Building a Reliable Wireless Medical Device Network

David Hoglund,Vince Varga

doi:10.31354/globalce.v0i1.26

Abstract

How to design and test the most effective and secure wireless medical device connectivity applications that will provide the true mobility experience that is needed in the 2018 healthcare marketplace. Today’s medical devices will need to be connected to provide the data to the electronic medical record. This connectivity will be either real time or on a non real time basis. In either case; the majority of this data transfer will move toward a wireless medium from a legacy wired connection. The following will discuss best practices for wireless network design based upon application requirements; but also the protection of any data regarding cybersecurity requirements. The author has over three decades of medical device knowledge sense but also two decades of wireless and security integration knowledge sense. The take away is to understand the best practices and how to apply this to product design and the overall enterprise implementation into the healthcare ecosystem of connected devices.

Highlights

IntroductionPatient-wearable monitoring – commonly referred to as telemetry – required its own custom designed and proprietary radio system and coaxial cable infrastructure for unidirectional communication
A brief history of the wireless local area network (WLAN)-enabled medical deviceHistorically, patient-wearable monitoring – commonly referred to as telemetry – required its own custom designed and proprietary radio system and coaxial cable infrastructure for unidirectional communication
This paper focuses on the clinical, technical and financial benefits of using the enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) for all patient monitoring, including bedside/transport and telemetry, hospital-wide

Summary

Introduction

Patient-wearable monitoring – commonly referred to as telemetry – required its own custom designed and proprietary radio system and coaxial cable infrastructure for unidirectional communication This infrastructure was built around regulatory domain-controlled technologies, such as Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) in the United States. This has included the generation of smart infusion pumps, portable patient monitoring, and within the past five years, telemetry Modern enterprise networks, both wired and wireless Ethernet systems, have progressed to the point where they, if designed and installed correctly, have proven to be cost effective and reliable – as demonstrated by hundreds of thousands of mission-critical WLAN networks deployed on a global basis in many industries. This networking infrastructure can provide true bi-directional communication for increased overall system reliability

INTRODUCTION

Onsite assessment to ensure successful deployments out of the gate

Findings

Conclusion