Concurrent medical patient data and voice communication method and

Abstract

Method and apparatus for voice interaction between the service provider to the patient whose life signs, e.g. an electrocardiograph (ECG), concurrently are being monitored are described. Patient data, and preferably patient waveform data, and voice communication are conveyed in real-time on a single, or common, public switched telephone (PSTN) line. A life signs monitor at the patient site is connected to the patient and to a digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) device having the ability to digitize and compress the patient's voice and having the ability to decompress and analogize the physician's voice via a standard telephone. A modem modulates and demodulates transmitted and received data over the telephone line. At a remote monitoring site a second modem receives and transmits data over the same telephone line. The second modem is connected with a second DSVD device connected to a display- or printer-equipped receiving station for presentation in textual or graphic form to a remote service provider the patient data, e.g. in the form of an ECG trace. Thus, the service provider has the ability to overview patient life signs monitoring while in real-time, synchronized vocal communication with the patient, and therefore is able to correlate the patient's mental, physical and emotion state with the data being received, as well as for instructing the patient or otherwise reassuring the patient of the proper use of the life signs monitor or diagnosing or prescribing in real-time a response to what is gleaned from the monitoring.