with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical unit when correctness of the association of the medical patient data from the respective medical units with patient identification information has been verified.The arrangement of claim 15, wherein said composite medical patient data representation comprises mixed data containing said medical patient data acquired using said first and second medical devices.An arrangement for managing medical patient data derived from a plurality of medical devices, comprising: a distance detector for use by a first medical device that detects medical data from a patient having a first patient identifier to detect the distance of a second medical device that detects medical data from a patient; an identification processor for determining whether a received patient identifier associated with medical patient data detected by said second medical device matched said patient having said first patient identifier to detect a patient match; a control command processor for, in response to said detection of the distance and a patient match, initiating generation of signals to: (a) medical patient data detected by said second medical device matched said data, which were acquired by said first medical unit, and (b) to process the medical patient data acquired by said second medical unit together with the medical patient data acquired by said first medical unit to provide a composite representation of the medical patient data, and an acknowledge button operated to cause the control command processor to initiate generation of the signals to associate the medical patient data acquired by said second medical unit with the medical patient data acquired by said first medical unit when correctness of the association of the medical patient data from the respective medical units with patient identification information was checked.The arrangement of claim 17, further comprising: an interface processor for establishing a communication link between said first and second medical devices; and wherein: said identification processor receives said patient identifier associated with medical patient data acquired by said second medical device in a message from said second medical device.A method of managing medical patient data derived from a plurality of medical devices, comprising the acts of: detecting the distance of a second medical device that detects medical data from a patient to a first medical device that detects medical data from a patient having a first patient identifier, said first and second medical devices being connected to the same patient; in response to said detection of the distance, initiating generation of signals to: (a) associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device, and (b) associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device, processing to provide a composite representation of the medical patient data and confirming initiation of generation of the signals to associate the medical patient data obtained by said second medical device with the medical patient data obtained by said first medical device when correctness of the association of the medical patient data from the respective medical devices with patient identification information has been checked.The method of claim 19, further comprising the acts of: establishing a communication link between said first and second medical devices; and processing the respectively received patient identification information associated with medical patient data acquired by said first and second medical devices to verify proper association of the received data with a single patient.

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