System and method for adjusting time associated with medical event data

Abstract

A system synchronizes the time of a clock of an electronic physiological instrument with time of a remote time base. The electronic physiological instrument records medical event data and electronically associates event time with the event data While recording, or after recording, the medical event data, the electronic physiological instrument is placed in data communication with the remote time base over a data connection. The remote time base initially determines a reference time from a master clock. The remote time base also transmits a request to the electronic physiological instrument for a current time from a clock in the electronic physiological instrument. If a response is not received from the electronic physiological instrument within a first time period, the clock is not synchronized with the remote time base. If a response is received within the first time period, a time difference is determined between the reference time and the time transmitted from the electronic physiological instrument by subtracting the two times. The time difference is then electronically associated with the medical event data. Associating the time difference with the medical event data allows the time stamps in the event data to be corrected to provide meaningful event reconstruction and analysis independent of any time differences between the two clocks and any time delays incurred in receiving the time from the physiological instrument over the data connection.