Defibrillator communications architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11534618-B2
Application number	US-202117357498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2021
Priority date	Jan 3, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

Status messages are wirelessly broadcast from medical devices (e.g., defibrillators) as advertisements that don't require the establishment of a wireless connection with listeners. The listeners are configured to act on, or forward, received status messages as appropriate. The listeners may optionally include supplemental information supplied by the listener when forwarding a status message to a management server. The listener may optionally analyze received status messages to determine whether an action should be taken based at least in part on status information in the message. Actions performed by the listener may include initiating a connection with the transmitting device to facilitate uploading new information from the medical device, updating the medical device's firmware, etc. Optionally, some of the advertisements are configured as beacons. The advertisements/beacons may be transmitted using a Bluetooth Low Energy or other suitable protocols. In another aspect, advertisement based arrangements for spreading responder network incident alerts are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of handling a status message broadcast by a medical device using an advertisement type protocol, the status message including medical device status information, the method comprising:
receiving the status message by a listening device, wherein the status message is received wirelessly by the listening device without establishing a connection between the medical device and the listening device;
analyzing the received status message by the listening device and determining whether an action should be taken based at least in part on at least some of the medical device status information contained in the status message; and
the listening device performing the action when it is determined that the action should be taken based at least in part on the medical device status information.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the determination that the action should be taken is based, at least in part, upon selected status information in the status message selected from the group consisting of:
a current instruction state of the medical device;
a current operating state of the medical device;
an indication of a charge level of an internal battery in the medical device;
an indication of a result of one or more self-test(s) performed by the medical device; and
an indication of a firmware or software version currently installed on the medical device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the action is or includes forwarding the received status message to a remotely located management server.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , further comprising:
including a location identifier with the status message forwarded to the management server, the location identifier being created by the listening device and indicating a geographic location of the listening device at the time that the status message was received.

5. The method as recited in claim 3 , further comprising including a timestamp that indicates a time that the status message was received by the listening device with the status message forwarded to the management server.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , further comprising, by the management server:
determining whether the status message received from the listening device was transmitted by the medical device more recently than earlier received status messages from the medical device based at least in part on the timestamp; and
when it is determined that the status message received from the listening device was transmitted by the medical device more recently than the earlier received status messages from the medical device, updating a database record associated with the medical device based on the status message received from the listening device.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the defibrillator status message is broadcast as one selected from the group consisting of: a wireless advertisement; a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertisement packet; a wireless beacon; an iBeacon; and an Eddystone Beacon.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the status message includes an information available indicator that indicates whether the medical device has new information available, the method further comprising:
analyzing the received status message by the listening device and determining whether the information available indicator indicates that the medical device has new information available; and
the listening device requesting or initiating a connection with the medical device when it is determined that the information available indicator indicates that the medical device has new information available.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising receiving the new information over the connection and at least one of:
forwarding the new information to a management server;
storing the new information at the listening device; and
acting upon the new information by the listening device.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the status message includes a firmware or software version identifier that indicates a firmware or software version currently operational on the medical device, the method further comprising:
analyzing the received status message by the listening device and determining whether the firmware or software version currently operational on the medical device is a most recent firmware or software version that is available for the medical device; and
when the listening device determines that the firmware or software version currently operational on the medical device is not the most recent firmware or software version that is available for the medical device, the listening device directly or indirectly causes at least one of (i) a firmware or software update available prompt to be generated, or (ii) a firmware or software update to be delivered to the medical device.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the firmware or software update available prompt is rendered on the listening device.

12. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the firmware or software update available prompt is delivered to an owner or administrator associated with the medical device.

13. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the listening device determines the most recent firmware or software version for the medical device via a request sent to a remotely located server.

14. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the firmware or software update is delivered to the medical device via the listening device.

15. A method comprising:
by a listening device, receiving a beacon broadcast by a medical device, wherein the beacon includes defibrillator status information and is received wirelessly from the medical device without the establishment of a wireless connection between the medical device and the listening device; and
generating a user notification on the listening device based at least in part on selected medical device status information contained in the beacon.

16. The method as recited in claim 15 , wherein the user notification includes a GUI widget that facilitates accessing a report indicative of events that occurred, were detected, or were logged during use of the medical device.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 , further comprising, in response to a user selection of the GUI widget, displaying at least portions of the report on a display screen associated with the listening device.

18. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein selection of the GUI widget causes activation of an app that directs a display of the report.

19. The method a recited in claim 15 further comprising:
by the listening device, receiving a status message broadcast by the medical device using an advertisement type protocol, the status message being distinct from the beacon and received wirelessly by the listening device without establishing a connection between the medical device and the listening device; and
displaying a report, wherein at least some information presented in the report is based, at least in part, on some of the status information contained in the status message.

20. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein the user notification is generated by a beacon handler executing in an operating system associated with the listening device without requiring any actions by an app responsible for directing the display of the incident report.

21. A method of handling a status message broadcast by a transmitting device using an advertisement type protocol, the method comprising:
receiving the status mes

Assignees

• Avive Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Sturman Andy
• Picco David
• Beyer Rory M
• Galkowski Andrew Thomas
• Andrews Gordon Moseley P
• Gereaux Dean Allan

Classifications

• A61N1/3937

  Monitoring output parameters · CPC title

• H04L67/34

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• G06F3/0484

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title

• G16H40/63 Primary

  for local operation · CPC title

• H04W76/40

  for selective distribution or broadcast · CPC title