Communications hub for use in life critical network

A method for effecting secured communications between a plurality of communicators and a central authority (CA) using a communications device via an unsecured network, each of the plurality of communicators configured to effect connectivity with a patient sensor, the method comprising:

• automatically interrogating communicators using a plurality of disparate communications protocols of the communications device, wherein interrogating the communicators is in response to the communicators coming into proximity with the communications device;
• establishing a connection with the CA via the unsecured network with a logical network port of the communications device;
• authenticating the communications device with the CA;
• transferring data from the communicator to the CA via the logical local ports, the logical network port, and the unsecured network upon authentication, wherein at least a portion of the data comprises sensor data;
• and
• preventing non-communicator entities from establishing a network connection to the CA over the unsecured network via the communications device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a data processing arrangement disposed in a communications device configured to be coupled to an unsecured network, wherein the instructions, when executed, causes the communications device to perform the steps comprising:

• detecting the presence of each of a plurality communicators and at least one non-communicator entity that come into proximity with the communications device;
• interrogating the communicators with a plurality of disparate communication protocols;
• facilitating communication of communicator data between the communicators and the CA via the communications device and an unsecured network, the communicator data comprising sensor data acquired from sensors by respective communicators;
• and
• preventing the non-communicator entity from establishing a connection to the CA over the unsecured network via the communications device.