Welcome to the Wireless Age: Connectivity to Drive Medical Device Innovation

Many people believe that the introduction of technologyinto medical devices is one of the key drivers causing healthcare expendituresto increase. In reality, medical devices account for less than 5 percent ofhospital expenditures. Hospital spending on medical technology as a share oftotal health services and supplies expenditures has dropped from 5.8 percent in1980 to 3 percent in 2006. Furthermore, these high-tech medical devices havehelped to reduce the long-term costs of care. This trend of decreasedhealthcare spending and the added benefit of increased levels of patient carewill continue as device manufacturers bring more innovative devices to market.

One technology that will directly impact the trend of reducedhealthcare costs and an increased level of patient care is wirelessconnectivity. This technology will redefine the way medicine is practiced overthe course of the next five years by enabling remote patient monitoring tofinally become reality. The development and adoption of these technologies willreduce the load on doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners and putpatients in greater control of their own health, promoting a more proactiveapproach to health and wellness.

Wireless Connectivity

Despite the fact thatwireless technology is becoming more pervasive in many aspects of daily life,most medical devices are still wired today. A typical device has a datacollection sensor that is wired to the medical device and the device can beconnected to a PC, via another wired connection, likely USB. These wiredsolutions cause numerous issues for the patient, most importantly in ease ofuse. For example, patients who take electrocardiograms (ECG) today are coveredin wired sensors, which is typical for a 16-lead ECG. However, next-generation,bandage-sized ECGs are data gathering devices. Next-generation units will befar easier to use and thus most appropriate for patient home use.

Wireless devices and remotemonitors will become most prevalent in the treatment of chronic diseases like cardiacdisease and diabetes care. These markets will be the first to adopt newtechnology, like wireless connectivity, because they are experiencing the mostpain and have the most to gain from the benefits of remote patient monitoring.Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths globally. According tothe World Health Organization, approximately 17.5 million people died fromcardiovascular disease in 2005, or about 30 percent of all global deaths.Diabetes, though not as lethal, affects 27 million people in the U.S. today andis predicted to affect 50 percent of Americans by 2020.

The average healthcareexpenses in the U.S. for people without a chronic disease, such as cardiacdisease or diabetes, are approximately $4,400. But for people with a chronicdisease the cost nearly triples to $11,700, and for those patients withcomplications, the average annual cost rises to a staggering $20,700.Self-management education is a key step in improving health outcomes and thequality of life in these patients. This includes a focus on self-carebehaviors, such as healthy eating, maintaining an active lifestyle, and, mostimportantly, regularly monitoring vital signs such as cardiac and blood sugardata. Adding wireless connectivity to these vital signs monitoring devices willimprove patient compliance due to the ability of physicians to monitor thepatients remotely and the significantly improved user experience of the device(no wires). This improved monitoring process has the ability to significantly reducethe cost of managing a chronic disease by lowering the incidents ofcomplications.

A wireless remote monitoringdevice can take many forms, but most consist of a wireless sensor connected toa consumer medical device like an ECG, heart monitor or glucometer. Thesemedical end-devices connect wirelessly via the Personal Area Network (PAN) toan Application Hosting Devices (AHD), such as mobile phone, PDA, PC, tablet PCor set-top box. This AHD will then use a wired (Ethernet) or wireless(cellular) signal to transmit the data to a storage location such as anelectronic medical record (EMR) or personal medical record (PMR). Other moreunique form factors that combine multiple consumer medical devices with an AHD,like that of a medical kiosk that is used within hospitals, doctor's officesand pharmacies, will become more prevalent.

One organization that ishelping to drive the wireless device movement is the Continua Health Alliance.This non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companiesjoined together in collaboration to improve the quality of personalhealthcare. For the past two years, theContinua Health Alliance has been working toward the development of guidelinesfor the Personal Area Network (PAN) interface. Device designers have a widevariety of options when it comes to choosing a PAN wireless protocol. TheContinua Health Alliance is investigating a list of wireless protocols (seetable ).

As of December 2010, Zigbee,Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low-Energy are the only approved wireless standards forthe PAN and it is recommended that device manufactures use Continua-approvedwireless protocols.

The next five years are goingto be exciting in the medical device world. In this new world everything willbe wirelessly connected and devices - not doctors - will be helping us makeeducated decisions regarding our health. This will help to lower the cost ofhealthcare and increase the level of patient care. The future is bright forboth the developer and the user of next-generation medical devices.

David Niewolny is amedical product marketing manager within the Microcontroller Solutions Group atFreescale Semiconductor.

For moreinformation:
Freescale is looking to helpwireless medical device designers get their products to market faster byoffering reference designs complete with device schematics and sample code allavailable for download.

References:
1. MedicalDevice Manufactures Assn. with National Venture Capital Assn. Medical Technologyand Venture Capital: A Fruitful yet Fragile Ecosystem, June 2009
2. Medical News Today,Majority Of Americans Will Have Diabetes Or Pre-Diabetes By 2020 - With HugeFinancial Costs, 23 Nov. 2010.
3. Sharma,Raman (2009), Low-Energy Wireless: Justwhat the doctor ordered. Beyond Bits IV
4. iRythm