Wireless sensor and monitored patient association system and method

A wireless sensing system comprising:

• a first wireless sensor comprising a physiological sensor configured to obtain first physiological data from a first patient, an identification sensor configured to detect an electrical potential from the first patient to obtain first identification data, wherein the first identification data is electrical potential data, a processor that receives the first physiological data and the first identification data, produces a first unique identifier from the first identification data, appends the first unique identifier to the first physiological data, and operates a communication system to wirelessly transmit the combined first physiological data and first unique identifier;
• a second wireless sensor comprising a physiological sensor configured to obtain second physiological data from a second patient, an identification sensor configured to detect an electrical potential from the second patient to obtain second identification data, wherein the second identification data is electrical potential data, a processor that receives the second physiological data and the second identification data, produces a second unique identifier from the second identification data, appends the second unique identifier to the second physiological data, and operates a communication system to wirelessly transmit the combined second physiological data and second unique identifier;
• a communication system defining a communication area within which the communication system defining the communication area will receive transmissions from wireless sensors within the communication area;
• and
• a processor communicatively connected to the communication system, wherein the processor concurrently receives the combined first physiological data and first unique identifier from the first wireless sensor and the combined second physiological data and second unique identifier from the second wireless sensor and the processor sorts the first physiological data from the second physiological data based upon the first and second unique identifiers then stores the first physiological data associated with the first patient based upon the first unique identifier, and stores the second physiological data associated with the second patient based upon the second unique identifier.

A method of wireless sensing, the method comprising:

• placing a first plurality of wireless sensors on a first patient;
• each wireless sensor of the first plurality of wireless sensors individually producing the same first unique identifier based upon a characteristic of the first patient;
• each wireless sensor of the first plurality of wireless sensors obtaining physiological data from the first patient;
• each wireless sensor of the first plurality of wireless sensors transmitting the obtained physiological data and the first unique identifier from that wireless sensor;
• receiving the physiological data and the first unique identifier from the first plurality of wireless sensors at a processor;
• and
• after receiving the physiological data and the first unique identifier from the first plurality of wireless sensors at the processor, associating the received physiological data to the first patient with the processor based upon the received first unique identifier.

A wireless sensing system comprising:

• a first wireless sensor comprising a physiological sensor configured to obtain first physiological data from a first patient, a first identification sensor configured to detect a unique characteristic of the first patient to obtain first identification data, the first identification data being an electrical potential acquired from the first patient by the identification sensor, a first sensor processor that receives the first physiological data and the first identification data and operates a communication system to wirelessly transmit the first physiological data and the first identification data;
• a second wireless sensor comprising a physiological sensor configured to obtain second physiological data from a second patient, a second identification sensor configured to detect a unique characteristic of the second patient to obtain second identification data the second identification data being an electrical potential acquired from the second patient by the second identification sensor, a second sensor processor that receives the second physiological data and the second identification data and operates a communication system to wirelessly transmit the second physiological data and the second identification data;
• a communication system defining a communication area within which the communication system defining the communication area will receive transmissions from wireless sensors within the communication area;
• and
• a processor communicatively connected to the communication system, wherein the processor concurrently receives the first physiological data, the first identification data, second physiological data, second identification data from the communication system, produces a first unique identifier from the first identification data and produces a second unique identifier from the second identification data, and stores the first physiological data in association with the first unique identifier and stores the second physiological data in association with the second unique identifier.