Medical Telemetry Packet Duplication for Poor Link Quality
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional medical devices face challenges in transmitting patient information due to poor link quality, particularly when implanted on or within the heart, leading to dropped packets and disrupted telemetry, which can result in inaccurate health event detection.
Innovation Solution
The medical system employs a technique where the medical device transmits multiple copies of patient information with reduced packet sizes to overcome poor link quality, ensuring successful memory interrogations by duplicating packets and synchronizing uploads with cardiac cycles to maintain high success rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple copies of patient information are transmitted to overcome poor link quality, then transmission reliability is improved, but communication channel bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the copying principle by transmitting multiple copies of patient information packets over the communication channel. When link quality is poor, the system sends duplicate packets to ensure at least one copy reaches the external device successfully, thereby improving transmission reliability without requiring complex retransmission protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the number of packet copies transmitted based on real-time link quality assessment. When link quality is good, fewer copies are sent; when link quality degrades, more copies are transmitted. This dynamic adaptation optimizes the balance between transmission reliability and bandwidth consumption
2Reliability
If packet size is reduced to improve transmission success rate, then transmission reliability is improved, but data transmission efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing patient information into smaller packets with reduced size. This segmentation improves transmission success rate over poor-quality links while maintaining efficient use of the communication channel by avoiding excessive overhead from repeated large packet transmissions
3Measurement precision
If memory interrogations are performed frequently to ensure data accuracy, then measurement precision is improved, but device energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback from link quality monitoring to intelligently determine when memory interrogations should be performed. Instead of frequent fixed-interval interrogations, the system responds to link quality changes and packet transmission outcomes, performing interrogations only when necessary to maintain data accuracy while conserving device energy
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure is directed to systems and techniques for enhancing memory interrogations of a medical device by an external device. In some examples, the systems and techniques overcome issues of poor link quality, particularly when the memory stores time-sensitive and critical patient information, by reducing an individual packet size to fit an allotted time period for the transmission. Based on satisfaction of at least criterion for the communication channel, the systems and techniques direct the medical device to transmit, from the memory and over the communication channel, a number of packets comprising duplicate copies of the packetized dataset, wherein a number of the duplicate copies is set to be commensurate with a reduction to the individual packet size.