Medical Telemetry System

Abstract

A medical telemetry system is provided which improves the problem of communication failure caused by weak electric field areas within a facility and improves communication resistance against structural changes within the facility. [Solution] The system comprises a plurality of telemetry terminals 2 which transmit patient biometric information, and a central terminal 3 which receives the patient biometric information transmitted from the telemetry terminals 2. The telemetry terminal 2 has a first transmission unit 26 which wirelessly transmits the biometric information acquired from a sensor unit 24, and a second transmission unit 29 which wirelessly transmits packets using a simultaneous transmission flooding method. A first control unit 23 executes wireless transmission by one or both of the first transmission unit 26 and the second transmission unit 29, and the transmission of the biometric information can be set to one or both of the following: a setting in which the biometric information is transmitted directly from each of the plurality of telemetry terminals 2 to the central terminal 3, and a setting in which the biometric information is transmitted to the central terminal 3 while each of the plurality of telemetry terminals 2 communicates with each other.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a medical telemetry system that wirelessly transmits biological information of a plurality of patients from a transmitting terminal to a receiving terminal. [Background technology]

[0002] There is known a medical telemetry system that can receive a patient's vital signs, such as cardiac potential and oxygen saturation, from a remote location (see, for example, Patent Document 1). More specifically, the medical telemetry system is a system that uses radio waves in a band specified by specific low-power wireless equipment and can receive signals from transmitters worn by multiple patients with one receiver, and the use of this system makes it possible to manage the vital signs of multiple patients.

[0003] The receiver of this system must constantly receive signals from the transmitter. There are two types of receiving antenna: whip antenna and leaky coaxial cable. With the whip antenna system, the reception range is limited to a concentric circle centered on the receiver, and structures and metal objects within the building, as well as the patients and medical staff themselves, act as barriers that can cause poor reception. For this reason, this system has had the problem of communication failures due to weak electric field areas within the facility where radio waves do not reach certain locations.

[0004] In contrast, the leaky coaxial cable method prevents poor reception by first laying a cable that acts as a receiving antenna inside a building, enabling more stable reception than the whip antenna method. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2003-10138 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] However, even if the leaky coaxial cable method was adopted, the reception range was limited to a certain distance from the cable, so the problem of communication failure due to weak signal areas within the facility still remained. In addition, this method required careful simulation and installation at the time of building design, and it was extremely difficult to accommodate structural changes due to later expansions or department changes.

[0007] The present invention is devised to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional art, and aims to provide a medical telemetry system that improves the problem of communication failure caused by weak electric field areas within a facility and improves communication tolerance against structural changes within the facility. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, the medical telemetry system of the present invention is a medical telemetry system including a plurality of telemetry terminals that transmit vital information of a patient, and a central terminal that receives the vital information of the patient transmitted from the telemetry terminals, the telemetry terminals including a first signal generating mechanism, a second signal generating mechanism, and a first control unit, the first signal generating mechanism including a sensor unit that acquires the vital information of the patient, a first storage unit that buffers the vital information acquired from the sensor unit, and a first transmission unit that wirelessly transmits information of the first storage unit by a frequency modulation method using a predetermined transmission frequency, the second signal generating mechanism including a receiving unit that receives the vital information wirelessly transmitted from another telemetry terminal, a second storage unit that buffers the vital information acquired from the receiving unit, and a first transmission unit that transmits the vital information by a simultaneous transmission flooding method using a predetermined transmission frequency different from that of the first transmission unit. the central terminal has a first receiving antenna for receiving information from the first transmitting unit, a first demodulation mechanism for demodulating a signal received from the first receiving antenna, a second receiving antenna for receiving information from the second transmitting unit, a second demodulation mechanism for demodulating a signal received from the second receiving antenna, a second control unit for controlling which signal from the first demodulation mechanism or the second demodulation mechanism is to be displayed, and a display unit for displaying the bioinformation demodulated by either the first demodulation mechanism or the second demodulation mechanism, and the transmission of the bioinformation can be set to one or both of a setting in which the bioinformation is directly transmitted from each of the plurality of telemeter terminals to the central terminal and a setting in which the bioinformation is transmitted to the central terminal while each of the plurality of telemeter terminals communicates with each other.

[0009] According to the medical telemetry system of the present invention, the telemetry terminal can perform multi-hop wireless transmission from the second transmission unit using a simultaneous transmission flooding method in addition to wireless transmission from the first transmission unit, thereby improving the communication failure problem caused by weak electric field areas in the facility. In particular, multi-hop wireless transmission using the simultaneous transmission flooding method is advantageous in expanding the receivable range of the central terminal, since the telemetry terminal connected to the patient itself acts as a booster that amplifies radio waves.

[0010] In addition, in multi-hop wireless transmission using the simultaneous transmission flooding method, multiple telemeter terminals communicate with each other while transmitting packets to a central terminal, so it is less susceptible to structural changes within the facility and can improve communication resistance to structural changes within the facility. In addition, this wireless transmission does not require a determined transmission path, making it more resistant to fluctuations in the radio environment, and since all terminals use the same frequency band, the band used is not widened and channel management is not required.

[0011] Furthermore, in the present invention, two types of wireless transmission, wireless transmission from the first transmitting unit and multi-hop wireless transmission by simultaneous transmission flooding from the second transmitting unit, can be performed, making the wireless transmission redundant and improving the reliability of the wireless transmission. In particular, in multi-hop wireless transmission in which each telemeter terminal communicates with another, multiple communication paths are formed and each telemeter terminal can receive information from multiple telemeter terminals, so that even when only multi-hop wireless transmission is performed, redundancy can be high. Therefore, a telemeter terminal with high redundancy can reduce the transmission output, which serves as a measure against information leakage outside the facility.

[0012] The medical telemetry system of the present invention is preferably configured as follows. The central terminal preferably uses one or both of the electric field strength between each of the plurality of telemetry terminals and the central terminal and the electric field strength between each of the plurality of telemetry terminals to grasp the position information of each of the plurality of telemetry terminals. With this configuration, the medical telemetry system of the present invention can also be used as a position information system without adding a new system. This makes it possible to grasp the approximate position information of a patient, and to quickly grasp a patient's wandering or an emergency in a toilet, etc.

[0013] It is preferable that the first control unit controls whether or not to transmit from the first transmission unit depending on the amount of information buffered in the second storage unit. According to this configuration, if the amount of information buffered in the second storage unit is large, the transmission from the first transmission unit is stopped, so that power consumption can be reduced, the radio wave environment can be improved, and also, information leakage outside the facility can be prevented.

[0014] It is preferable that the first control unit controls the output power of one or both of the first transmission unit and the second transmission unit according to the amount of information buffered in the second storage unit. According to this configuration, if the amount of information buffered in the second storage unit is large, the output power of one or both of the first transmission unit and the second transmission unit is lowered, so that power consumption can be reduced, the radio wave environment can be improved, and also, information leakage outside the facility can be prevented. Effect of the Invention

[0015] The effects of the present invention are as described above. In summary, the telemeter terminal of the present invention can perform multi-hop wireless transmission from the second transmission unit by simultaneous transmission flooding in addition to wireless transmission from the first transmission unit, and therefore can improve the communication failure problem caused by weak electric field areas in a facility. Furthermore, in multi-hop wireless transmission by simultaneous transmission flooding, packets are transmitted to the central terminal while each of the multiple telemeter terminals communicates with each other, so that the multi-hop wireless transmission is less susceptible to the influence of structural changes in the facility, and communication resistance to structural changes in the facility can be improved. Furthermore, in the present invention, wireless transmission can be made redundant, and the reliability of wireless transmission can be improved. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a medical telemetry system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a telemeter terminal and a central terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing the transmission and reception of biological information in a retrofit setting in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 11 is a flowchart showing information processing in a case where a retrofit setting is performed in one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the transmission and reception of biological information in a multi-hop setting in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart showing information processing in a multi-hop setting in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] 11 is a flowchart showing information processing when both retrofit configuration and multi-hop configuration are configured in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining how position information is obtained in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment for determining position information. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0017] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a medical telemetry system (hereinafter, simply referred to as "system") according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, an overview of the system will be described with reference to Fig. 1.

[0018] The system 1 includes a plurality of telemetry terminals 2 and one central terminal 3. One telemetry terminal 2 is assigned to each patient 10 (see FIG. 3) in each hospital room 4. Biometric information of the patient 10 is wirelessly transmitted from the telemetry terminal 2. The central terminal 3 receives the biological information of the patient 10 transmitted from the plurality of telemetry terminals 2.

[0019] A leaky coaxial cable 5 is connected to the central terminal 3, and the leaky coaxial cable 5 is capable of receiving vital signs from each telemeter terminal 2. In Fig. 1, for convenience of illustration, the leaky coaxial cable 5 is laid only above the patient room 4, but by laying the leaky coaxial cable 5 over a wide area in the hospital, the reception range is expanded, which is advantageous for reception when the patient 10 moves outside the patient room 4.

[0020] Also, each telemeter terminal 2 can receive biological information wirelessly transmitted from other telemeter terminals 2. This enables the telemeter terminals to transmit biological information to each other, and the central terminal 3 can receive biological information whose packets are wirelessly transmitted in a multi-hop manner by the simultaneous transmission flooding method.

[0021] Multi-hop wireless transmission is a bucket brigade type communication in which terminals (telemeter terminals 2) propagate communication between each other. The simultaneous transmission flooding method is a form of multi-hop wireless transmission in which the source terminal (telemeter terminal 2) transmits the same data to all terminals at the same time (broadcast communication), and the multiple terminals (telemeter terminals 2) that receive the data immediately forward the same data to multiple other terminals (telemeter terminals 2) at the same time, and this forwarding is repeated to deliver the data to the destination (central terminal 3).

[0022] As described above, the central terminal 3 is capable of receiving biological information by the leaky coaxial cable method, and of receiving biological information whose packets are wirelessly transmitted in a multi-hop manner by the simultaneous transmission flooding method.

[0023] The telemeter terminal 2 and the central terminal 3 will be specifically described below with reference to Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 1, the system 1 has a plurality of telemeter terminals 2. Fig. 2 illustrates the configuration of only one of them. For ease of explanation, the other telemeter terminals 2a and 2b are also illustrated, but these have the same configuration as the telemeter terminal 2.

[0024] The telemeter terminal 2 includes a first signal generating mechanism 21, a second signal generating mechanism 22, and a first control unit 23. The first signal generating mechanism 21 includes a sensor unit 24 that acquires biological information of a patient, a first storage unit 25 that buffers the biological information acquired from the sensor unit 24, and a first transmission unit 26 that wirelessly transmits the information in the first storage unit 25 by frequency modulation using a predetermined transmission frequency.

[0025] The second signal generating mechanism 22 has a receiving unit 27 that receives the biological information wirelessly transmitted from another telemeter terminal 2a, a second storage unit 28 that buffers the biological information acquired from the receiving unit 27, and a second transmitting unit 29 that wirelessly transmits packets of the biological information in a multi-hop manner by a simultaneous transmission flooding method using a predetermined transmission frequency different from that of the first transmitting unit 26. The first control unit 23 executes wireless transmission by one or both of the first transmitting unit 26 and the second transmitting unit 29.

[0026] In FIG. 2, for convenience of illustration, the receiving unit 27 receives biological information from one other telemeter terminal 2a. However, the receiving unit 27 normally receives biological information from a plurality of other telemeter terminals 2.

[0027] The central terminal 3 has a first receiving antenna 31 for receiving information from the first transmitting unit 26, a first demodulation mechanism 32 for demodulating the signal received from the first receiving antenna 31, a second receiving antenna 33 for receiving information from the second transmitting unit 29, a second demodulation mechanism 34 for demodulating the signal received from the second receiving antenna 33, a second control unit 35 for controlling which signal from the first demodulation mechanism 32 or the second demodulation mechanism 34 is to be displayed, and a display unit 36 ​​for displaying the biological information demodulated by either the first demodulation mechanism 32 or the second demodulation mechanism 34. The display unit 36 ​​displays various numerical values ​​such as the patient's name, electrocardiogram waveform, and heart rate.

[0028] The transmission of biometric information can be set in one or both of the following ways: a setting in which each of the multiple telemeter terminals 2 sends the information directly to the central terminal 3 (hereinafter referred to as the "retrofit setting"), and a setting in which each of the multiple telemeter terminals 2 communicates with each other and sends packets to the central terminal 3 via multi-hop wireless transmission using a simultaneous transmission flooding method (hereinafter referred to as the "multi-hop setting").

[0029] Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the transmission and reception of biological information in a retrofit setting. Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing information processing in a retrofit setting. Fig. 3 shows a state in which the patient 10 has left the hospital room 4 (see Fig. 1), but the transmission and reception are similar even if the patient 10 is in the hospital room 4. As shown in Fig. 3, when the patient 10 has left the hospital room 4, the reception range is a certain distance from the leaky coaxial cable 5.

[0030] In Fig. 3, the patient 10 carries the telemeter terminal 2. In the case of a retrofit setting (step 100 in Fig. 5), the patient's biological information detected by the sensor unit 24 of the telemeter terminal 2 in Fig. 2 is transmitted from the first transmission unit 26 via the first storage unit 25 (step 101 in Fig. 5), and this transmission continues until the operation of the system 1 is terminated (step 102 in Fig. 5).

[0031] In Fig. 3, the biological information transmitted from the telemeter terminal 2 of the patient 10 is received by a leaky coaxial cable 5 (corresponding to the first receiving antenna 31 in Fig. 2) connected to the central terminal 3. The received biological information is demodulated by a first demodulation mechanism 32 in Fig. 2 and displayed on a display unit 36.

[0032] A whip antenna system may be used instead of the leaky coaxial cable system. In this case, the whip antenna connected to the central terminal 3 corresponds to the first receiving antenna 31.

[0033] Next, the multi-hop setting will be described with reference to Fig. 2. In the case of the multi-hop setting, in Fig. 2, the biological information transmitted from the sensor unit 24 through the second storage unit 28 is transmitted from the second transmission unit 29, and is received by the other telemeter terminal 2b. In addition, the biological information received from the other telemeter terminal 2a at the reception unit 27 is transmitted from the second transmission unit 29 through the second storage unit 28, and is received by the other telemeter terminal 2b. The biological information is finally transmitted to the central terminal 3, and is received by the second receiving antenna 33 of the central terminal 3. The antenna 6 in Fig. 1 corresponds to the second receiving antenna 33.

[0034] In Figure 2, for convenience of illustration, the biometric information from the telemeter terminal 2 is received by the central terminal 3 via one other telemeter terminal 2b, but in reality, the central terminal 3 receives the biometric information from the previous other telemeter terminal 2b by repeatedly transferring the information via multiple other telemeter terminals 2b.

[0035] The multi-hop setting will be described in more detail with reference to Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the transmission and reception of biological information in the multi-hop setting. Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing information processing in the multi-hop setting. Fig. 5 also shows a state in which the patient 10 (10a to 10g) has left the hospital room 4 (see Fig. 1), but the transmission and reception are the same even if the patient 10 is in the hospital room 4.

[0036] For ease of explanation, Fig. 5 illustrates how the biological information of the patient 10a, which is the source, is propagated in one direction toward the central terminal 3, with the patient 10a being used as the reference, but the biological information transmitted from the patient 10b, etc., as the source, is also propagated in a similar manner. That is, the biological information of the patients 10a to 10g is propagated toward the central terminal 3 while the telemeter terminals 2 of the patients 10a to 10g communicate with each other.

[0037] In the case of a multi-hop setting (step 200 in FIG. 6), the same biological information data is transmitted at the same time from the second transmission unit 29 (see FIG. 2) of the telemeter terminal 2 of the patient 10a, which is the source of the transmission, to all other telemeter terminals 2 (step 201 in FIG. 6) in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the telemeter terminals 2 of the patients 10b and 10c have received the biological information data of the patient 10a.

[0038] The telemeter terminals 2 of patients 10b and 10c that receive the vital information of patient 10a immediately transfer the same vital information at the same time to the other multiple telemeter terminals 2. Fig. 5 shows a state in which the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10d and the telemeter terminal of patient 10e both receive vital information data from the telemeter terminals 2 of both patients 10b and 10c.

[0039] Similarly, the telemeter terminals 2 of patients 10d and 10e that receive the biological information of patient 10a immediately transfer the same biological information at the same time to other multiple telemeter terminals 2. Fig. 5 shows a state in which both the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10f and the telemeter terminal of patient 10g have received biological information data from the telemeter terminals 2 of both patients 10d and 10e.

[0040] The telemeter terminals 2 of the patients 10f and 10g immediately transfer the same vital signs to the other multiple telemeter terminals 2 at the same time, but in Fig. 5, the vital signs are also transmitted to the central terminal 3. In this state, the antenna 6 of the central terminal 3 (corresponding to the second receiving antenna 33 in Fig. 2) receives the vital signs.

[0041] In Fig. 2, the first control unit 23 of the telemeter terminal 2 controls the output of the second transmission unit 29 according to the reception status of the receiving unit 27. Specifically, when the buffer of the second storage unit 28 becomes equal to or greater than a specified value, the output power of the second transmission unit 29 is reduced (step 202 in Fig. 6). This makes it possible to reduce power consumption and improve the radio wave environment, and also serves as a measure against information leaks outside the facility.

[0042] In Fig. 5, the biological information received by the antenna 6 of the central terminal 3 is demodulated by the second demodulation mechanism 34 in Fig. 2 and displayed on the display unit 36. Thereafter, the above operation continues until the operation of the system 1 is terminated (step 203 in Fig. 6).

[0043] As described above, the system 1 can set both the retrofit setting and the multi-hop setting. Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing information processing when both the retrofit setting and the multi-hop setting are set. When both the retrofit setting and the multi-hop setting are set (step 300 in Fig. 7), biometric information is transmitted from both the first transmission unit 26 and the second transmission unit 29 in Fig. 2 (step 301 in Fig. 7).

[0044] In Fig. 2, the first control unit 23 of the telemeter terminal 2 controls the output of the first transmission unit 26 and the second transmission unit 29 according to the reception status of the reception unit 27. Specifically, when the buffer of the second storage unit 28 becomes equal to or greater than a specified value, the first control unit 23 performs at least one of the following controls: control to reduce the output power of the second transmission unit 29, control to reduce the output power of the first transmission unit 26, and control to not transmit from the first transmission unit 26 (step 302 in Fig. 7). This makes it possible to reduce power consumption and improve the radio wave environment, as in the case of a multi-hop setting, and also serves as a measure against information leakage outside the facility. After that, the above-mentioned operation continues until the operation of the system 1 is terminated (step 303 in Fig. 7).

[0045] When both the retrofit setting and the multi-hop setting are set, the first receiving antenna 31 and the second receiving antenna 33 both receive the biological information in Fig. 2. The biological information received by the first receiving antenna 31 is demodulated by the first demodulation mechanism 32, and the biological information received by the second receiving antenna 33 is demodulated by the second demodulation mechanism 34.

[0046] 2, when the signal of the second demodulation mechanism 34 is normally demodulated, the second control unit 35 displays the signal demodulated by the second demodulation mechanism 34 on the display unit 36. When the signal demodulated by the second demodulation mechanism 34 is abnormal and the signal demodulated by the first demodulation mechanism 32 is normal, the second control unit 35 displays the signal demodulated by the first demodulation mechanism 32 on the display unit 36. When both the signals demodulated by the first demodulation mechanism 32 and the second demodulation mechanism 34 are abnormal, the second control unit 35 displays on the display unit 36 ​​that the signal has not arrived.

[0047] The present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, but the telemeter terminal 2 according to the present invention can perform multi-hop wireless transmission from the second transmission unit 29 by a simultaneous transmission flooding method in addition to wireless transmission from the first transmission unit 26, so that it is possible to improve the communication failure problem caused by weak electric field areas in the facility. In particular, multi-hop wireless transmission by the simultaneous transmission flooding method is advantageous for expanding the receivable range of the central terminal 3, since the telemeter terminal 2 connected to the patient itself acts as a booster that amplifies radio waves.

[0048] In addition, in multi-hop wireless transmission using the simultaneous transmission flooding method, packets are transmitted to the central terminal 3 while the multiple telemeter terminals 2 communicate with each other, so it is less susceptible to structural changes within the facility and communication resistance to structural changes within the facility can be improved. In addition, this wireless transmission does not require a determined transmission path, making it more resistant to fluctuations in the radio wave environment, and all terminals use the same frequency band, so the band used is not widened and channel management is not required.

[0049] Furthermore, in the present invention, two types of wireless transmission are possible: wireless transmission from the first transmitting unit 26 and multi-hop wireless transmission by a simultaneous transmission flooding method from the second transmitting unit 29, so that the wireless transmission can be made redundant and the reliability of the wireless transmission can be improved. In particular, in the multi-hop wireless transmission in which the telemeter terminals 2 communicate with each other, multiple communication paths are formed, and each telemeter terminal 2 can receive information from multiple telemeter terminals 2, so that even when only multi-hop wireless transmission is performed, redundancy can be high. For this reason, the telemeter terminal 2 with high redundancy can reduce the transmission output, which serves as a measure against information leakage outside the facility.

[0050] The transmission and reception of biological information has been described above with respect to the system 1, but the system 1 can also grasp the position information of the telemeter terminal 2. This will be described with reference to Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining the grasping of position information. The electric field strength and distance shown in Fig. 8 are conceptual figures.

[0051] The electric field strength (electric field strengths 7, 25, and 70 in FIG. 8), which is the strength of radio waves received by the central terminal 3 from each telemeter terminal 2, depends almost entirely (is inversely proportional) on the communication distance. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the distance between each telemeter terminal 2 and the central terminal 3 from the electric field strength. For example, the distance 80 can be calculated from the electric field strength 7 in FIG. 8, and the distance 22 can be calculated from the electric field strength 25.

[0052] Furthermore, the central terminal 3 can have information on electric field strength between the telemeter terminals 2, and can calculate the distance between the telemeter terminals 2 from this electric field strength information. For example, distance 56 can be calculated from electric field strength 10 between the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10a and the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10b in Fig. 8, and distance 19 can be calculated from electric field strength 30 between the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10b and the telemeter terminal 2 of patient 10C.

[0053] Therefore, the distance between the central terminal 3 and each telemeter terminal 2 and the distance between the telemeter terminals 2 can be calculated from the electric field strength information held by the central terminal 3, and it becomes possible to grasp the position information of the telemeter terminals 2, i.e., the position information of the patients 10a-10c, from these distances. In this case, it is desirable to set the initial position information of the patients 10a-10c in the central terminal 3. Also, if all the electric field strength information between the telemeter terminals 2 is grasped, it becomes possible to grasp the position information of each telemeter terminal 2 without using the electric field strength between each telemeter terminal 2 and the central terminal 3.

[0054] Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment for grasping position information. The electric field strength and distance shown in Fig. 9 are conceptual figures. The embodiment in Fig. 9 differs from Fig. 8 in that a repeater unit 7 is added. The repeater unit 7 has the same configuration as the telemeter terminal 2, but it is not connected to the patients 10a, 10b, but transmits the received signal as is, and is fixedly installed in a hospital room or a corridor.

[0055] Since the repeater units 7 are installed at fixed points, the central terminal 3 knows the position of each repeater unit 7. Therefore, if the communication field strength between the repeater unit 7 and each telemeter terminal 2 is known, this information is transmitted from each repeater unit 7 to the central terminal 3, and the positions of the patients 10a and 10b can be identified. By installing the repeater units 7, it is possible to prevent interruption of signal transmission and reception in the multi-hop setting in a situation where there are few hospitalized patients in the hospital (a situation where the number of telemeter terminals 2 is small). In addition, when multiple patients move significantly at the same time, there are many variables and multiple solutions may be generated for the position information, which may cause discrepancies in the patient position information. However, by installing the repeater units 7, such discrepancies in the patient position information can be prevented.

[0056] As described above, the system 1 can also obtain the location information of the telemeter terminal 2 from the electric field strength, and can therefore be used as a location information system without adding a new system. This makes it possible to obtain the approximate location information of the patient, and to quickly detect the patient's wandering or an emergency situation in the toilet, etc. [Explanation of symbols]

[0057] 1 Medical telemetry system 2 Telemetry terminal 3 Central Terminal 5 Leaky coaxial cable (first receiving antenna) 6 Antenna (2nd receiving antenna) 7 Telemetry terminal 10,10a~10g patient 21 First signal generation mechanism 22 Second signal generation mechanism 23 First Control Section 24 Sensor section 25 1st Storage Department 26 First Transmission Unit 27 Receiving section 28 2nd Storage Department 29 Second Transmission Unit 31 First receiving antenna 32 First demodulation mechanism 33 Second receiving antenna 34 Second demodulation mechanism 35 Second Control Section 36 Display section

Claims

1. A medical telemetry system comprising a plurality of telemetry terminals for transmitting vital signs of patients, and a central terminal for receiving the vital signs of patients transmitted from the telemetry terminals, the telemeter terminal includes a first signal generating mechanism, a second signal generating mechanism, and a first control unit; The first signal generating mechanism includes: A sensor unit for acquiring biological information of the patient; a first storage unit that buffers the biological information acquired from the sensor unit; a first transmission unit that wirelessly transmits information from the first storage unit by a frequency modulation method using a predetermined transmission frequency, The second signal generating mechanism includes: a receiving unit for receiving the biological information wirelessly transmitted from the other telemeter terminal; a second storage unit that buffers the biological information acquired from the receiving unit; a second transmission unit that transmits packets of the biological information by a simultaneous transmission flooding method using a predetermined transmission frequency different from that of the first transmission unit, The first control unit executes wireless transmission by one or both of the first transmission unit and the second transmission unit, The central terminal comprises: a first receiving antenna for receiving information from the first transmitting unit; a first demodulation mechanism for demodulating a signal received from the first receiving antenna; a second receiving antenna for receiving information from the second transmitting unit; a second demodulation mechanism for demodulating a signal received from the second receiving antenna; a second control unit that controls whether a signal from the first demodulation mechanism or the second demodulation mechanism is to be displayed; a display unit that displays the biological information demodulated by either the first demodulation mechanism or the second demodulation mechanism, The transmission of the biological information can be set to one or both of a setting in which the biological information is directly transmitted from each of the plurality of telemeter terminals to the central terminal, and a setting in which the biological information is transmitted to the central terminal while each of the plurality of telemeter terminals communicates with each other, The medical telemetry system according to claim 1, wherein the first control unit controls whether or not to transmit from the first transmission unit depending on the amount of information buffered in the second storage unit.

2. The medical telemetry system of claim 1, wherein the central terminal uses one or both of the electric field strength between each of the plurality of telemetry terminals and the central terminal, and the electric field strength between each of the plurality of telemetry terminals, to grasp the position information of each of the plurality of telemetry terminals.

3. The medical telemetry system according to claim 1 , wherein the first control unit controls output power of one or both of the first transmission unit and the second transmission unit depending on an amount of information buffered in the second storage unit.

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