Scott Zielski
General Manager, System Technologies and Services, Hospira
Hospira has been at the forefront of wireless medical device
technology in hospitals, as we were one of the first medical device
companies to support multiple wireless protocols, such as 802.11a/b/g,
enhanced wireless encryption, and wireless authentication with infusion
pumps.
We have seen the implementation of our infusion systems serve
as a catalyst for hospitals implementing and supporting wireless
coverage throughout the hospital. By their very nature, infusion devices
are mobile as they roam throughout the care environment with patients.
Therefore, the implementation of “smart” infusion devices, such as
Hospira’s Plum A+ infusion system with Hospira MedNet safety software,
prompts the need to further expand wireless coverage to all areas of the
hospital.
As we look toward the future of healthcare, integrations
between infusion devices and clinical information systems and bar-code
point of care systems will become more standard in order to improve
patient care, making wireless medical technology essential. As Hospira
continues to focus on bringing more integrated offerings to the market,
we see our business continuing to influence the adoption of wireless
medical technology.
Jon Adams
Business Development Manager, Wireless Connectivity Operation, Freescale Semiconductor
Connected
health increases personal involvement in and responsibility for one’s
own health, and partners with caregivers and loved ones. Most personal
healthcare devices, whether they’re relatively simple things, like
weight scales, or more sophisticated, like EKG/ECGs, bring the best
benefit when the generated data creates metrics that allow the person to
pay better attention to their health. Wires on weight scales just won’t
work; wireless is the only way to solve the problem. Due to propagation
challenges, cellular wireless doesn’t always reach to the bathroom
floor, or blood pressure cuff at the desk, but standards-based,
whole-home wireless, like ZigBee Health Care, does.
Using ZigBee
wireless inside the home to tie together all the healthcare and wellness
devices, and bridging that to the care provider via cellular or wired
internet access is a great way to solve the connectivity puzzle and
provide reliable, battery-efficient wireless connectivity. Freescale is
an active participant in both the ZigBee and Continua Alliances,
bringing technical leadership and years of experience to help major and
emerging medical device manufacturers build high-quality,
energy-efficient, wireless healthcare devices.
Alan Cohen
Medical Practice Team Lead and Director, Systems Engineering, Logic PD
Telemedicine is a growing trend in the medical industry. Wireless
devices, such as glucose meters, play a key role in the evolution of
this new wave of patient care. Logic PD, which designs and manufactures
many wireless medical devices, is working with other industry leaders to
solve several of the unique challenges surrounding telemedicine.
Industrial
Design–The ergonomics and usability of wireless medical devices used in
telemedicine can vary greatly depending on the disabilities of a
patient. The user experience for these products must be simple and
friendly.
Communication Standards–Some patients may not have LAN
lines or cell phone service in their homes so these medical devices must
be designed to communicate via multiple wired and wireless vehicles.
Logic PD is working via the Continua Health Alliance to establish
wireless protocol standards.
Expense–Medical devices are typically
expensive. To promote broad adoption of telemedicine, the cost of these
medical devices must be much lower than hospital-grade devices and still
maintain high quality for FDA approval. As both a design and
manufacturing contractor, Logic PD is driving down costs through using
our broad experience to design for low-cost manufacturability.
Mark Schwartz
CEO, Product Development Technologies
PDT’s
expertise is rooted in mobile design. This heritage, married with our
medical product development experience, has enabled PDT to fill a spot
in the growing telemedicine movement as we work with clients to develop
health/wellness tools never before feasible.
We see the smart phone
influencing how telemedicine products are developed in myriad ways. PDT
has developed hardware to aid in managing wellness that draws upon the
strengths of smart phone design, while leveraging open architecture
technologies. The recent decision by some handset makers to open up
smart phone architectures is allowing us incredible opportunities for
innovation and creativity. Although highly integrated package technology
makes wireless product integration much easier than in years past, it
still requires skilled designers to lay out products that will meet
challenging regulatory and performance requirements.
Wireless
connectivity adds a great deal of complexity to medical products; the
key is to make the interface simple and intuitive for the user. Through
rich user interfaces developed in operating system-based platforms, like
Android, Windows Mobile, and WindowsCE, we are able to leverage
built-in platform capabilities, enabling us to focus on the particular
value-add of the targeted medical device.
Jim Vana
Applications Engineering Specialist, 3M Electronic Solutions Division
Wireless
medical telemetry devices may be at risk from both EMI and RFI, as
identified in the U.S. FDA Guidance on Wireless Medical Telemetry Risks
and Recommendations. Even when using the developed Wireless Medical
Telemetry Service bands, wireless device manufacturers need to guard
against unexpected EM and RF interference that could lead to data
integrity issues or other potentially disruptive situations for medical
electronic equipment.
3M continues to provide a suite of leading edge
solutions for EMI and RFI protection that may be used to help wireless
medical device manufacturers mitigate these risks, including embedded
capacitance materials for printed circuit boards, EMI/RFI shielding
tapes and absorbing materials, and instrumentation for EMI testing.
These solutions will continue to become more valuable as devices shrink
and the amount of wireless device usage increases in the medical field.
Joe Tillison
Technology Director, Avnet Electronics Marketing
Wireless
is certainly the buzz lately–or, more specifically, wireless sensor
networks (WSN). One can’t help feeling that we’re on the verge of an
outbreak of wireless sensor deployments for telehealth, patient
ID/tracking, and asset management applications. The essential
electronics technology is here today–extreme low power MCUs requiring
only nA of sleep current, sophisticated standards-based ISM-band radios
like IEEE802.15.4, and robust networking protocols like ZigBee,
BluetoothLE, and 6LoWPAN. Moreover, it’s possible, when wireless sensors
are coupled with energy scavenging devices that collect light,
vibration, or even body-motion energy to deploy batteryless, wireless
sensors that require zero maintenance.
Wireless technology, however,
can also be fraught with new issues, such as equipment compatibility, RF
co-existence, and network security. Certainly, the Continua Health
Alliance’s efforts to define interoperable profiles for remote health
monitoring and fitness equipment will help to mitigate some of these
issues and give Continua-certified products a clear advantage in these
applications. But, while the technology holds such incredible promise,
the landscape is littered with literally hundreds of options for
devices, protocols, and standards, and it’s not likely there will ever
be a clear ubiquitous WSN standard analogous to Wi-Fi for wireless data
networks. To support designers navigating the daunting buffet of
options, Avnet stocks a variety of wireless kits for customers who just
need to evaluate and test various wireless devices or protocols.
Alex Brisbourne
President and COO, KORE Telematics
KORE
Telematics is on the forefront of wireless medical technology,
partnering with a number of application developers to improve outcomes
and significantly reduce healthcare costs.
Wireless medical devices
are being rapidly adopted by the healthcare industry, enabling remote
monitoring of conditions from sleep apnea to heart disease and diabetes
control. Collaborating with medical device manufacturers, KORE enables
portable medical devices to transmit immediate information, reliably and
inexpensively, allowing hundreds of thousands of patients to lead more
active lives away from hospital beds.
Home-based Internet routers or
landline phones help, but force patients to remain at home, even if
their health condition does not warrant it. A more ubiquitous way to get
information from patient to physician is needed. By using the same
wireless cellular networks that power cell phones to transmit medical
data, KORE enables patients to lead active lives while transmitting
medical information to their healthcare provider.
By integrating the
networks of major Tier 1 wireless carriers into a single cellular
service platform, KORE provides ubiquitous wireless connectivity across
the globe. This frees patients to literally travel the world while still
having their medical diagnostics reported back to a doctor in
real-time.
Ken Appel
Manager Regulated Markets, Veriteq
Veriteq’s “hybrid” systems design has made it possible for a wide
swathe of medical device manufacturers with applications requiring
monitoring, alarming, and reporting of environmental conditions to use
wireless technology and maintain gap-free records that are key to FDA
compliance and ensuring product safety. By “hybrid,” I mean that
recording of temperature, humidity, pressure, etc. are decentralized and
done where the critical environments are (e.g., via a logger in a
cleanroom), while the reporting and alarming functions are centralized.
Wireless systems have great appeal to many Veriteq customers, because
the convenience factors of going wireless can be considerable. Costs can
be lower too. Veriteq’s hybrid viewLinc system uses 10-year batteries
on each data logger in the system that continue to collect data if
wireless networks are interrupted, that then backfill in the data when
the wireless system integrity is restored. This type of design
redundancy, or “hybrid” systems, ensures gap-free records in the event
that there is an interference with the wireless transmission, which can
be brought on by something as simple as a lift truck passing through.