Apparatus for remotely monitoring controllable devices

The invention relates to an installation for remote monitoring of a plurality of controllable equipment, in particular hospital equipment. Each of the equipment includes control means activated in response to a sequence of information. The installation also includes a portable control device. The portable control device includes a means for memorizing at least a portion of the control information relating to each equipment in association with information identifying the equipment, with the information sequence including information concerning the operating duration of the equipment. The portable control device further includes means for generating time information, and means for comparing the operating duration with elapsed time information and for transmitting an alarm signal as a function of the result of the comparison.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an installation for remote monitoring of a 
plurality of controllable equipments, in particular equipments usable in 
hospitals, such as pumps for perfusion or for administering medication. 
More precisely, the invention relates to an installation for remote and 
secure monitoring of equipments, in particular hospital equipments for 
administering liquids injectable into patients, which installation makes 
it possible simultaneously to verify continuously and remotely the modes 
of operation of said equipments and the operating stages thereof, and 
also, preferably but not necessarily, to control them remotely. 
It will be understood that in a hospital, the various equipments to be 
verified, in particular pumps for administering medication, are situated 
in different premises and are intended for different patients, with a 
single person being responsible for verifying that they are operating 
properly. It is therefore advantageous to provide the person in charge of 
verifying operation of the equipments with means making it possible at all 
times to know the operating status of each of the equipments. 
It is also possible for the possibility of access to controlling the 
equipment, optionally to modify the programming to be strictly limited to 
the person in charge of operation, or to be limited at least to a small 
number of authorized people. 
In this type of remote control installation it is also desirable to be 
able, in the event of an error in programming or control of an equipment 
that has given rise to damaging consequences, e.g. for a patient, to know 
which particular person in the staff of the hospital is responsible for 
the wrong programming. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide a device for remote 
monitoring of a plurality controllable equipments, in particular equipment 
encountered in a hospital or the like, enabling progress in the operation 
of the equipments to be monitored continuously and remotely, and 
preferably ensuring that the possibility of programming or modifying the 
programming of the equipments is restricted to authorized people. 
According to the invention, this object is achieved by an installation for 
remote monitoring of a plurality of controllable equipments which is 
characterized in that it comprises: 
a portable control device including: 
means for memorizing at least a portion of the control information relating 
to each equipment in association with information identifying said 
equipment, said sequence of information including information 
representative of the operating duration of said equipment; 
means for generating time information; 
means for initializing the time information relative to said equipment 
effectively being controlled, thereby obtaining elapsed time information; 
and 
means for comparing said operating duration with the elapsed time 
information and for issuing an alarm signal as a function of the result of 
said comparison. 
Preferably, the installation further includes means for authorizing a 
sequence of operating information to be input into an equipment only in 
response to a specific item of information. 
It will be understood that by means of such a remote monitoring 
installation, any person responsible for using the equipments is 
continuously informed by the portable device he or she holds about the 
time during which an equipment or each equipment has been in operation and 
thus about the operating time remaining. Further, such people are informed 
when the equipment comes to the end of its operation, thereby enabling 
them to go and verify visually that the equipment has stopped and possibly 
take required action with the patient. It should also be specified that 
the term "information representative of the duration of equipment 
operation" should be understood as meaning either information concerning 
actual operating duration, e.g. for a pump, or else, e.g. for drip feed 
equipment, information concerning a volume to be administered which will 
have been converted to an equivalent time by an initial measurement of the 
operation of the drip feed equipment. 
In a first embodiment, the control means of each equipment include means 
for transmitting the sequence of information for controlling operation and 
said portable device includes means for receiving said sequence of 
information. 
In this embodiment, the equipments are controlled directly by the person 
responsible. The operation control information sequences are automatically 
transmitted to the portable device held by the person responsible and they 
are automatically memorized therein, thereby avoiding any risk of error. 
In a second embodiment, the monitoring installation further includes: 
a plurality of receiver devices for receiving said control information, 
each receiver device being mounted on a respective one of said equipments; 
said portable control device further including: 
means for generating said sequence of information for controlling the 
operation of an equipment; and 
means for transmitting said sequence of control information to a receiver 
device; each receiver device comprising: 
means for receiving said transmitted control information; and 
means for controlling said equipment as a function of said information. 
In this second embodiment, the portable device serves firstly to transmit 
control information to the receiver devices associated with the 
equipments, and secondly to memorize said control information and to 
verify the operating duration of the equipment. 
In a preferred embodiment, the control information sequence further 
includes information identifying the controlled equipment, and each 
receiver device further includes means for memorizing information 
identifying the equipment on which it is mounted, means for comparing the 
memorized identification information with the received identification 
information, and means for authorizing performance of at least some of the 
other information only if the two items of identification information 
correspond. 
In a variant embodiment, the sequence of instructions further includes 
information identifying the portable control device, and each receiver 
device includes means for memorizing the identification information of the 
portable control device, means for comparing the memorized identification 
information with the identification information received subsequently, and 
means for performing at least some of said control information only if the 
two items of identification information correspond. 
It will be understood that with these two preferred embodiments, it is 
possible to verify the insertion of operating information or of 
information for modifying operation into the control means of each 
equipment, thereby protecting the equipments against erroneous control 
instructions being inserted. In other words, they make it possible to 
authorize only a limited number of people to intervene on the operation of 
the controlled equipments. 
Also in a preferred embodiment, each receiver device further includes 
transmitter means for re-transmitting at least a portion of the received 
control information sequence, and said portable control device includes 
means for receiving re-transmitted information, means for comparing the 
re-transmitted information with the transmitted information, and means for 
transmitting an acknowledge signal if the transmitted information and the 
re-transmitted information corresponds. 
In this preferred embodiment, it can be seen that it is possible to ensure 
that the control information transmitted between the portable control 
device and the receiver devices associated with each equipment has been 
correctly decoded by the receiver devices of the equipments, thus 
naturally making it possible to eliminate any risk of error resulting from 
remote transmission of information sequences. This also makes it possible 
to initialize the counting down of operating time.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
With reference initially to FIGS. 1 to 4, an embodiment of the invention is 
described which provides both remote monitoring and remote control of 
equipments. 
With reference to FIG. 1, the outside appearance of the portable control 
device is described. This device is conventional in appearance, comprising 
a housing 10 which includes a transmitter of electromagnetic radiation and 
preferably of infrared radiation. The housing preferably further includes 
a receiver of radiation which may, for example, be the same as the 
transmitter. On its front face 14, the housing 10 has a display screen 16, 
e.g. a liquid crystal display, and a keypad 18 constituted by keys 20 
enabling information to be input into the control device. The housing 
preferably also includes an alarm device 22 providing a sound and/or light 
and/or vibration alarm. 
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an entire remote control installation for 
equipments constituting a first embodiment. This installation has at least 
one control device 10 which is held by a person in charge of managing the 
operation of the equipments, and a plurality of equipments E.sub.1 . . . 
E.sub.n to be controlled and monitored. In the example shown, the 
equipments E.sub.1 to E.sub.n are pumps, e.g. peristaltic pumps 24 having 
small wheels that are used for administering medication to a patient via 
tubing 26. In the embodiment, each equipment E.sub.i is installed in a 
ward P.sub.1 . . . P.sub.N. Each equipment E.sub.i is provided with a 
control circuit 28 for the associated equipment and with a unit for 
receiving and processing operating information. Each receiver unit 
R.sub.1, R.sub.2, . . . essentially comprises an electromagnetic radiation 
receiver, preferably an infrared beam receiver 30 which is connected to a 
processor circuit 32, preferably associated with a re-writable memory 34. 
Each receiver unit R.sub.i may advantageously further comprise an infrared 
beam transmitter 30'. The processor circuit 32 is of conventional type and 
is capable of decoding the signals received by the detector 30 to 
transform them into instructions for controlling the operation of the 
equipment E.sub.1 and thus for applying control signals to the control 
circuit 28 of the equipment. In addition, the equipment E.sub.1 preferably 
includes a manual emergency stop member 36 which enables the operation of 
the equipment to be stopped when it is activated and in the absence of the 
remote control. 
With reference now to FIG. 3, the various circuits of the control device 10 
are described in greater detail, as are the various functions the device 
can implement. The circuit of the control device is essentially 
constituted, for example, by a microprocessor 40 associated firstly with a 
program memory 42 which may be an EEPROM type memory, for example, and 
secondly with a data memory 44 which, for example, is a RAM type memory or 
the like. 
The microprocessor 40 can receive instructions issued by the user via the 
keypad 18. The decoder 46 converts the signals delivered by actuating the 
keys of the keypad into digital control signals that are directly usable 
by the microprocessor. The microprocessor 40 is also connected to an 
infrared beam transmit/receive cell 12. More precisely, the microprocessor 
40 is connected to a control and encoding circuit 48 which controls 
emission by the diode 50 whenever it operates as a transmitter and which 
serves to perform analog-to-digital conversion of the signals received by 
the cell 50 whenever it operates as a receiver. The microprocessor is also 
connected to the display circuit 16 via an encoder circuit 52 that is well 
known per se. The circuits of the control device 10 also include a clock 
signal or time base 54 which delivers time pulses on an output 54a that 
are applied to an input 40a of the microprocessor 40. Finally, one of the 
outputs, preferably an analog output, of the microprocessor is connected 
to the audible alarm device 22. 
There follows an explanation of how the control device 10 is used to 
program the operation of equipments E.sub.1 . . . E.sub.N associated with 
respective receiver devices R.sub.1 . . . R.sub.N. To program an 
equipment, the holder of the control device 10 uses the keypad 18 to enter 
operating instructions for the equipment that is to be controlled. This 
sequence of instructions necessarily includes information representative 
of operating duration which may be constituted, as already explained, by 
actual duration information or by information concerning a volume to be 
administered, and preferably includes information for identifying the 
controlled equipment and information that identifies the control device. 
This sequence of information may also include instructions concerning the 
operating rate of the equipment when it is constituted by a pump, or other 
operating instructions. These instructions are received by the 
microprocessor 40 which causes them to be displayed in succession on the 
display circuit 16 so that the user can check visually that they are 
right. 
In response to these instructions, the microprocessor causes the 
instructions to be recorded in the data memory 44 and it activates the 
control circuit 48 so that the infrared transmitter 50 transmits a coded 
signal representative of the various instructions. The infrared signal is 
received by the receiver 30 of the equipment E.sub.1 to be controlled. The 
control circuit 32 of the equipment which is essentially constituted by a 
microprocessor, preferably causes the transmitter 30' to re-transmit the 
sequence of instructions as received back to the control device. This 
re-transmitted information is received by the detector 50 and the 
microprocessor checks that the transmitted information matches the 
received information. If there is a match, it causes the transmitter 50 to 
transmit an acknowledge signal to the equipment E.sub.1. On reception of 
the acknowledge signal, the processor circuit 32 of the equipment conveys 
to the control circuit 28 the operating instructions for the equipment, 
e.g. the associated pump 24. 
In a variant, it is possible to provide two procedures making it possible 
to ensure that the instructions conveyed are conveyed legally, i.e. by an 
authorized person. In a first verification mode, the memory 34 associated 
with the processor circuit 32 includes information specific to the 
equipment. The processor circuit 32 compares said information with the 
corresponding information in the control information sequence received 
from the control device 10. When there is a match, the instructions are 
indeed conveyed to the control circuit 28 of the associated equipment. In 
a verification variant, the memory circuit 34 includes an instruction for 
identifying the control device and the information sequence transmitted by 
the portable device 10 also includes identification information. The 
processor circuit 32 compares the two items of identification information 
and the instructions for controlling operation of the equipment are not 
performed unless the two items of identification information match. 
When the control device transmits the acknowledge signal, the 
microprocessor 40 is caused to execute a time countdown subprogram which 
serves to compare the time information provided by the time base 54 with 
the instructed operating duration of the equipment as stored in the memory 
44 in association with information identifying the equipment. When the 
comparison subprogram detects that the time which has actually elapsed has 
become equal to the operating duration of the equipment, the 
microprocessor 40 causes the alarm device 22 to be excited. In a variant 
embodiment, it is possible to provide for the comparison subprogram to 
generate a first comparison signal when the elapsed time corresponds to 
the programmed operating duration minus a predetermined pre-alarm duration 
stored in the memory 42, which duration may be equal to 5 minutes, for 
example. On detecting the pre-alarm instant, the component 22 transmits a 
special signal to inform the user that the equipment concerned E.sub.1 
will shortly come to an end of its operation. The equipment is identified 
in the memory of the portable device by a ward number, a bed number, a 
pump number, etc. 
The above-described installation for remote control of equipment presents 
numerous advantages over manual control of said equipment. 
The person responsible for managing a set of equipments and who holds the 
portable control device can find out at any time what the operating 
parameters are of each of the equipments he or she is in charge of, since 
these parameters are stored in the memory of the device. They can 
therefore be modified, where appropriate, by using the device to transmit 
new values for the parameters to the equipment concerned. In particular, 
it is possible to establish at any time the operating duration that 
remains for each equipment. In addition, the person responsible is 
automatically informed whenever an equipment has ceased to operate. 
Because of the information identifying the control device and the 
equipments, it is possible to authorize the holder of a given control 
device to act only on a given equipment, or more likely on a given group 
of equipments. 
Finally, since the operating instructions for the equipments remain in the 
memory of the control device, in the event of a problem it is possible to 
find out who gave the operating instructions, since that person will be 
the holder of the control device in the corresponding time period. In 
addition, by passing the portable device to another nurse, the other nurse 
has available, and without risk of error, all of the information relating 
to the equipments she is taking charge of. 
FIG. 4 shows an improved embodiment of a remote control installation in a 
first embodiment. In the figure, there can be seen equipments E.sub.i with 
respective receiver devices R.sub.i, each receiver device being provided 
with an infrared receiver 30 and an infrared transmitter 30'. Each 
equipment E.sub.i is installed in a ward P.sub.i. Each ward P.sub.i is 
fitted with an infrared receiving terminal B.sub.i capable of receiving 
the infrared signals transmitted by the transmitter 30' of the equipment 
E.sub.i. Each terminal B.sub.i is connected by an electrical conductor 
C.sub.i to a concentrator 60 which is in turn connected to a remote 
monitoring desk 62 installed in a monitoring room LS. In this embodiment, 
the circuits 28 and 32 of the receiver devices R.sub.i are configured to 
cause the transmitter 30' to transmit an infrared alarm signal in the 
event of faulty operation of the equipment with which it is associated. 
This alarm signal is received by the terminal B.sub.i and is conveyed to 
the remote monitoring desk 62. 
In the simplified embodiment shown in FIG. 5, that serves to perform remote 
monitoring only of the equipments, the installation comprises at least one 
remote monitoring appliance 10' and a plurality of equipments E'.sub.1 to 
E'.sub.n to be monitored that are installed in respective wards P'.sub.1 . 
. . P'.sub.n. The monitoring appliance 10' is simplified compared with the 
monitoring and control appliance 10. It essentially comprises an 
electromagnetic signal receiver, preferably for receiving infrared 
signals, said receiver being referenced 70. The receiver 70 is connected 
to circuits inside the appliance and given general reference 72. These 
circuits 72 are explained below with reference to the diagram of FIG. 3. 
The appliance also includes an alarm device 74 which may provide an alarm 
that is optical, audible, or by means of vibration. The appliance 
preferably also defines a card reader 76, the reader essentially including 
a card insertion slot 78, and when the card 80 is of the electronic memory 
type, a connector 82 which is connected to the circuit 72. Naturally, the 
card could be of the magnetic type, for example, in which case the reader 
corresponds thereto. The card essentially contains in its memory 
information for identifying each person who may be in charge of the 
installation. When the card is inserted in the reader 76, the circuit 72 
reads the information identifying the holder, which information is stored 
in the memory portion of the circuit 72. As explained below, this makes it 
possible to associate each set of operating information for an equipment 
E'.sub.i with information identifying the person who programmed the 
equipment. 
Each equipment E' comprises, for example, a pump 24 associated with control 
and processing circuits 32' and with a memory 34, which unit forms the 
receiver device R'.sub.i. To control the pump 24, each equipment includes 
an information input member, e.g. a keypad 84 which serves to input 
instructions for controlling the operation of the pump 24. When the person 
responsible has finished inputting information for controlling the 
operation of the pump 24, the processor circuit 32' controls a transmitter 
30', e.g. an infrared transmitter, to cause it to send signals to the 
receiver 70 of the monitoring device 10' corresponding to all of the 
sequence of control information previously input by the person 
responsible. 
The installation for remote monitoring is used as follows: when the person 
responsible seeks to program an equipment, e.g. the equipment E'.sub.1, 
that person inserts the card 80 into the housing of the portable device 
10' and uses the keypad 84 to input instructions for controlling the 
operation of the pump 24. These instructions are stored in the memory 34 
and they are processed by the processor circuits 32'. When the person 
responsible has confirmed the sequence of instructions, the processor 
device 32' causes the infrared transmitter 30' to transmit a signal 
representative of the various instructions input together with information 
identifying the equipment. The portable device 10' is disposed in such a 
manner that its receiver 30 receives these signals. The processor circuit 
72 converts these signals into digital data which is stored in a portion 
of the memory of the circuit 72. The information stored in the memory has 
the identification information as read from the card 80 added thereto. 
Thus, after successively controlling a plurality of equipments E'.sub.i, 
the memory of the portable device 10' contains sets of information each 
including the identity of the equipment, the identity of the person 
responsible, and the instructions for controlling the operation of the 
corresponding equipment. The circuit 72 includes elements analogous to 
those shown in FIG. 3 for generating information relating to the time that 
has elapsed since said data was input into the portable device, which 
corresponds to the beginning of operation of the corresponding equipment, 
and means for comparing the time that has elapsed since said 
initialization with information representative of the programmed operating 
duration for the equipment. The circuits 72 include components which 
control the alarm device 74 when the operating duration has been reached 
or possibly, as already explained above with reference to the preceding 
figures, which issues a pre-alarm signal followed by an alarm signal. 
It should be added that with the portable device 10 of the first embodiment 
described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, it is also possible to provide 
for the portable device to include a magnetic or electronic card reader 
integrated in its housing and into which the person responsible must 
insert a card to enable the control and monitoring device 10 to operate. 
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in 
detail for purposes of illustration, various changes and modifications may 
be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. 
Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended 
claims and their equivalents.