WO2017162675A1

WO2017162675A1 - Analyzing validity of measured health-related data

Info

Publication number: WO2017162675A1
Application number: PCT/EP2017/056697
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alexander Dubielczyk; Harald Greiner
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Priority date: 2016-03-22
Filing date: 2017-03-21
Publication date: 2017-09-28

Abstract

Techniques and systems for determining the correctness and validity of health- related data are described herein. In various embodiments, a signal may be transmitted using coded light or directed audio from at least one medical device (116) to a bedside unit (100). The signal may be modulated to carry health-related data acquired by the at least one medical device from a patient. The bedside unit may demodulate the signal to obtain the health- related data. The health-related data may then be correlated with patient information stored in a patients database (124). In some embodiments, a medical personnel may be authenticated to analyze the health-related data. Audio input that includes a result of the medical personnel's analysis may be received at the bedside unit. An indication of the result of the medical personnel's analysis may be stored, e.g., in the patients database.

Description

ANALYZING VALIDITY OF MEASURED HEALTH-RELATED DATA

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Facilities such as hospitals, assisted-living facilities, and nurseries cater to individuals such as children, elderly, and disabled people that are dependent and in need of special care. These individuals often need to be constantly monitored and taken care of. Thus, it is beneficial to have a means to monitor the patients in each hospital room without having to rely on healthcare professionals to conduct the monitoring constantly. Patient monitoring systems, which may include the use of multiple medical devices, provide healthcare professionals a means to observe and diagnose the patients' health and other health-related conditions. Patient monitoring systems may also be integrated with

authentication systems to ensure only authorized healthcare professionals can access the patients' health-related data.

U.S. Pat. App. No. 201 1/0092779 discloses a wearable health monitoring device with an authentication module such as fingerprint and voice authentication to determine whether a person should be given access to health-related data. Here, the wearable health monitoring device transmits the health-related data to a set-top box, where the health- related data are further transmitted to a medical personnel's computer for evaluation.

U.S. Pat. App. No. 2013/0173268 discloses a telemedical device with an audio input device that authenticates a registered user. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a method comprising: receiving, at a bedside unit from at least one medical device, a signal transmitted using coded light or directed audio, wherein the signal comprises health-related data acquired by the at least one medical device from a patient; demodulating, by the bedside unit from the transmitted signal, the health- related data; correlating, by the bedside unit, the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database; authenticating, by the bedside unit, a medical personnel to analyze the health-related data; receiving, by the bedside unit via an audio device, audio input that includes a result of the medical personnel's analysis; and storing, by the bedside unit, an indication of the result of the medical personnel's analysis in a database. The present disclosure also relates to a system comprising: at least one medical device, a bedside unit, and a hospital network. In various embodiments, at least one medical device may include: a sensor for acquiring health-related data from a patient; and a transceiver for modulating and transmitting a signal using coded light or directed audio, the signal modulated to carry at least one measurement mode and the acquired health-related data. In various embodiments, the bedside unit may include: at least one receiver for receiving the transmitted signal; a processor to demodulate the health-related data from the received signal and correlate the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database; and a display device for displaying the health-related data. In various embodiments, the hospital network may include the patients database and a medical personnel database for storing patient information, acquired health-related data, and the at least one measurement mode.

Techniques described herein may give rise to a variety of technical advantages. For example, simultaneously utilizing voice input to (i) identify a speaker, (ii) authenticate the speaker, and (iii) receive input pertaining to the speaker's analysis of acquired health-related data may streamline treatment, reduce paperwork, and reduce errors. As another example, utilizing a directed audio signal to determine an origin of voice input may facilitate identification of a particular patient among a plurality of patients in a ward. As yet another example, in embodiments that utilize coded light to transmit health-data from a medical device to a bedside unit, placing the medical device in a light of sight of the bedside unit may lessen the possibility of the bedside unit receiving a signal that was intended for a different destination. Additionally, techniques and systems described herein allow the bedside unit to be easily installable (e.g., no wires required between the unit and medical devices), to have a relatively small form factor, to be energy efficient, and reliable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, are incorporated herein to illustrate embodiments of the disclosure. Along with the description, they also serve to explain the principle of the disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for analyzing measured health-related data according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for analyzing measured health-related data according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following are definitions of terms as used in the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The term "analyzing" as used herein collectively refers to analyzing, retrieving, displaying, processing, comparing, and verifying or confirming the accuracy or correctness of data such as a patient's health- related data.

The term "medical event" as used herein refers to any event in the context of healthcare and medicine such as a medical check-up or examination, laboratory exams or tests, as well as other medical procedures typically performed or administered by health care providers. Non-limiting examples of medical events include X-ray scans, blood tests, spot check measurement, and blood sugar tests. The term "predetermined medical event" as used herein refers to any scheduled medical event, the process of scheduling being performed either manually or via one or more systems or methods for automated scheduling.

The term "medical setting" as used herein refers to a setting in a room in a medical or health facility that includes particular objects and persons of interest that provide context to the setting. For example, a monitoring system that detects the presence of a patient and an X-ray technician that it identifies as being scheduled to be present in the X-ray room of the hospital at around that particular moment indicates to the monitoring system that an X-ray scan is about to be performed in the X-ray room involving that particular technician and patient.

The term "measurement mode" as used herein refers to a set of information that includes the type of measurement performed by a medical device, an identifier of the medical device used to acquire the health-related data, one or more specific medical device parameters that were set while using the medical device to obtain the medical measurement, and so forth. The term "medical device parameter" as used herein refers to a quantity, parameter, variable, or data that a medical device detects, measures, acquires, processes, analyzes, or transmits to another device. A measurement mode may also include one or more measurement schedules defined or set, either manually or automatically, according to one or more measurement or monitoring protocols for acquiring health-related data by the medical device. For example, suppose a patient diagnosed with fever is asked to take an analgesic when the patient's measured temperature reaches 38°C or higher. A temperature monitoring device or component may obtain the patient's temperature readings every thirty minutes until the fever has subsided. The programmed schedules will typically vary depending on the patient's needs and the severity of the monitored disease.

The term "directed audio signal" as used herein refers to an audio signal transmitted towards a specific direction and within a transmission angle range that permits the audio signal to be received by an intended receiver. The directed audio signal preferably comprises at least one or more measurement modes and the acquired health-related data. The directed audio signal may be audible or inaudible to a person.

The term "visible light communication" (VLC) as used herein refers to an optical wireless communications technique for transmitting a modulated light signal in the visible spectrum towards an intended receiver. The visible light signal may in various embodiments be modulated by switching sources of light (e.g., photodiodes, light emitting diodes, fluorescent lamps, etc.) on and off at high frequency, so that the light they emit may function as a data carrier in the data transmission. The term "coded light" more generally refers to an optical wireless communication technique for transmitting a modulated light signal in the visible or invisible (e.g., infrared) spectrum towards an intended receiver.

The term "natural language" refers to some type of language that approximates or is more or less recognizable as human speech or conversational language.

The present disclosure relates to a method comprising: receiving, at a bedside unit from at least one medical device, a signal transmitted using coded light or directed audio, wherein the signal comprises health-related data acquired by the at least one medical device from a patient; demodulating, by the bedside unit from the transmitted signal, the health- related data; correlating, by the bedside unit, the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database; authenticating, by the bedside unit, a medical personnel to analyze the health-related data; receiving, by the bedside unit via an audio device, audio input that includes a result of the medical personnel's analysis; and storing, by the bedside unit, an indication of the result of the medical personnel's analysis in a database.

The present disclosure also relates to a system comprising: at least one medical device, a bedside unit, and a hospital network. In various embodiments, at least one medical device may include: a sensor for acquiring health-related data from a patient; and a transceiver for modulating and transmitting a signal using coded light or directed audio, the signal modulated to carry at least one measurement mode and the acquired health-related data. In various embodiments, the bedside unit may include: at least one receiver for receiving the transmitted signal; a processor to demodulate the health-related data from the received signal and correlate the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database; and a display device for displaying the health-related data. In various embodiments, the hospital network may include the patients database and a medical personnel database for storing patient information, acquired health-related data, and the at least one measurement mode.

FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure used for analyzing measured health-related data. As shown, a bedside unit 100 comprises a display device 102, imaging device 104, audio device 106, processor 108, communications module 1 10, memory 1 12, and clock 1 14. Also, the bedside unit 100 may be in wired and/or wireless communication with one or more medical devices 1 16 comprising a health sensor 1 18 and a transceiver 120. The bedside unit 100 is also in wired and/or wireless communication a hospital network 122 comprising a patients database 124 and a medical personnel database 126 for storing patient and medical personnel-related information.

In various embodiments, the processor 108 may come in various forms, including but not limited to data processors, image processors, a central processing unit, or any variety of multi-core processing device. In some embodiments, processor 108 may be replaced or supplemented with other types of logic, such as a field-programmable gate array ("FPGA") or an application-specific integrated circuit ("ASIC").

In various embodiments, the communications module 1 10 may be a device or a component of a device that allows communication— e.g., sending and receiving of commands, triggers, notifications, prompts, acknowledgments, information, messages, forms, and various types of data— between the image monitoring device and the computing device, and the alarm system. In various embodiments, the communications module 1 10 can employ various wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, NFC, radio frequency, cellular communication, visible light communication, Li-Fi, WiMax, ZigBee, fiber optic and other forms of wireless communication. Alternatively, the communications module 1 10 may be a physical channel such as a USB cable or other wired forms of communication.

In various embodiments, the memory 1 12 may include high-speed random access memory or non-volatile memory such as magnetic disk storage devices, optical storage devices, or flash memory. The memory 1 12 may also store software instructions for facilitating processes, features and applications of the system disclosed in the disclosure.

The term "imaging device" as used herein (e.g., at 104) refers to any device capable of capturing, recording, or storing an image, video, and other forms of digital or electronic representation of an object or a scene. Imaging devices incorporated into various embodiments may come in various forms in various embodiments. These types are well- known and are available commercially. Commonly used imaging devices are semiconductor charged-coupled devices ("CCD") or active pixel sensors in complementary metal-oxide- semiconductor ("CMOS"). Examples of imaging devices may include digital cameras, video cameras, closed-circuit televisions ("CCTVs"), webcams and smart cameras.

Audio device 106 may take various forms, most of which are well-known and are available commercially. Many of these audio devices are microphone-based. Examples of microphone-based audio devices include piezoelectric microphones, MEMS microphones, condenser microphones, fiber optic microphones, electret condenser microphones, dynamic microphones, ribbon microphones, carbon microphones, laser microphones, and liquid microphones.

In some embodiments, the imaging device 104 may remain in an "active state" once the bedside unit 100 is booted up. All incoming transmissions from the medical devices 1 16 may be received and thus, the bedside unit 100 may be able to decode the measurement modes and the acquired health-related data from the transmitted signals. The audio device 106 may also be in a constant "listening state" to facilitate the authentication of the medical personnel. Furthermore, the audio device 106 may accept voice input as commands to store in the patients database 124 and display the acquired health-related data.

The hospital network 122 may be a local or remote network (relative to the bedside device 100) that can be used for transmitting and storing patient data in the patients database 124. In various embodiments, patient data may include name, age, address, gender, patient room assignments, patient medical history, diagnosis information, treatment plans, prescribed medication, known allergies, family history, and/or other relevant information relating to the patient.

Additionally, the hospital network 122 may send and store medical personnel data in the medical personnel database 126. In various embodiments, medical personnel data may include data pertaining to registered medical personnel such as authorized physicians, medical residents, interns, clerks, nurses, nursing aides, laboratory technicians, radiology technicians, and other healthcare professionals involved in patient care and treatment.

Medical personnel data also may include voice data such as a medical personnel's voice signature, speech patterns, known voice input answers, specific phrases, and other voice data relating to an audio or voice input. In some embodiments, the medical personnel's voice data may be used to, among other things, identify and authenticate the medical personnel designated to monitor, diagnose or treat a patient. Furthermore, medical personnel data also may include information about the medical personnel's field of expertise, names of patients admitted under each physician, authorized nurses for each room, department, or floor within the health facility, and data relating to the medical personnel's authorization level and access privileges for accessing patient or medical personnel information or data.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method of the present disclosure. While the operations are depicted in a particular order, this is not meant to be limiting. In various embodiments, one or more operations may be added, omitted, and/or reordered. At block 200, a medical device (e.g., 1 16) may acquire a patient's health-related data. At block 202, a signal— which may include the acquired health-related data and/or at least one measurement mode— may then be transmitted via the medical device's transceiver. In various

embodiments, the signal used may be a coded light (e.g., VLC) signal and/or a directed audio signal.

In various embodiments, a bedside unit (e.g., 100) and/or one or more medical devices may be integrated with coded light capabilities. In some cases, the one or more medical devices' light emitters may transmit a modulated light signal towards the bedside unit's photodetector. For example, suppose a physician needs to analyze one or more ultrasound images of a patient's abdominal or chest area. An ultrasound scanning device may be activated to acquire one or more ultrasound images of the patient's abdominal or chest area, and the captured data may be transmitted by the ultrasound scanning device to the bedside unit's photodetector via the ultrasound scanning device's LED. In various embodiments, data transmission may occur wirelessly from the device's LED towards the bedside unit's photodetector, or the data transmission may occur via physical media such as fiber optic cables.

Referring back to FIG. 2, at block 204, the transmitted signal from the medical device, which may be a coded light or a directed audio signal, may be received by the bedside unit via either a bedside unit's imaging device (e.g., 104), audio device (e.g., 106), or both. In various embodiments, the data transmission may be conducted via simultaneous light and audio data transmission, sequential combination of light and audio signal transmission, alternating light and audio data transmission, or either light or audio signal transmission exclusively.

At block 206, the bedside unit may decode (e.g., demodulate) from the received signal various information and data. In various embodiments, this decoded data may include one or more unique identifiers of one or more medical devices used to acquire the patient data, model or product numbers of the one or more medical devices, the measured patient health parameters acquired by the one or more medical devices, and the time and date that the one or more medical devices acquired the patient health parameters. In some embodiments, the transmitted signal may also include the identity of the medical personnel that performed the measurement and data collection. After decoding, at block 208, the data decoded from the received signal may then be correlated, e.g., by the bedside unit and/or by one or more computing systems associated with the hospital network 122, with the corresponding patient data stored in the patients database 126.

Thereafter, when medical personnel attempt to view the acquired patient health data, they may be prompted by the bedside unit to undergo an authentication process. Authentication may be performed via one or more authentication methods that may include but are not limited to entry of password, digital or script signature, facial recognition, voice recognition, fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning, and/or iris recognition. In some embodiments, and at block 210 of FIG. 2, a medical personnel's voice may be authenticated, e.g., by the bedside unit, using various voice recognition techniques. For example, at block 212, the received medical personnel's voice data may be compared, e.g., by the bedside unit or by a computing system associated with hospital network 122, with the medical personnel's registered voice data previously stored in the medical personnel database 126. Based on this comparison, at block 214, it may be determined, e.g., by the bedside unit, whether the medical personnel is authorized to access the measured patient health data, decoded data, or correlated data.

If the medical personnel is authorized, then various data may be presented to the authenticated medical personnel. For example, in some embodiments, at block 216, the bedside unit may output (e.g., render on display device 102) data that includes, for example, the correlation between the decoded data and the corresponding patient data previously stored in one or more databases. In some embodiments, at block 217, the bedside unit may render audio output that includes one or more physiological measurements obtained by the at least one medical device from the patient (e.g., "patient Jane Doe has a pulse rate of 85").

At block 218, the medical personnel may then analyze the correlated data and/or the audio output provided at block 217 for a variety of purposes. These purposes may include but not limited to diagnosing a patient condition, identifying any signs of

improvement in the patient's condition, detecting any anomalous feature in the viewed data for any sign of abnormality or disease, determining whether a prescribed treatment is working, determining whether a drug dosage or mode of administration should be changed, determining whether the patient should be referred to one or more specialists, determining whether a treatment should be terminated, validating a physiological measurement acquired by one or more medical devices, and so forth.

When the medical personnel has completed the patient data analysis, at block 220, a result of the medical personnel's analysis may be stored in the bedside unit's memory. Optionally, the result of the medical personnel's analysis may be transmitted to and stored in the patients database 124 via the hospital network. The result of the medical personnel's analysis may include various information.

In some embodiments, the result may include a validation of one or more physiological measurements obtained from a patient. For example, a result of a physiological measurement may be audibly output at block 217, e.g., by the bedside unit, alone or in combination with information identifying the patient (e.g., "Patient John Doe, Temperature 37"). As part of the medical personnel's analysis at block 218, the medical personnel may validate the measurement, e.g., by uttering a name or identification number and/or an approval of the measurement (e.g., "Nurse Mary, OK."). In various embodiments, the medical personnel's utterance may be used for multiple purposes at once, such as identifying and/or authenticating the medical personnel, as well as confirming the physiological measurement. Thus, while blocks 210-214 are depicted as occurring prior to block 217 in FIG. 2, in some embodiments, a physiological measurement obtained by a medical device may be audibly output (block 217) prior to medical personnel authentication. The medical personnel's subsequent voice input validating (or rejecting) the physiological measurement may simultaneously serve to authenticate the medical personnel to see additional information, such as the correlation between the decoded/demodulated data and the corresponding patient data.

In an example depicted in FIG. 3, a patient 300 has been admitted to a hospital complaining of severe abdominal pain. The patient 300 is brought into a hospital room for monitoring using an automated ultrasound scanning device 302. The automated ultrasound scanning device 302 may be configured to acquire images of the patient's abdominal area twice a day and to send these images to the bedside unit 304 using various techniques, such as coded light communication. Suppose the bedside unit 304 determines that the patient's appendix has ruptured, e.g., by performing image processing on the acquired images to identify a correlation between the acquired images and data previously stored in one or more databases. The bedside unit 304 may send an alert comprising the patient's appendix image, correlated data, and associated patient information to a surgeon's mobile device 306. After the surgeon 308 has been properly authenticated via one or more authentications steps, the surgeon 308 proceeds to analyze the acquired images to evaluate the patient's condition. Suppose the surgeon determines that the patient's appendix has already ruptured and is now filled with pus. The surgeon 308 may then send, e.g., via the mobile device 306 or the bedside unit 304, an instruction to the hospital's central computer system 310 to inform the nurses to immediately bring the patient to the surgery room.

In another example, suppose three patients all showing stomach flu symptoms are admitted and placed in a patient ward. Three different sets of medical devices— pulse oximeters, thermometers, and heart rate sensors— may be deployed to acquire health-related data from each of the three patients. Each medical device may transmit the acquired health- related data and the corresponding one or more measurement modes via a directed audio signal to a central bedside unit that serves multiple beds (and patients), e.g., in the ward. From the received measurement mode data and/or based on a direction from which the signal originated, the central bedside unit may determine which medical device transmitted the acquired patient data. The central bedside unit may then correlate the acquired health-related data with any corresponding patient data available from the patients database 124 and other medical databases.

A medical personnel may then attempt to access the patient data, e.g., by uttering "access data" to the bedside unit. The medical personnel may be recognized via voice authentication and afforded the corresponding access privileges. The medical personnel may then select, e.g., via the bedside unit, the patient data to display. The medical personnel may analyze the patient data and ask the patient about any symptoms that the patient experiences. After the medical personnel has completed data correlation and analysis, the medical personnel may provide a diagnosis of the patient's medical status or condition and input his diagnosis via the bed-said unit. The medical personnel may also input a prescribed treatment for each of the patient and enter the schedule for the follow-up patient visit with an assigned medical personnel. If the medical personnel needs a second opinion, the medical personnel may refer the case to another medical personnel by sending the patient files, e.g., via the bedside unit, to one or more medical personnel specializing in, for example, gastroenterology, nephrology, hematology, or infectious diseases. The patient's medical records may then be updated, e.g., via the bedside unit, by appending the medical personnel's diagnosis, any recommendations and prescribed treatment, and schedule of the next medical personnel patient visitations in the patient's records stored in the patients database.

The medical personnel may perform the same procedure in diagnosing the other two patients. After completing the diagnoses of the three patients, the acquired health- related data, the corresponding measurement modes, and the inputted patient diagnosis may be uploaded to the patients database 124 to update each of the patient's medical records.

In another example, suppose a first physician who is working for a medical internship at a hospital and a second, supervising physician enter a hospital room to see a patient. In proximity to the bedside unit's audio input, the first physician says "access data" and the second physician also says "access data." The bedside unit is able to recognize and authenticate both the first and second physician's voices even if other people (e.g., visitors or relatives engaged in conversations with each other and the patient) are present inside the hospital room. In this example, the bedside unit may be able to detect, identify, and authenticate more than one person who try to gain access to a patient's health- related data. Upon authentication of both physicians, the acquired health-related data may be analyzed by both physicians. Thus, the bedside unit may be used by one or multiple users preferably while simultaneously being under a constant active monitoring status. This allows the bedside unit to continuously enforce a security protocol for protecting a patient's health- related data from unauthorized access, while enabling access to authorized medical personnel at any time.

In the case where the medical personnel is not recognized by the bedside unit through voice input, the acquired health-related data may not be stored by the bedside unit and the current health-related data of the patient may not be uploaded to the patients database. The bedside unit instead may raise an audio, visual, or haptic alert notifying one or more medical personnel that the person presently attempting to access the patient data does not belong to the list of individuals authorized to monitor and treat the patient and also to access the patient's medical and personal data. The alert raised by the bedside unit may also be in the form of an audio, visual, or haptic alert directed to the person trying to access the patient data, as well as to the patient inside the room.

In accordance with the various aspects of the present disclosure, various medical apparatuses and persons are detected and identified by the imaging device using, for example, pattern recognition, image recognition, image registration, object recognition, facial recognition, feature extraction, color recognition, optical character recognition, motion analysis covering tasks such as egomotion, tracking, and optical flow, pose estimation, machine vision, machine learning, content-based image retrieval, shape recognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks, and other methods of image processing as well as other types of computer vision-based technology. In accordance with the various aspects of the present disclosure, various audio signals and persons are detected and identified by the audio device using, for example, speech recognition, speech analysis, audio registration, audio extraction, and other methods of audio processing as well as other types of computer aided-based technology. The audio device may also accept vital sign parameters communicated to the patient as a data entry which allows the bedside unit to process natural language.

While several inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms.

The indefinite articles "a" and "an," as used herein in the specification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, should be understood to mean "at least one."

The phrase "and/or," as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean "either or both" of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with "and/or" should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., "one or more" of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the "and/or" clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to "A and/or B", when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as "comprising" can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, "or" should be understood to have the same meaning as "and/or" as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list, "or" or "and/or" shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as "only one of or "exactly one of," or, when used in the claims, "consisting of," will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term "or" as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e. "one or the other but not both") when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as "either," "one of," "only one of," or "exactly one of." "Consisting essentially of," when used in the claims, shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase "at least one," in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase "at least one" refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, "at least one of A and B" (or, equivalently, "at least one of A or B," or, equivalently "at least one of A and/or B") can refer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including more than one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc. It should also be understood that, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, in any methods claimed herein that include more than one step or act, the order of the steps or acts of the method is not necessarily limited to the order in which the steps or acts of the method are recited.

Claims

CLAIMS: What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing measured health-related data comprising:

receiving (204), at a bedside unit (100) from at least one medical device (1 16), a signal transmitted using coded light or directed audio, wherein the signal comprises health- related data acquired by the at least one medical device from a patient;

demodulating (206), by the bedside unit from the transmitted signal, the health-related data;

correlating (208), by the bedside unit, the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database (124);

authenticating, by the bedside unit, a medical personnel to analyze the health- related data;

receiving, by the bedside unit via an audio device(106), audio input that includes a result of the medical personnel's analysis; and

storing, by the bedside unit, an indication of the result of the medical personnel's analysis in the patients database.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted signal further comprises at least one measurement mode, and the method further comprises:

demodulating, by the bedside unit from the transmitted signal, the at least one measurement mode; and

correlating, by the bedside unit, the health-related data with the patient information stored in the patients database based at least in part on the measurement mode.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising outputting, by the bedside unit via an output device (102), an indication of the measurement mode.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the authenticating comprises correlating the audio input received via the audio device with medical personnel information stored in a medical personnel database.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising outputting

(217), by the bedside unit, audio output of one or more physiological measurements acquired from the patient by the at least one medical device;

wherein the result of the medical personnel's analysis comprises approval of the one or more physiological measurements.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the authenticating comprises correlating retinal input received via a retinal scanner with medical personnel information stored in a medical personnel database.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the health-related data comprises image data captured by a camera of a setting in which the patient is being treated, and the authenticating comprises performing facial recognition processing on the captured image data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising outputting

(216), by the bedside unit, data indicative of the correlation between the health- related data and the patient information stored in the patients database.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the bedside unit is a central bedside unit that serves multiple patients in a ward, including the patient, the transmitted signal comprises a directed audio signal, and the method further comprises:

detecting, by the central bedside unit a direction from which the directed audio signal was transmitted; and

selecting, by the bedside unit from the multiple patients in the ward, the patient based on the detected direction.

10. A system for analyzing measured health-related data comprising:

at least one medical device (116) comprising:

a sensor (1 18) for acquiring health-related data from a patient; and a transceiver (120) for modulating and transmitting a signal using coded light or directed audio, the signal modulated to carry at least one measurement mode and the acquired health-related data,

a bedside unit (100) comprising:

at least one receiver (104, 106) for receiving the transmitted signal;

a processor (108) to demodulate the health-related data from the received signal and correlate the health-related data with patient information stored in a patients database (124); and

a display device (102) for displaying the health-related data, and a hospital network (122) comprising the patients database and a medical personnel database (126) for storing patient information, acquired health-related data, and the at least one measurement mode.

1 1. The system of claim 10, wherein processor of the bedside unit is further configured to authenticate a medical personnel to analyze the health-related data by correlating an audio input received from the medical personnel at an audio device (106) of the bedside unit with medical personnel information stored in the medical personnel database.

12. The system of claim 1 1, wherein the processor of the bedside unit is further configured to provide audio output of one or more physiological measurements acquired from the patient by the at least one medical device;

wherein the audio input comprises approval of the one or more physiological measurements.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmitted signal comprises a directed audio signal, and the processor of the bedside unit is further configured to:

detect a direction from which the directed audio signal was transmitted; and identify, from multiple patients in a ward, the patient based on the detected direction.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor of the bedside unit is further configured to authenticate a medical personnel to analyze the health-related data by correlating retinal input received via a retinal scanner with medical personnel information stored in a medical personnel database.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the health-related data comprises image data captured by an imaging device (104) of a setting in which the patient is being treated, and the processor of the bedside unit is further configured to authenticate a medical personnel to analyze the health-related data by performing facial recognition processing on the captured image data.