World wide patient location and data telemetry system for implantable medical devices

Method for operation of a transceiver unit for wearing on a person having location means and means for communicating with an implant and with a telephone network comprising:

• providing a telemetric communications pathway between an implanted medical device(IMD) and a patient word device(PWD) to facilitate the transfer from the IMD to the PWD of data relating to any of the following information types:
• a. Ser. No. or other unique ID data, b. Patient Condition, c. Device status data, d. Device Sensor data, and/or e. coordinating data,
• providing a telemetric communications pathway between an IMD and a PWD to facilitate the transfer from the PWD to the IMD of data relating to any of the following information types:
• a. Commands and /or b. Coordinating data,
• providing a telemetric communications pathway between a node on a telephone network and said PWD and between a satellite GPS system and said PWD so as to facilitate the transfer of any of the following information types from said node and/or said satellite GPS system to said PWD:
• a. Command data and/or coordinating data, and
• providing a telemetric communications pathway between a node on a telephone network and said PWD so as to facilitate the transfer of any of the following information types from said PWD to said node:
• PWD device data including any data received by the PWD from the IMD and/or any sensor data that may be developed and stored by the PWD and/or PWD status data and/or Dynamic Relative Reference data from a dead reckoning system associated with said PWD, and GPS and DGPS which may be stored by the PWD.

A method of monitoring a patient having a transceiver associated therewith and an implanted medical device in communication with said transceiver comprising;

• monitoring GPS and DGPS location data by said transceiver,
• interpreting said location data by said transceiver and
• if said location data interpreted by said transceiver indicates the patient transceiver is outside a predetermined area,
• initiating a telephone call by said transceiver to a telephone node on a telephone network, indicating the present location of said transceiver.

A method of operating an emergency patient location system comprising,

• providing said system with patients having implanted medical devices and transceiver units for monitoring communications from said implanted medical devices,
• providing said transceiver units with means to receive GPS data and to store said GPS data,
• providing said transceiver units with telecommunications equipment,
• awaiting the development of emergency conditions to be reported by said transceiver units to said system across telephonic communications pathways,
• dispatching emergency mobile units having receiver means tuned to receive signals from said transceiver unit reporting said emergency condition
• reporting from said transceiver unit location information,
• receiving said location information in said emergency mobile unit and
• employing said location information by said emergency mobile unit to locate the patient having the reported emergency.

A system for communicating with a medical clinic implanted in an ambulatory patient and for locating the patient to selectively monitor the functions of the medical clinic and provide assistance to and communications with the patient, the system comprising:

• an implanted device telemetry transceiver within the implanted medical clinic for communicating data and operating instructions to and from the medical device, the implanted medical device telemetry transceiver having a transceiving range extending outside the patient's body, a distance sufficient to receive and transmit such telemetered communication;
• a communications network interface means coupled to a system controller and a communications means for selectively enabling to transmit positioning data to a medical support network and for selectively receiving commands from the medical support network wherein an implantable wireless interface including a real time clock and a system for updating said real time clock based on accurate time clock information in signals received from a global positioning system is integrated therewith;
• dead reckoning circuit means for determining the relative location of said transceiver over time to any location at a fixed time during which an acceptable fixed location of said transceiver is known, and wherein a circuit means for producing a representation of received location information for presentation to a telecommunications module is configured to also provide a representation of said dead reckoning information to said telecommunications module;
• and
• a distance traveled interpretive processor for receiving an output from said dead reckoning circuit and determining a distance traveled therefrom;
• a trigger circuit for triggering the initiation of transmission to a telephone system by said telecommunications module including said communications means when the distance traveled interpretive processor determines a distance traveled is greater than a predetermined trigger distance value.