My startup is working in exactly this field; building a small embedded tag which can be linked to the data port of a variety of clinical devices, allowing data to be offloaded into a electronic patient record or external database.
We've had a bit of trouble getting protocols out of the manufacturers, but generally the hospital department in change of device maintenance (here, Medical Physics) will have access or can request it for datasheets, protocol specifications, and almost everything you'd want.
Not sure they'd be too happy providing it to a random patient though, whereas we have a working relationship with a few local hospitals.
I also recently underwent a sleep study for sleep apnea, and after having waited around 4 months for the test, it will now be another 5-6 before the specialist can review my results and make a diagnosis. Chances are any sort of CPAP will require another test for calibration and the like as well :/
I'm highly tempted to do as described in this article, and take one of the office test devices, a Nonin XPod http://www.nonin.com/OEMSolutions/Xpod and do a bit of night-time data logging of my own. Having worked with those devices, I quite like their very simple serial packet format, which is standard RS232 serial, and fully documented on the public datasheet on their website.
We've had a bit of trouble getting protocols out of the manufacturers, but generally the hospital department in change of device maintenance (here, Medical Physics) will have access or can request it for datasheets, protocol specifications, and almost everything you'd want.
Not sure they'd be too happy providing it to a random patient though, whereas we have a working relationship with a few local hospitals.
I also recently underwent a sleep study for sleep apnea, and after having waited around 4 months for the test, it will now be another 5-6 before the specialist can review my results and make a diagnosis. Chances are any sort of CPAP will require another test for calibration and the like as well :/
I'm highly tempted to do as described in this article, and take one of the office test devices, a Nonin XPod http://www.nonin.com/OEMSolutions/Xpod and do a bit of night-time data logging of my own. Having worked with those devices, I quite like their very simple serial packet format, which is standard RS232 serial, and fully documented on the public datasheet on their website.