FROM THE EDITOR
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Wireless medical devices may be the wave of the future. The market for these devices is expected to grow 57.8% each year for the next five years. FDANews has forecast this explosion in a report titled, "Wireless Medical Technology: A Strategic Analysis of Global Markets." The report predicts a $7 billion growth by 2011.
"We have seen a very strong uptake of wireless technology in the medical device market. In many product areas, wireless is a valuable differentiating factor that has tangible benefits—reducing the cost of treatment, streamlining processes, and even enabling entirely new methods of working," says Paul Williamson, business development consultant for Cambridge Consultants's wireless business unit (Cambridge, UK). "A key factor that has enabled this growth is the advance in the underlying technology. Gone are the days of 10% data loss per day from expensive and bulky radios." Today, sophisticated radios under microprocessor control can react to interference in the frequency channel, implement secure handshaking protocols, and provide high levels of security, explains Williamson.
The report cited the increasing demand for improved quality of care and pressures for reduced medical costs as two of the key drivers propelling this growth.
"We see interest in two camps," notes Williamson. "Having a keen interest in the tangible cost-benefit that wireless can provide and having interest in the softer benefits such as usability, differentiation, improved outcomes, or convenience for the end-user, patient, or practitioner."
Internal factors are also influencing the use of wireless in medical product devices, says Williamson. These include the level of security and link integrity that can be achieved in wireless design. The report includes a wide range of applications for wireless technology in the medical market, including data management systems that are increasingly moving to wireless technology. "Home medical care has a large potential growth partly because of its broad definition, which may include devices such as pedometers or heart rate monitors," he says. "With such a broad definition of wireless medical technology, the growth rate is achievable."
For designers, that means that the selection of the wireless technology must be considered for each application. Standards-based radios such as Bluetooth, DECT, near-field communication, and ZigBee provide secure and reliable communications for consumer devices. Emerging technologies such as ultrawideband provide the potential for high data rate applications such as wireless video transmission, says Williamson. In critical-care environments, it is likely that a proprietary system where the wireless element forms part of an end-to-end system design will be most appropriate.
