Dynamic medical object information base

A non-transitory tangible medium containing instructions for communicating with a network device, the instructions executing a method comprising:

• providing a communication protocol on a host computer for exchanging a series of messages between the host computer and a network device;
• initiating communication with the network device;
• receiving a message from the network device, wherein the message comprises a global unique identifier for the network device;
• requesting, based upon the received global unique identifier, a self-describing data dictionary for the message, wherein the global unique identifier is used to identify the self-describing data dictionary corresponding to the message, wherein the global unique identifier associates the self-describing data dictionary with the network device, wherein the self-describing data dictionary includes data definitions that include one or more fields representing physiological data that are loaded into the data dictionary at run time, and wherein the self-describing data dictionary uses the data definitions to interpret a serial stream of physiological data from the network device, the data definitions comprising:
• one or more fields representing a unit of measure of physiological data for one or more of the data definitions, the unit of measure defining the physiological unit used when measuring the physiological data;
• one or more fields representing a scale factor that indicates a precision of the physiological data for one or more of the data definitions;
• one or more text strings representing a physiological name for one or more of the data definitions;
• one or more enumerated strings representing a reading quality for one or more of the data definitions, the reading quality corresponding to a signal strength at a physiological sensor at the network device;
• and
• one or more alias fields, each alias field providing a number that represents a clinically recognized medical nomenclature;
• receiving the self-describing data dictionary;
• updating the communication protocol on the host computer with the self-describing data dictionary;
• receiving data in one or more subsequent messages from the network device through the communication protocol on the host computer, wherein the one or more subsequent messages include the global unique identifier to identify the self-describing data dictionary corresponding to the network device, and
• processing the data according to data definitions.