Medical Device Authentication Patent Granted

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Health Informatics (G16H)

Published March 24th, 2026

Detected March 24th, 2026

Summary

The USPTO has granted a patent (US12587844B2) to Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH for a medical device authentication system. The patent describes a method for authenticating a user of a medical device using a portable authentication device and acoustic signals.

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What changed

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent US12587844B2 to Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH for a "Device and method for the authentication of a user of a medical device." The patent, effective March 24, 2026, details a system involving a medical device and a portable authentication device that communicate wirelessly and acoustically to verify user location and authentication. The filing date for this patent was June 21, 2021.

This patent grant is a routine event for a specific invention and does not impose new regulatory obligations on medical device manufacturers or healthcare providers. However, it may inform future product development and cybersecurity strategies within the health informatics sector. Compliance officers should note this as a development in medical device security technology, particularly concerning user authentication and device proximity verification.

Source document (simplified)

← USPTO Patent Grants

Device and method for the authentication of a user of a medical device

Grant US12587844B2 Kind: B2 Mar 24, 2026

Assignee

FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE DEUTSCHLAND GMBH

Inventors

Stefan Konrad Marterstock, Kevin Heiko Hartmann

Abstract

A treatment system (100) for treating a patient comprises a medical device (10) and a portable authentication device (20), wherein the medical device (10) is adapted to output an acoustic signal when a wireless communication connection between the medical device (10) and the portable authentication device (20) is successfully established, the portable authentication device (20) is adapted to receive the acoustic signal, to generate, based on the received acoustic signal, a signal containing a signal corresponding to the received acoustic signal, and to wirelessly transmit the generated signal to the medical device (10), and the medical device (10) is adapted to determine whether or not the portable authentication device (20) is located at a position where acoustic communication between the medical device (10) and the portable authentication device (20) is possible, depending on whether or not it receives the signal containing the signal corresponding to the acoustic signal received by the portable authentication device (20).