Patent ID: 6050940
Filing Date: 2000-04-18
Classification: A61B,G16H,Y10S

Abstract:
General-purpose medical instrumentation, comprising:a programmed control unit;a plurality of plug-in digital modules in communication with the control unit, each digital module at least including an analog-to-digital converter and circuitry associated with network interoperability;a plurality of plug-in analog circuits in communication with the control unit;a plurality of medical sensors, each sensor being interfaced to one of the plug-in analog or digital circuits; anda multi-layer software environment resident on the control unit, the environment including a network layer, an applications layer, and a plurality of data source specific drivers, and wherein the application layer facilitates the following functions:a) real-time data collection mediated by the drivers,b) data encapsulation, including the packetization of sensor data so as to be self-descriptive, andc) routing of the encapsulated data into a network of nodes through the module associated with network interoperability.