Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices are designed to meet the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard. The medical industry primarily uses the 802.15.6 standard. However, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are taking over the healthcare market, an area they have only begun to penetrate.
Benefits of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Devices
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are already used in many devices, so the technology costs less than proprietary technologies created specifically for healthcare market. Standards-based wireless is already popular with health monitors like workout trackers and heart rate monitors. This improves the image of Bluetooth in the healthcare market, an area it has not traditionally been used. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices are portable and have a significant range. This is a perfect fit for health monitoring devices at home or in the hospital. Bluetooth devices in a healthcare environment can use the broad and ubiquitous Bluetooth ecosystem.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are already popular in fitness devices. Healthcare markets can build upon existing communication protocols, software and consumer usage for new products. Bluetooth-enabled medical devices can leverage smart phones to relay information so that patients don’t need to purchase additional communication hubs.
The Major Rival in the Healthcare Market
The major competitor for the wireless sensor market is ZigBee, which has its own wireless protocol. ZigBee is already used widely in the industrial market. It uses less power than traditional Bluetooth, though it is comparable to Bluetooth smart ready devices. ZigBee has better security over 3G networks. It is already used in a number of episodic patient monitoring devices like glucose meters that report blood sugar levels with time stamps instead of patients being asked to write down the values and bring them to doctor’s appointments. ZigBee devices are already used in conjunction with patient alarms. It can notify nurses or doctors when a patient’s heart rate or glucose level falls below a certain threshold.
Why Proprietary Technologies Exist in Healthcare and Why They Are Losing
Medical manufacturers are accustomed to private protocols. They don’t want to redesign their devices. When consumers adopt open protocols, consumers are no longer locked into the manufacturer’s product for an entire suite of products.
Proprietary technologies have a history of not working together, while medical devices must communicate with each other and doctors’ tablets. Using standards-based wireless technologies ensures the compatibility of new wireless devices like EKGs, glucometers, blood pressure monitors and pulse oximeters. Healthcare device manufacturers using Bluetooth gain a universally recognized communication network at a low cost and at even lower energy usage.
Edited by
Ryan Sartor
