Patient monitoring involving receiving multiple asynchronous data streams with antenna diversity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9749900-B2
Application number	US-201414911475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2014
Priority date	Aug 15, 2013
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A radio frequency (RF) receiving apparatus ( 10 ) includes a first and second omnidirectional RF antennas ( 20 ) at different spatial locations or orientations, a first and second RF receivers ( 24 ), each connected to a corresponding one of the first and second omnidirectional RF antennas ( 20 ), and a controller ( 32 ) connected to the first and second RF receivers ( 24 ). The first and second RF receivers ( 24 ) receive and demodulate RF signals of at least first and second carrier frequencies to recover data packets from at least a first device which transmits data packets on the first carrier frequency RF signal and a second device which transmits data packets on the second carrier frequency RF signal. The controller ( 32 ) is configured to control the RF receivers to cycle between receiving and demodulating the first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets from the first device, and receiving and demodulating the second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets from the second device. The apparatus can be used to wirelessly transmit physiological patient monitoring data (e.g. an ECG signal) in the highly reflective environment of an MRI system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A radio frequency (RF) receiving apparatus for receiving data from a first medical monitoring sensor which transmits data packets pertaining to a first vital sign with a first periodicity and a second medical monitoring sensor which transmits data packets pertaining to a second vital sign with a second periodicity, the apparatus comprising:
first and second RF antennas at different spatial locations or orientations;
first and second RF receivers, each connected to a corresponding one of the first and second RF antennas, and the first and second RF receivers receive and demodulate RF signals of at least first and second carrier frequencies to recover the data packets from the first medical monitoring sensor containing information pertaining to the first vital sign on the first carrier frequency RF signal and to recover the data packets from the second medical monitoring sensor containing information pertaining to the second vital sign on the second carrier frequency RF signal;
a processor or controller connected to the first and second RF receivers and configured to:
receive and cycle between the first and the second carrier frequencies such that each carrier frequency is received for predetermined time periods, during an initial acquisition, a total of the cycled predetermined time periods is different from a maximum time interval between data packet transmissions for each of the medical monitoring sensors,
control the RF receivers to cycle between
both receivers receiving and demodulating the first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to the first vital sign from the first medical monitoring sensor, and
both receivers receiving and demodulating the second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to the second vital sign from the second medical monitoring sensor.

2. A radio frequency (RF) receiving apparatus comprising:
a first and second RF antennas at different spatial locations or orientations;
a first and second RF receivers, each connected to a corresponding one of the first and second RF antennas, and the first and second RF receivers receive and demodulate RF signals of at least first and second carrier frequencies to recover data packets from at least a first medical monitoring sensor which transmits data packets containing information pertaining to a first vital sign on the first carrier frequency RF signal and a second medical monitoring sensor which transmits data packets containing information pertaining to a second vital sign on the second carrier frequency RF signal, wherein the first medical monitoring sensor transmits data packets with a first periodicity and the second medical monitoring sensor transmits data packets with a second periodicity;
a processor or controller connected to the first and second RF receivers and configured to:
control the RF receivers to cycle between:
both receivers receiving and demodulating the first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to a first vital sign from the first medical monitoring sensor, and
both receivers receiving and demodulating the second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to a second vital sign from the second medical monitoring sensor, and such that each carrier frequency is received for a predetermined time period,

adjust the predetermined time periods based on a timing of the selected data packets.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each predetermined time period is based on a time interval between data packet transmissions for the corresponding medical monitoring sensor and data redundancy in the data packets.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to process the data in the data packets; and further including:
a display connected to the processor which displays the first and second vital signs.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the data packet includes an overlap in the data with at least two prior data packets.

6. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to select between the received data packets concurrently recovered by the first and second receivers based on a checksum or CRC of the received packets.

7. The apparatus according to claim 2 , further including a third RF antenna and a third RF receiver configured to receive and demodulate RF signals of a third carrier frequency to recover data packets containing information pertaining to a third vital sign from a third medical monitoring sensor which transmits data packets on the third carrier frequency RF signal, the RF receivers further being configured to cycle between:
receiving and demodulating the first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover the data packets containing information pertaining to the first vital sign from the first medical monitoring sensor for a first predetermined time, and
receiving and demodulating the second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover the data packets containing information pertaining to the second vital sign from the second medical monitoring sensor for a second predetermined time; and
receiving and demodulating the third carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover the data packets containing information pertaining to Ran the third vital sign from the third medical monitoring sensor for a third predetermined time,
wherein the first, second, and third periods of time are not overlapping.

8. A method of receiving data packets, comprising:
cycling a first and second RF receivers, each connected to a corresponding one of a first and second RF antennas at different spatial locations or orientations, between alternately (a) receiving and demodulating a first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently for a first period of time to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to a first vital sign from at least a first medical monitoring sensor which only transmits data packets on the first carrier frequency RF signal, and (b) receiving and demodulating a second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently for a second period of time to recover redundant data packets containing information pertaining to a second vital sign from at least a second medical monitoring sensor which only transmits data packets on the second carrier frequency RF signal, the first and second time periods being not concurrent, wherein the first and second carrier frequencies are different.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein cycling includes:
a duty cycle which is different from a maximum time period between data packet transmissions of each of the medical monitoring sensors.

10. The method according to claim 8 , further including:
adjusting the predetermined time periods based on at least one of a timing of the selected data packets and phases of the RF signals.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying software which controls one or more electronic data processing devices to perform the method according to claim 8 .

12. A medical data communication apparatus comprising:
at least first and second medical monitoring sensor, each configured to sense a vital sign of a subject and to transmit data packets containing information pertaining to the vital sign on the first and second carrier frequency RF signals;
a receiver system including the first and second receivers each connected to a corresponding one of the first and second RF anten

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Hawkes Calvert Tazewell
• Harwell Robert Andrew

Classifications

• G01R33/283

  Intercom or optical viewing arrangements, structurally associated with NMR apparatus · CPC title

• H04B1/1081

  Reduction of multipath noise (by equalising H04B7/005) · CPC title

• G01R33/3692

  involving signal transmission without using electrically conductive connections, e.g. wireless communication or optical communication of the MR signal or an auxiliary signal other than the MR signal · CPC title

• H04W28/04 Primary

  Error control · CPC title

• A61B5/055

  involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging · CPC title