apparatus for providing on-patient communication

Abstract

An apparatus for providing on-patient communication is described. An implantable medical device including a sensor of physiometry is implanted in a patient. A communication module is remotely interconnected to an interrogation device external to the patient's body and the physiometry is exchanged with the interrogation device. Spoken communication from the patient is received by an implantable microphone including a communication module and is relayed to the interrogation device. voice prompts received from the interrogation device are played by An implantable speaker including a communication module. Pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics are further included with at least one of the implantable medical device, implantable microphone, and implantable speaker and the characteristics are presented on demand by the communication module of the implantable medical device, implantable microphone, and implantable speaker.

1 . A server for performing patient communication over a network comprising:
 a communication interface with a network;   a communication module configured to remotely interconnect to each of an implantable medical device, an implantable microphone, and an implantable speaker through the network;   a verbal information module configured over the network to playback voice prompts through the implantable speaker and to receive voice feedback spoken from the patient through the implantable speaker;   an authentication module configured over the network to authenticate an identification of the patient based on pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics; and   an interrogation module configured over the network to retrieve physiological measures from the implantable medical device upon successful authentication.   
     
     
         2 . A server according to  claim 1 , wherein the interrogation module is further configured to retrieve the voice feedback from the implantable microphone upon the successful authentication of the patient. 
     
     
         3 . A server according to  claim 1 , wherein the voice feedback is interactively provided in response to the voice prompts. 
     
     
         4 . A server according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a voice feedback module configured to process the voice feedback into quality of life measures.   
     
     
         5 . A server according to  claim 4 , further comprising:
 an analysis module configured to analyze the physiological measures and the quality of life measures and to determine therefrom a patient status indicator of patient wellness comprising each of an onset, progression, regression, and status quo of a disease.   
     
     
         6 . A server according to  claim 4 , further comprising:
 a database module configured to store the physiological measures and the quality of life measures into a database as a patient care record for the patient.   
     
     
         7 . A server according to  claim 1 , wherein the server remotely interconnects to at least one of the implantable medical device, implantable microphone, and implantable speaker through a programmer situated over the network and logically proximal to the server. 
     
     
         8 . A programmer for performing patient communication over a communications network comprising:
 a communication interface with a communications network;   a telemetry interface;   a telemetry module configured to locally interconnect to each of an implantable medical device, an implantable microphone, and an implantable speaker implanted in a patient through the telemetry interface;   a communications module configured to remotely interconnect to a server through the communications network;   a voice module configured to playback voice prompts remotely to the patient through the implantable speaker and to receive voice feedback remotely from the patient through the implantable microphone; and   an interrogation module configured to retrieve physiological measures from the implantable medical device upon successful authentication of the patient based on pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics with the server.   
     
     
         9 . A programmer according to  claim 8 , further comprising:
 an authentication module configured to locally authenticate the identification of the patient based on the pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics.   
     
     
         10 . A programmer according to  claim 9 , wherein the interrogation module is further configured to retrieve the voice feedback from the implantable microphone upon the successful local authentication. 
     
     
         11 . A programmer according to  claim 8 , further comprising:
 a storage module configured to store the physiological measures and the voice feedback.   
     
     
         12 . A programmer according to  claim 8 , further comprising:
 an activation module configured to activate the implantable speaker through transmission of the voice prompts to the implantable speaker.   
     
     
         13 . A programmer according to  claim 8 , wherein the voice prompts are received from, and the voice feedback is transmitted to, the server over the communications network. 
     
     
         14 . An apparatus for providing on-patient communication, comprising:
 an implantable medical device implanted in a patient comprising a sensor of physiometry and a communication module configured to remotely interconnect to an interrogation device external to the patient's body and to exchange the physiometry with the interrogation device;   an implantable microphone comprising a communication module configured to receive spoken communication from the patient and to relay the spoken communication to the interrogation device; and   an implantable speaker comprising a communication module configured to play voice prompts received from the interrogation device,   wherein at least one of the implantable medical device, implantable microphone, and implantable speaker further comprises pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics and the communication module of the implantable medical device, implantable microphone, and implantable speaker automatically presents the characteristics on demand.   
     
     
         15 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the implantable microphone is activated in response to a patient-provided activation code selected from the group comprising voice code, tap code, and combination of voice code and tap code. 
     
     
         16 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the pre-defined uniquely identifying patient characteristics are selected from the group comprising a speech fingerprint, teeth-click code, phonic tone code, cough code, and tap code. 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the interrogation device is one of a server and a programmer. 
     
     
         18 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the implantable medical device further provides therapy to the patient. 
     
     
         19 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the implantable microphone further comprises a voice module configured to process the spoken communication into a processed signal. 
     
     
         20 . An apparatus according to  claim 14 , wherein the implantable speaker is activated in response to a detected change in the physiometry through the interrogation device.