At long last, the FCC is almost ready to create a dedicated spectrum band for Medical Body Area Networks, or MBANs. The spectrum was allocated in 2012, making the US the first country to allocate spectrum specifically for connected wearable medical sensors. Now, the FCC has appointed the Enterprise Wireless Alliance to serve as frequency coordinator and the EWA has launched a website where...
CareScape V100, a GE patient monitor.
Despite protestations from the American Hospital Association and a cadre of 16 Republican members of Congress, the FCC decided at its August meeting to allow unlicensed devices to use some of the spectrum previously reserved for medical devices.
The AHA and the Representatives both sent letters to the FCC in the last days of July, urging them to postpone...
Some time last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) quietly filled its long-vacant Director of Healthcare Initiatives position, responding to a call made last September by its mHealth task force. The FCC's appointee, Matthew Quinn, is no stranger to healthcare innovation. With a background in two previous government agencies and a number of large and small healthcare companies,...
Last summer we reported on GE Healthcare's proposal to the FCC that the agency dedicate about 40 MHz of spectrum for medical body area networks (MBANs). The FCC recently put out a call for comments on the proposal and received an interesting one from Philips, according to a report from ZDNet.
Philips suggests that the FCC consider allocating spectrum to enable MBANs to use the spectrum inside a...
The wireless association CTIA put together a series of video interviews and presentations focused on wireless health for their Wonder of Wireless (WoW) series. The wireless health focused segment includes an interview with MedApps, an interview with CTIA President Steve Largent about wireless trends for 2010, a presentation on carriers' needs for additional spectrum because of wireless health,...
GE Healthcare and GE's technology development arm, Global Research, announced an initiative focused on developing body sensor networks (BSNs) that will "collect critical patient-specific information." Examples of the types of vitals and biometrics GE plans to develop sensors for include temperature, pulse-oximetry, blood glucose levels, electrocardiogram readings, blood pressure levels and...
"You need a more reliable wireless connection for a CAT scan than you for watching a cat do backflips on Youtube," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein joked at an event that took place this morning in the Senate. The session, The Wireless Future of Health IT, was jointly organized by the the wireless industry association, CTIA, and the New America Foundation.
Adelstein began his remarks by noting...
