Communications: electrical – Continuously variable indicating – Condition responsive
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-25
2003-02-25
Edwards, Jr., Timothy (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Continuously variable indicating
Condition responsive
C128S903000, C600S300000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06525670
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an in-home health caring system incorporating a terminal device for central-managing data about a state of health measured in a home so that contribution to voluntary health care is made and arranged to transmit data to a remote expert, such as a doctor or a public health nurse, so as to enable health care to be performed in a home while advises are being given from the expert.
2. Related Art
Since the aging society rapidly proceeds in recent years, the state of finances of the medical expenses in Japan has a great difficulty. Therefore, countermeasures must be taken. The Japanese government has enlarged medical payments for the people. Moreover, conversion from the former basic principle of “ready detection of disease and early treatment” to “improvement in the health to prevent disease” has been given an important position.
As a means for effectively realizing the “improvement in the health to prevent disease”, an “in-home health caring system” has been suggested. The system has a structure that data (for example, data about the blood pressure measured by an electronic sphygmomanometer and the body temperature measured by a clinical thermometer) about a state of the health which can be measured in a home, which is hereinafter expresses as “health data”). Measured data is transmitted to a medical facility, a medical examination center or the like through a communication network, such as the public line or the CATV line. Thus, data is analyzed/determined by an expert.
The foregoing in-home health caring system enables daily health care in a home to be performed under guidance of an expert. As a result, reliable health care can be performed, thus causing the number of attendance of a hospital to be decreased.
As a system of the foregoing type, an in-home health caring system structured as shown in
FIG. 35
has been suggested in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Hei. 8-275927. The foregoing system incorporates each terminal device having a function to serve as a health measuring device which includes a sphygmomanometer and an electrocardiograph.
In general, a terminal device for use in the in-home health caring system must transmit data about the state of the health to a medical facility, a medical examination center or the like. Therefore, connection terminals are disposed at certain positions. If a telephone line is employed, the terminal devices are disposed adjacent to modular terminals. Therefore, the in-home health caring system shown in
FIG. 1
requires a user to move to the terminal device when the state of the health of the user is measured if the terminal device and the health measuring device are integrated with each other. Therefore, the system cannot easily be used.
Therefore, an in-home health caring system disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Hei. 9-140748 incorporates terminal devices and health measuring devices which are individually provided. Moreover, each of the health measuring devices, such as a sphygmomanometer and a clinical thermometer, is provided with an infrared-ray communication function to enable measured data to be supplied to the terminal device from a remote position. On the other hand, when the terminal device and the health measuring device are connected to each other through a cable or the like followed by depressing a data transmitting button or the like provided for the health measuring device, an in-home health caring system of the foregoing type enables health data measured at an arbitrary position to be input to the terminal device.
The in-home health caring system having the above-mentioned structure is able to improve reliability of the health care as the number of types of health measuring devices increases. If the wireless communication function using electric waves or infrared rays is provided for all of the health measuring devices, the cost of the in-home health caring system is enlarged excessively. As a result, there arises a problem in that the introduction of the in-home health caring system is inhibited.
The foregoing system incorporates one data transferring device which has means for reading data from a health measuring device and means for wireless-transmitting read data to a terminal device to realize wireless input of data to the terminal device without enlargement of the cost.
The in-home health caring system structured such that the health measuring device and the terminal device are provided individually has a problem in that employment of a variety of communication methods between the health measuring device and the terminal device inhibits convenient operation.
Since the health measuring devices have various communication methods, a receiving means and a connection terminal adaptable to each communication method must be provided for the terminal device to receive health data transmitted from a variety of health measuring devices (for example, a health measuring device for performing synchronous serial communication method requires the terminal device to be provided with a connection terminal adaptable to the synchronous serial communication method). To enable health data to obtain health data from a plurality of health measuring devices having various communication methods, the terminal device must constitute a data receiving application adaptable to each communication method. Then, a user must select a suitable application from the applications, followed by starting transmission of health data to the terminal device. As described above, a very complicated process is required.
The in-home health caring system structured such that the health measuring device and the terminal device are provided individually has a problem in that an operation for starting input by depressing the data transmitting button must be performed whenever the health measuring device and the terminal device are connected to each other. Thus, a complicated operation must be performed by a user. To accurately recognize a state of the health of the user, a multiplicity of health measuring devices must be used. The foregoing operations become troublesome when a large number of the health measuring devices are used.
When wireless communication is employed to perform communication between the health measuring device and the terminal device, health data can be read by the terminal device only by depressing the communication start button provided for the health measuring device. Therefore, the operation for connecting cables is not required. Thus, the operation for inputting health data can easily be performed. When wireless communication of all of the health measuring devices is realized, the cost is enlarged excessively. In a case of a health measuring device which must transmit data in a great quantity, the wireless communication is not necessarily an appropriate communication method. Therefore, when only the wireless communication is employed, the type of the health measuring device is sometimes limited. Therefore, it is preferable that the wired communication and the wireless communication are selectively employed between the health measuring device and the terminal device.
In the in-home health caring system in which the wired communication and the wireless communication are employed together between the health measuring device and the terminal device, data is communicated adjacent to the terminal device when the wired communication is employed. When the wireless communication is employed, data is communicated from a position apart from the terminal device. Therefore, the wireless communication is sometimes incorrectly started even if the wired communication is being performed.
However, the terminal device of the in-home health caring system cannot simultaneously process health data transmitted from a plurality of the health measuring devices. Therefore, if health data is simultaneously transmitted from the plural health measuring devices, the terminal device cannot receive all of the health data items. Therefore, a portion of health data cannot
Doi Kenji
Hashimoto Masaru
Kitayama Kazuya
Koyama Masaki
Maeda Mitsuhide
Edwards, Jr. Timothy
Matsushita Electric & Works Ltd.
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