Alarm routing optimization strategies in targeted alarm system

1. A targeted medical alarm system comprising:

a network adapter configured to communicate with a plurality of terminal devices over one or more networks, each of the terminal devices being associated with a respective caregiver;

one or more data processors; and

a computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the one or more data processors, performs operations comprising:

transmitting test data to each of the terminal devices;

receiving acknowledgement data indicating when the test data was received by the respective terminal device;

automatically measuring network conditions of the one or more networks by determining, for at least one of the terminal devices, one or more latency-related values associated with each of the test data and the acknowledgement data, the latency-related values including a message latency;

automatically updating reliability data based at least in part on the latency-related values including the message latency, the reliability data including at least one of (i) historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) historical response data for a respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices, the historical response data including one or more response times of the respective caregiver to one or more previous targeted messages;

identifying a targeted terminal device to which a current targeted message is to be sent based at least in part on the updated reliability data including the at least one of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices, thereby reducing delay or failure of delivery of the current targeted message; and

sending the current targeted message to the targeted terminal device.

2. A method of targeted medical alarm for implementation by one or more data processors forming part of at least one computing device, the method comprising:

transmitting test data to each of a plurality of terminal devices;

receiving an automatic acknowledgement from each of the terminal devices indicating when the test data were received; and

automatically measuring network conditions of the one or more networks by determining, for at least one of the terminal devices, one or more latency-related values associated with the test data, the latency-related values including a message latency;

automatically updating reliability data based at least in part on the latency related values including the message latency, the reliability data including at least one of (i) historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) historical response data for a respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices, the historical response data including one or more response times of the respective caregiver to one or more previous targeted messages;

identifying a targeted terminal device to which a current targeted message is to be sent based at least in part on the updated reliability data including the at least one of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices, thereby reducing delay or failure of delivery of the targeted current message; and

sending the current targeted message to the targeted terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the test data comprises one or more test packets.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the test data is transmitted periodically.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data comprises a reliability map.

6. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes a current workload data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

7. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes a proximity data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

8. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes an energy level data the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

9. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes the historical response data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

10. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes a physical distribution of the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

11. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more latency-related values include one or more of: round-trip message latency, a message routing path, and a physical location.

12. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving a response message from a responsive terminal device; and

generating one or more statistics of the responsive terminal device based on the response message.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the one or more statistics include one or more of: a response time, a current location, a typical location, a scheduled activity, and a scheduled location.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the targeted device is determined based at least in part on the one or more statistics of each of the terminal devices.

15. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

identifying a secondary terminal device based at least in part on the reliability data; and

sending the current targeted message to the secondary terminal device.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the secondary terminal device is identified for each critical message.

17. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising generating a report of the reliability data.

18. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the targeted device is determined based at least in part on a location distribution of the terminal devices.

19. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising weighing and combining each of the latency-related values to generate an overall reliability and latency of each of the terminal devices.

20. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising generating the automatic acknowledgement from each of the terminal devices upon receipt of the test data.

21. A targeted medical alarm system comprising:

a network adapter configured to communicate with a plurality of terminal devices over one or more networks, each of the terminal devices being associated with a respective caregiver;

one or more data processors; and

a computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the one or more data processors, performs operations comprising:

transmitting data to each of the terminal devices;

receiving acknowledgement data indicating when the transmitted data was received by the respective terminal device;

automatically measuring network conditions of the one or more networks by determining, for at least one of the terminal devices, one or more latency-related values associated with each of the transmitted data and the acknowledgement data, the latency-related values including a message latency;

automatically updating reliability data based at least in part on the latency-related values including the message latency, the reliability data including at least one of (i) historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) historical response data for a respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices, the historical response data including one or more response times of the respective caregiver to one or more previous targeted messages;

identifying a targeted terminal device to which a current targeted message is to be sent based at least in part on the updated reliability data including the at least one of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data for the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices; and

sending the current targeted message to the targeted terminal device.

22. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 21 , wherein the transmitted data includes at least one of test data and actual data.

23. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 22 , wherein the test data includes one or more test packets.

24. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 22 , wherein the test data is transmitted periodically.

25. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 22 , wherein the actual data includes an alarm message.

26. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 1 , wherein the reliability data includes both of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data of the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

27. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the reliability data includes both of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data of the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.

28. The targeted medical alarm system according to claim 21 , wherein the reliability data includes both of (i) the historical latency-related values for the at least one of the terminal devices and (ii) the historical response data of the respective caregiver associated with the at least one of the terminal devices.