The iconic image of a hospital patient is a frail figure lost in a tangle of wires and cables connected to large, noisy machines. Those wires and cables are beginning to be replaced by wireless technologies similar to those that have cleaned up the thicket of cables in our office workstations. But for the more personal needs of healthcare, that technology is becoming “wearable.” ABI Research estimates that five million disposable, wearable, medical sensors will ship by 2018. In addition to increasing the comfort of patients and enabling staff to more easily assist and move them, wireless will improve the devices in their main function – alerting staff to changes in vital signs. In 2012, the Federal Communications Commission announced allocation of a section of the broadcast spectrum for Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. MBANs transmit a stream of continuous, real-time data about a patient’s condition. With MBANs, the flow of data can be monitored by medical personnel, recorded for inclusion in electronic health records, or even shared with concerned family members.
Post time: Dec-13-2018