Abstract:
A wrist watch receives local measurements and remote instructions and provides reports of measurements to remote processors for review by physicians. Chest straps, pressure cuffs and onboard sensors provide information. The wrist watch, chest strap and cuff are inductively charged. Wrist watches, straps, cuffs, sensors and chargers are distributed with no or low costs to encourage use. Patient&#39;s health and public health are assessed economically without time and cost consuming travel and office visits.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/135,071, filed Jul. 16, 2008, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention provides a new telemetric watch and chest band system for providing data over radio waves via an antenna to processing centers which process the data and send information to a system. 
     The physician sends instructions and requests to the processing center which encodes and sends the instructions and requests via antennas to a patient&#39;s watch, where they are displayed. 
     The telemetric watch will send raw data at a pre-set sampling rate to a radio tower. The radio tower passes raw data to data processing center. Data is processed. The physician receives the processed data via the Internet. 
     The physician sends a message via the Internet to processing center. The processing center receives messages from the physician and transmits them to the radio tower. The radio tower transmits data to a user&#39;s watch. The watch receives data and displays it to the patient, for example, requesting a blood pressure reading. 
     In the example, the patient uses a wireless blood pressure cuff which transmits data to the watch. The raw data is forwarded from the watch to the radio tower. The radio tower transmits data to the processing center. Data is processed and provided to the physician. 
     Messages may communicate alerts to take medication, call a physician for medical direction or appointments or provide any direct message from the physician to the patient. 
     A telemetric chest strap will send raw data at a pre-set sampling rate via Bluetooth to the telemetric watch. The watch will send the raw data at a pre-set sampling rate to the radio tower. 
     The radio tower passes the raw data to the data processing center. Data is processed, and the physician receives data via the internet. 
     Other telemetric devices can be used in the system besides watches and chest straps. For example, a telemetric bracelet or ring or telemetric sunglasses can serve the same purposes as the telemetric watch, monitoring blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature and sending the data via Bluetooth or another wireless signal to another device. This other device may be a PDA or mobile phone, such as the mobile phone described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,121, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Typically these non-watch devices would use a mobile phone or another similar device (such as PDA) as a display. More details on pulse rate, blood pressure, and heart condition monitoring glasses can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,376,238 and 7,400,257, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     A telemetric implant can also be used. An implant, in addition to measuring blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature, can also monitor the levels of various indicators in the blood stream, including glucose, micronuclei, cholesterol, and oxygen levels. 
     Each of the telemetric devices can deliver data to a mobile phone. The mobile phone can give a distinct ringtone alert if vital signs are out of trend. The data can be displayed on the mobile phone and the phone can also save the data for later review and/or send the data on to another device or mobile phone. The phone can give the user an option to send data to a doctor or caregiver, or can do so automatically. 
     These and other objects and features of the invention are apparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing written specification, with the claims and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a telemetric watch sending information to a physician. 
         FIG. 2  shows the physician sending instructions to the patient&#39;s watch. 
         FIG. 3  shows a patient sending the requested data. 
         FIG. 4  shows messages sent to a patient&#39;s watch from a physician. 
         FIGS. 5-7  show details of the telemetric watch. 
         FIGS. 8-10  show details of the sensor, computer and communicator on the telemetric watch. 
         FIG. 11  shows a charger for the sensor, computer and communicator on the telemetric watch. 
         FIGS. 12-16  show details of the charger. 
         FIG. 17  shows a telemetric chest strap. 
         FIG. 18  shows elements of the telemetric chest strap. 
         FIG. 19  shows a charger on the telemetric chest strap. 
         FIGS. 20-25  shows details of the telemetric chest strap. 
         FIG. 26  shows a telemetric bracelet sending data to a mobile phone, which is forwarding this data to another mobile phone, which is sending this data onward. 
         FIG. 27  shows a telemetric ring sending data to a mobile phone. 
         FIG. 28  shows telemetric glasses sending data to a mobile phone. 
         FIG. 29  shows a telemetric implant sending data to a mobile phone. 
         FIG. 30  shows a block diagram of the telemetric watch  21 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  in a telemetric watch system  10 , a telemetric wrist watch  21  sends  23  raw data at a preset sampling rate to a radio tower  31 . Radio tower  31  passes  33  the raw data to a receiver in a data processing center  41  by radio waves  35  or ground lines. The raw data is processed by the data processing center and transmitted  43  via the Internet, to a physician&#39;s work station  45 . Identifying patient information and physical patient metrics are displayed on the screen  47  at the work station  45 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the physician sends  51  messages from her work station  45  via the Internet to data processing center  41 , which sends  53  the information by land lines or radio waves  55  to radio tower  31 , which repeats the information and sends  57  the information to the patient&#39;s watch  21 . A display  61  on the watch  21  displays the message from the physician to the patient, in this example requesting a blood pressure reading. 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the patient uses a wireless blood pressure cuff  71  which transmits  73  data to watch  21 . The raw data is sent  23  via the radio tower  31  and the data processing center  41  to the physician&#39;s workstation  45 , where the patient&#39;s identification, photograph and requested blood pressure is shown on the display  47 . 
       FIG. 4  shows several messages  81 ,  83 ,  85 ,  87  which can be automatically transmitted to the patient&#39;s watch  21  and shown on the watch display  61 , wherein the display of the wrist watch  21  may be a conventional digital or analog timepiece. 
       FIGS. 5 ,  6  and  7  show front, side and rear elevations of a patient&#39;s watch  21  showing the computer and transmitter  91  supported by band  93  and clasp  94 . 
       FIGS. 8 ,  9  and  10  show mounting of the computer and transmitter  91  with a sensor plate  95  and screws  97 . 
       FIG. 11  shows a charger  101  with a slot  103  which fits over the computer and transmitter  91  to charge a capacitor or battery with the patient&#39;s watch  21 . 
       FIG. 12-16  show features of the charger  101  with the curved slot  103 . The charger has a cover  105  and a base  107  which is secured to the cover with screws  108 . The base  107  has upstanding spaced electromagnetic cores  109  which are used in a contact-less charging of the computer and transmitter  91  on the wrist watch  21 . 
     A telemetric chest strap system  110  is shown in  FIGS. 17-25 . 
     The chest strap  121  sends  122  raw data by localized Bluetooth communication to the telemetric watch  21 . In a telemetric watch system  10 , a telemetric wrist watch  21  sends  23  raw data received from the chest strap  121  at a preset sampling rate to a radio tower  31 . Radio tower  31  passes  33  the raw data to a receiver at data processing center  41  by radio waves  35  or ground lines. The raw data is processed by the data processing center and transmitted  43  via the Internet, to a physician&#39;s work station  45 . Identifying patient information and physical patient metrics are displayed on the screen  47  at the work station  45 . 
     The chest strap  121  as shown in  FIGS. 18 and 19  has a sensor-computer-transmitter  191  similar to computer-transmitter  91  on the wrist watch  21 . A clasp  123  holds ends  125 ,  127  of the chest strap together. A module  191  is similar to module  91  on the wrist watch  21 . Charger  101  is the same charger used with wrist watch  21 . 
     Parts  128 ,  129  of clasp  123  are shown in  FIGS. 20 ,  22 ,  23  and  24 . The insert sensor plate  193  on module  191  is shown in  FIGS. 21 and 25 . 
       FIG. 26  shows a telemetric bracelet  195  that monitors blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature and sends raw data  197  at a pre-set sampling rate to a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone  199 . This cell phone  199  sends raw data via a phone call to another mobile phone  201 . This second cell phone may be the phone of a caretaker, such as a family member or friend. This second phone  201  can then send the data  203  to a physician via his cell phone or to another person. 
       FIG. 27  shows a telemetric ring  205  for measuring blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature and sending data  207  via Bluetooth to a mobile phone  209 .  FIG. 28  shows telemetric glasses  211  for measuring blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature and sending data  213  via Bluetooth to a mobile phone  215 . 
     Once data has been delivered to a mobile phone, the phone can give a distinct ringtone alert if vital signs are out of trend. The data can be displayed on the mobile phone and the phone can also save the data for later review and/or send the data on to another device or mobile phone. The phone can give the user an option to send data to a doctor or caregiver, or can do so automatically. 
       FIG. 29  shows a telemetric implant  217  that, in addition to measuring blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature, can also measure the level of various indicators in the bloodstream, such as glucose, oxygen, micronuclei, and cholesterol levels, and send this data  219  via Bluetooth to a mobile phone  221 . Monitoring of oxygen level in the bloodstream (oximetry) can be useful, for example, for various medical conditions affecting the heart and lungs, for determining the effectiveness of or need for supplemental oxygen, and for pilots in unpressurized aircraft. An implant near a healing wound can use oxygen levels to predict the onset of gangrene. Continuous monitoring of glucose levels is very important for diabetics, cholesterol is an indicator of heart disease, and micronuclei levels in the bloodstream are an indicator of cancer risk. 
       FIG. 30  shows a block diagram of the telemetric wrist watch  21 , wherein the wrist watch has an onboard sensor  230 , a short range receiver  231 , a long range receiver  233 , a long range transmitter  234 , a short range transmitter  232 , and a programmable microcomputer  91 . 
     Tumors and cancers are the result of genetic damage, which often includes the formation of micronuclei. The presence of micronuclei in living cells indicates that the cells can no longer properly repair broken DNA. This deficiency heightens the risk of developing cancer. Micronuclei in human blood cells are a type of genetic damage known to be a diagnostic marker for cancer. Measurements of micronuclei levels in the blood cells of children were used in the aftermath of Chernobyl to identify those children most at risk of developing cancer and to begin preventative treatments. 
     These measurements are therefore of interest to the population as a whole, but particularly to those who have suffered from cancer in the past and are at risk for recurrence. Continuous monitoring of micronuclei is a boon to such patients, who in the past needed to weigh the burden of constant trips to a doctor&#39;s office against the risks of developing cancer between visits. 
     A wrist band which may be a bracelet or watch band contains an identification code and senses vital signs of a wearer and automatically reports out-of-range vital sign indications to a remote health center. 
     The wrist band contains a pulse rate sensor, a blood pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a power source, a timer, a memory, a comparator, an encoder and a low power radio frequency transmitter. The wrist band also includes a watch as an incentive for a user to wear the wrist band. 
     The encoder digitally encodes the user identification. 
     The wrist band includes a receiver for remote queries of information or data from specific wrist bands. The memory is programmable on the wrist band or remotely to adjust in-range limits or to vary periodic sensing intervals according to known health conditions of the wearer. 
     Periodically, the wrist band mounted sensors sense, whether sequentially or concurrently, heart rate (pulse rate), blood pressure and temperature. The sensed results and their predetermined acceptable ranges stored in the memory are compared for out-of-range perturbations. The out-of-range perturbations are stored in the memory digitally encoded by the encoder and, with the encoded user identification, are transmitted by the transmitter. 
     The transmissions are received by towers in range of the transmitters and are relayed to central processors. The central processors retransmit the data to a local health center that has cognizance of the health of the identified individual user. 
     The sensor, comparator, encoder and transmitter sequence may be activated by buttons on the wrist band by a user who feels a physical event or by a person giving aid to a user. 
     The wrist bands and watches initially are distributed to ambulatory out-patients who are found to be in need of monitoring after examination in local health centers. Subsequently, the wrist bands, bracelets and watches are distributed to other groups such as workers in hazardous environments, public safety officers, government employees and others. 
     In areas, political divisions or countries in which citizens have permanently assigned numerical identifications, those digitized identifications may be permanently stored in the wrist band memory. 
     While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined in the following claims.