US 10,956,950 B2 · Managing dynamic licenses for physiological parameters in a patient monitoring environment

Abstract

A dynamic licensing system permits facility administrators to quickly enable a patient monitoring device to monitor a previously unmonitored physiological parameter when the caregiver determines that a new physiological parameter should be monitored. The administrator selects through a dynamic licensing module the patient monitoring device and instructs the dynamic licensing system to enable monitoring of the new physiological parameter. The administrator defines how long the patient monitoring device is to be monitoring the new parameter. The administrator may also select locations in the hospital, and some or all patient monitoring devices at that location are upgraded to monitor the new parameter. The dynamic licensing system creates a licensing agreement to monitor the new parameter for the monitoring duration and/or in the monitoring location.

In a caregiver environment having a plurality of patient monitoring devices, each patient monitoring device configured to monitor one or more physiological parameters of one or more patients, at least some of the patient monitoring devices include hardware and software configured to monitor multiple physiological parameters or a subset thereof depending upon whether a caregiver facility has properly activated any one or more such physiological parameters on a given patient monitoring device, a system that activates the monitoring of one or more physiological parameters through dynamic licensing, the system comprising:

a first patient monitoring system comprising a first physiological sensor configured to sense light after it has passed through tissue of a first patient and generate a first signal indicative of one or more first physiological parameters of the first patient in response to the sensed light associated with the first patient, and a first patient monitoring device in communication with the first physiological sensor and configured to receive the first signal and, when appropriately activated, determine one or more corresponding measurements of the one or more first physiological parameters of the first patient from the received first signal, the first physiological sensor assigned to the first patient monitoring system;
a second patient monitoring system comprising a second physiological sensor configured to sense light after it has passed through tissue of a second patient and generate a second signal indicative of one or more second physiological parameters of the second patient in response to the sensed light associated with the second patient, and a second patient monitoring device in communication with the second physiological sensor and configured to receive the second signal and, when appropriately activated, determine one or more corresponding measurements of the one or more physiological parameters of the second patient from the received second signal;
and
a service appliance comprising an administrator terminal, memory storing a configuration table, and one or more hardware processors, the service appliance in communication with the first and second patient monitoring devices, the one or more hardware processors of the service appliance configured to:
receive licensing information for the first patient monitoring device, wherein the licensing information comprises device identification associated with the first patient monitoring device, an indication of at least an activated physiological parameter, an indication of one or more unactivated physiological parameters, and a licensing duration;
retrieve, responsive to the device identification, device information associated with the first patient monitoring device from the configuration table of the service appliance, the device information comprising an address of the first patient monitoring device and sensor identification associated with the assigned sensor;
retrieve, responsive to the sensor identification, sensor information comprising parameter identification of the one or more first physiological parameters associated with the assigned sensor;
determine, responsive to the parameter identification, support information;
responsive to the support information indicating that the assigned sensor supports monitoring of at least one of the one or more unactivated physiological parameters,
transmit to the first patient monitoring device, updated licensing information comprising new activation of the at least one of the one or more unactivated physiological parameters;
generate a license to indicate that the first patient monitoring device is configured to monitor the new activated at least one physiological parameter for the licensing duration, the license comprising a license number;
and
update the device information of the first patient monitoring device in the configuration table of the service appliance with an indication of the new activated at least one physiological parameter and the license number;
and
responsive to the support information indicating that the assigned sensor fails to support monitoring of the at least one of the one or more unactivated physiological parameters, notify a user to request a new sensor that supports the monitoring of the at least one of the one or more unactivated physiological parameters.

12 more elements

Managing dynamic licenses for physiological parameters in a patient monitoring environment

Life of this patent

Managing dynamic licenses for physiological parameters in a patient monitoring environment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20