Patent ID: 8024421

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for controlling communications between one or more network devices, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of: receiving, over a network, a data dictionary corresponding to a network device in a received form, wherein the data dictionary is derived from a device data sheet, wherein the device data sheet is a model of the network device, and wherein the data dictionary comprises one or more data definitions specific to the network device and a global unique identifier for the network device; caching the data dictionary, the data dictionary including a hierarchal classification scheme for physiological data, wherein the hierarchal classification scheme comprises a first level, a second level, and a third level, wherein the first level defines a type of physiological data, the type of physiological data being one of two or more families of physiologic information supported by a network device, wherein the second level defines a type of action related to the type of physiological data from the first level, and wherein the third level defines an object of the action from the second level; receiving physiological data from the network device, the physiological data including a heart rate, a respiration rate and a blood pressure; accessing the one or more data definitions from the data dictionary; extracting information from the received physiological data; using an interpreter, the interpreter using the one or more data definitions from the cached data dictionary to decipher the extracted information from the received physiological data; and processing the information, wherein the device data sheet is used to derive the data dictionary by creating one or more data definitions for a specific project, collecting the one or more data definitions in an XML formatted device data sheet, compiling the one or more data definitions in the XML formatted device data sheet with an application generator and outputting source code, creating a string table and compiling the string table with the device data sheet, and creating a link table and compiling the link table with the string table and the device data sheet.