Facilitating integrity of telemetry connectivity between an implantable device and a remote device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10561849-B2
Application number	US-201715830075-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2017
Priority date	Jan 29, 2016
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storage media that facilitate monitoring the integrity of telemetry connectivity between an implantable device and an external device are provided. In one embodiment, an implantable device includes a monitoring component that monitors advertisement signal information identifying an amount of advertisement signals transmitted to the external device within a defined time period, and telemetry session information identifying an amount of the telemetry sessions that are established between the external device and the implantable device within the defined time period. A connectivity assessment component of the implantable device further determines whether a telemetry connectivity problem exists between the external device and the implantable device based on a degree of miscorrelation between the advertisement signal information and the telemetry session information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
a memory that stores executable components; and
a processor that executes the executable components stored in the memory, wherein the executable components comprise:
a monitoring component configured to monitor advertisement signal information identifying an amount of advertisement signals transmitted from the device to a second device within a defined time period, and telemetry session information identifying an amount of telemetry sessions that are established between the second device and the device within the defined time period; and
a connectivity assessment component configured to determine whether a telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on at least one of a number of discovery events within the defined time period or a ratio corresponding to the amount of telemetry sessions that are established between the second device and the device within the defined time period relative to the amount of the advertisement signals transmitted to the second device within the defined time period.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the connectivity assessment component is configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on at least one of the number of discovery events being less than a threshold number or the ratio being less than a threshold ratio.

3. The device of claim 2 , further comprising:
a notification component configured to generate a notification indicating the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on a determination that at least one of the number of discovery events is below the threshold number or the ratio is below the threshold ratio, and wherein the notification component is further configured to send the notification to the second device for at least one of rendering at the second device or relaying, by the second device, to another device.

4. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a reporting component configured to send the advertisement signal information to the second device.

5. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a configuration component configured to receive a command instructing the device to reconfigure a telemetry communication protocol employed by the device to communicate with the second device based on a determination that an amount of the advertisement signals that are received by the second device from the device within the defined time period is below a threshold amount.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the configuration component is configured to receive the command from the second device and wherein the command originated from a server device that is separate from the second device.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor interrogation signal information identifying an amount of interrogation signals received from the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on the amount of interrogation signals received being below a threshold amount.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor interrogation signal information identifying an amount of interrogation signals received from the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on a second ratio, corresponding to the amount of interrogation signals received within the defined time period relative to the amount of telemetry sessions established between the second device and the device within the defined time period, being less than a threshold ratio.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor signal strength information identifying strengths of signals received from the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on an average strength of the strengths of the signals received being less than a threshold amount.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor signal strength information identifying strengths of signals received from the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on a degree of variance in the strengths of the signals received exceeding a threshold degree of variance.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor throughput information identifying throughput of data packets received from the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on the throughput being less than a threshold amount.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring component is further configured to monitor throughput information identifying throughput of data packets transmitted by the device to the second device within the defined time period, and wherein the connectivity assessment component is further configured to determine that the telemetry connectivity problem exists between the second device and the device based on throughput being less than a threshold amount.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises a communication component configured to transmit the advertisement signals to the second device using a BLUETOOTH® Low Energy communication protocol.

14. A method, comprising:
monitoring, by a device comprising a processor, telemetry connectivity information comprising advertisement signal information identifying times advertisement signals are received by the device from a second device;
determining, by the device, whether a telemetry connectivity error condition exists associated with performing telemetry communication between the device and the second device based on an amount of the advertisement signals that are received within a defined time period relative to a threshold amount; and
generating, by the device, a notification identifying the telemetry connectivity error condition based on a determination that the telemetry connectivity error condition exists.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the determining comprises determining that the telemetry connectivity error condition exists based on the amount of the advertisement signals that are received within the defined time period being below the threshold amount.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising performing at least one of rendering, by the device, the notification at the device, or transmitting, by the device, the notification to another device, wherein the other device comprises a server device.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the determining further comprises determining that the telemetry connectivity error condition exists based on a duration of time between reception of two or more of the advertisement signals being above a threshold duration.

Assignees

• Medtronic Inc

Inventors

• Yoder Matthew R
• Zhang Bo
• Kivi Gary P
• Sanden Richard A

Classifications

• A61N1/362

  Heart stimulators (heart defibrillators A61N1/39) · CPC title

• A61N1/36564

  controlled by blood pressure · CPC title

• A61N1/0573

  chacterised by means penetrating the heart tissue, e.g. helix needle or hook · CPC title

• A61N1/36507

  controlled by gradient or slope of the heart potential · CPC title

• A61N1/36007

  of urogenital or gastrointestinal organs, e.g. for incontinence control · CPC title