Importance

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Abstract

The present invention provides a packet-based telemedicine system for communicating video, voice and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient monitoring station which is remotely-located with respect to the central monitoring station. The patient monitoring station obtains digital video, voice and medical measurement data from a patient and encapsulates the data in packets and sends the packets over a network to the central monitoring station. Since the information is encapsulated in packets, the information can be sent over multiple types or combinations of network architectures, including a Community access Television (CATV) network, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide are network (WAN), over a wireless communications network, or over an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. Thus, a separate transmission protocol is not required for each different type of transmission media. Rather, a single transport/network layer protocol is used for encapsulating the information in packets at the sending end and for de-encapsulating the information at the receiving end. Furthermore, by sending the information in packets, the video, voice and measurement data can be integrated and sent over a single network.

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First Claim