Patent attributes
A patient temperature repeating system and a method of repeating patient temperature information from a resistive-type patient temperature sensor allow one or more medical instruments to utilize a single patient temperature sensor. In one embodiment, the patient temperature repeating system (10) includes input and output connectors (12, 14), a microprocessor (20), optical isolators (22), a coarse digital potentiometer (24) in parallel with a fine digital potentiometer (26), a current sense resistor (28), amplifiers (30A, 30B), analog-to-digital converters (32A, 32B), a filter (34), fuses (36), a non-volatile memory device (38), and a relay (40). In operation, the microprocessor (20) reads the resistance level of a resistive-type patient temperature sensor (16) connected to the input connector (12) and provides the appropriate control signals through the optical isolators (22) to the coarse and fine digital potentiometers (24, 26) in order to set the resistance seen by a medical device (18) connected to the output connector (14) to match that of the patient temperature sensor (16).
