Patent ID: 8638221

Claim:
A modular patient communicator for communicating with a physiological sensor and facilitating connectivity with a central authority (CA) via an unsecured network, the communicator comprising: a housing; a processor disposed in the housing; a user interface coupled to the processor; a universal communications port supported by the housing and coupled to the processor, the communications port comprising a connector configured to detachably mechanically engage and establish signal connectivity with each of a plurality of disparate modules, wherein at least some of the modules each has a disparate communication protocol that effects communications with a particular physiological sensor; memory disposed in the housing and coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store medical firmware comprising program instructions for communications with the physiological sensor and life critical network (LCN) software comprising program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to transmit a request to a network access facility for a connection to the unsecured network, authenticate the communicator to the CA, and facilitate secured communication between the communicator and CA upon successful communicator authentication; and a power source configured to supply power for components of the communicator.