Originally Published MEM Spring 2002
FROM THE EDITOR
Fewer caregivers attending more patients is driving the need for increased device connectivity in hospitals. Both wired and wireless technologies are available to address the need, but two primary technologies—Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11b)—are leading the way for wireless devices to connect medical devices and patient information to hospital networks.
With the ever-increasing demands on clinicians' time, seamless mobility frees the doctor and nurse from administrative tasks and allows them to spend more time on patient care, said Tony Costello, director of sales and business development for Red-M (Englewood, CO).
"Deploying wireless technologies in hospitals with a low-power solution provides the ability to roam freely and stay connected," Costello said. "Bluetooth has been heavily hyped and heavily picked on," Costello said, but he also said it has held its own and has been integrated into mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
One telemedicine developer recently demonstrated a system using Bluetooth-enabled instruments for blood pressure, weight, and oxygen saturation communicating wirelessly to a Bluetooth access point connected to a laptop. The software included screens for customizing the patient profile, displaying data such as the history, as well as disease management screens. Sensitron's (San Mateo, CA) system uses a Bluetooth protocol stack (Impulsesoft; Cupertino, CA) that is based on Microsoft's Windows driver model architecture, making it easy to customize for a particular application such as healthcare.
Wireless solutions based on both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies are great strides in the move to reduce medical errors by fully automating patient vital signs. These systems improve the efficiency of nursing staff and ultimately improve the quality of patient care. The use of Bluetooth in conjunction with Wi-Fi is possible without the need for two separate networks. Using software to manage the synchronization to the different types of technology enables a hospital to address that issue efficiently.
"Wi-Fi (802.11b) has driven down the costs of wireless implementation, and interoperability [with Bluetooth] is very good," said Lynn Lucas, director of the commercial networks business unit at Proxim (Sunnyvale, CA). She said 802.11b, which, like Bluetooth, operates in the 2.4 GHz band, is being used for patient records and patient monitoring. Sensitron plans to deliver its system for hospitals and nursing homes initially, but eventually for home care as well. Seamless mobility is no longer just an option.
Copyright © 2002 Medical Electronics Manufacturing
