Wireless Relay Module for Patient Identification in Remote Monitoring
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing remote monitoring systems for medical devices face challenges in accurately identifying patients in real-time, especially in remote locations, while ensuring patient confidentiality and privacy, and often rely on unreliable local area networks for communication.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes medical devices, patient identification devices, and wireless relay modules capable of communicating over internet-accessible wireless networks, using a combination of facility-oriented wireless networks and wide-area networks to securely transmit patient and medical device data, with relay modules selecting the best transmission path based on network availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If ZIGBEE networks are used for wireless communication between medical devices and monitoring location, then power consumption is reduced and device complexity is minimized, but transmission range is limited to several hundred feet making off-site monitoring impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces wireless relay modules as intermediary devices that receive data from low-power ZIGBEE medical devices and forward it through other communication channels (such as cellular or WiFi networks) to the remote monitoring location. This mediator approach allows the medical devices to maintain low power consumption while extending the effective transmission range beyond the limited ZIGBEE range through the relay infrastructure.
2Reliability
If conventional WiFi networks are used for centralized monitoring, then transmission range and network reliability are improved, but network security requirements increase and sufficient local area network access is difficult to secure
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless relay modules serve as intermediaries that handle the complex network security and protocol translation requirements. The medical devices themselves remain simple ZIGBEE devices, while the relay modules manage the connection to external networks, isolating the medical devices from complex security configurations and network management overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into distinct functional layers: the medical device layer using simple ZIGBEE communication, the relay module layer handling network protocol translation and security, and the remote monitoring layer accessing data through standard internet protocols. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently, with devices remaining simple while the system as a whole achieves high reliability and security.
3Reliability
If patient identification is performed in real-time at remote locations, then patient confidentiality and privacy are protected, but system complexity increases and reliable identification in areas with unreliable networks becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary patient identification and authentication actions before initiating full monitoring. Patient identifiers are captured and validated in advance when possible, and this identification data is stored locally in the relay modules. This preliminary action ensures patient confidentiality is established before data transmission begins, while reducing the complexity of real-time identification during monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The relay modules perform self-service by maintaining local caches of patient identification information and autonomously managing the association between patients and their medical devices. This self-service capability allows the system to maintain reliable patient identification even in areas with unreliable networks, as the relay modules can operate independently with stored identification data.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3(a)
AI summary
A patient monitoring system for remote monitoring of medical devices. The system includes a medical device, a patient identification device and a wireless relay module. The relay module receives patient identification information from the patient identification device and medical device identification from the medical device via a wireless relay network, and transmits this information to the remote monitoring device via an internet- accessible wireless communications network. The remote monitoring device returns an acknowledgement status to the relay module, which the relay module transmits to the medical device. Upon receipt of an acknowledgment status indicating that the patient's use of the medical device is authorized, the medical device transmits medical device data to the relay module via the wireless relay network, and the relay module relays the medical device data to the remote monitoring device via the internet-accessible wireless communications network.