Wireless Medical Telemetry Service Research Articles

Glossary

Glossary

Telemetry Via Wi-Fi: A Case Study

Telemetry Via Wi-Fi: A Case Study

Wearable and Implantable Wireless Body Area Networks

Using wireless technology for remote patient monitoring has already taken place in hospitals around the world to support diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Although, a large number of wireless medical systems have been reported in the literature, they have been designed for specific applications that cover limited number of sensors and patients. Future wireless medical monitoring systems should be used in a wireless body area network (WBAN) scheme in order to operate in a larger area in hospital environments. They should be able to incorporate with other wireless systems such as Bluetooth, WiFi and short-range wireless sensor systems such as ZigBee. Installing an interference free wireless medical network for monitoring physiological parameters in a medical center may be quite challenging since there are a number of other wireless systems or equipments (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Microwave oven) operating already for different purposes. Thus it is very crucial to design an interference free wireless system for a WBAN in medical applications. In addition to unlicensed ISM bands, there are medical bands such as MICS (Medical Implant Communication Service) and WMTS (Wireless Medical Telemetry Service) that are specifically regulated for medical monitoring by communication commissions around the world. The recent short-range low data rate ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is another attractive technology that started to appear for body area network applications due to its low transmitter power. Low power operation is essential for sensor nodes in a wireless body area network application as it determines the life time and the size of the device. It is therefore desirable to use a wireless standard (or a wireless chip) that will provide low power consumption and has a minimum transmitted power that still meets the required range of the body area networks. Recent developments have focused on the designs of individual wireless sensor electronics that can be used as an implantable and wearable node to detect signals such as EEG, ECG, pulse rate and temperature. This work will review the recent advances and relevant patents in wireless body area network applications. Issues related to hardware implementations, software and wireless protocol designs for a complete wireless body area network application have been addressed.

Problems Persist With Wireless Medical Telemetry Service

Problems Persist With Wireless Medical Telemetry Service

Problems Persist With Wireless Medical Telemetry Service

Problems Persist With Wireless Medical Telemetry Service

Low-power transceivers get patients mobile

The growing use of radio communications to monitor medical conditions is making life easier for patients and their carers. Wireless systems enabled by low-power radio technology are delivering mobility, higher levels of patient care and relative comfort inside and outside the medical facility environment. Both 'on-the-skin' and implantable medical electronic devices are benefiting from transceivers that use the latest mixed-signal ASIC technology to provide desired rates of data transfer over short ranges. Electronics used in medical environments - especially implanted devices - need to have a low-power consumption and high reliability design. Low-power radio devices that use ASICs are already starting to be specified in applications such as cardiac pacemakers, blood glucose monitoring and body temperature sensing. There are two protocols that relate to devices of this type. The first is known as medical implant communications services (MICS). It applies to implantable technologies that need to communicate with the outside world periodically, or when there is a deviation from specified parameters. The second is wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS), which deals with non-implanted (on-the-skin) patient monitoring systems that communicate on a far more regular, timed basis with a suitably equipped remote location, such as a nursing station. Present designs and the future of such systems are discussed.

Not feeling well [medical equipment spectrum allocation

The article discusses how Europe could learn from the US when it comes to wireless medical equipment. The distributed management of the frequency spectrum in Europe is negatively affecting the region, making decision-making processes lengthy and difficult. In the medical equipment arena, where the unlicensed ISM bands are not exclusive, this is beginning seriously to impede progress. In contrast, the US decided to allocate dedicated frequencies for healthcare applications, a process that led to the introduction of what is now known as the wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS). The FCC set aside the 608-614 MHz,1395-1400 MHz and 1429-1432 MHz frequency bands for WMTS. Usage is limited to authorised healthcare providers and is regulated, to facilitate sharing of the spectrum and to help prevent interference among users. WMTS does not extend to prescribing data modulation schemes, communication protocols, etc. This has proved beneficial for the medical equipment industry, as it is allowing OEMs to optimise the data communications schemes for the particular application in hand (for example in cardiac monitoring devices). It also allows medical OEMs to make use of existing technology and components (e.g. DECT baseband processors) to speed the development of next-generation equipment.

Unhooking medicine [wireless networking

In summer 2000, the FCC allocated 14 MHz for the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service, or WMTS. The new service is broken into three bands: 608-6I4, 1395-1400, and 1429-1432 MHz. The old bands will become increasingly troublesome to use in medicine. The ruling is forcing medical device firms to come up with fixes for their old devices and new technologies for the next generation of wireless telemetry. The new band allocation has pushed cash-strapped hospitals in the United States to the brink of an unwanted technology makeover. Hospitals are being forced to reengineer their patient-worn and bedside wireless systems, which could mean the purchase of new transmitters, receivers, and antennas. At the same time physicians and other health care workers are confronted with a whole raft of new wireless technologies, many involving accessing patient data through a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a wireless phone. While the WMTS offers a safe haven for telemetry signals, it has some technical limitations that may diminish its importance.