FCC Advocacy Drives Future of Wireless Patient Monitoring
The 2360 to 2400 MHz frequency band is the best candidate for body sensor networks and similar devices.
Guest commentary from Derek Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer of Patient Care Solutions at GE Healthcare.
Wireless technology is starting to revolutionize health care, and many expect the coming surge of wireless devices to transform medical care. For example, hospitals are significantly expanding their use of medical telemetry, a portable system worn by the patient that continuously measures a variety of vital signs and wirelessly transmits data to a central location. Current telemetry systems receive patient information from wired electrodes connected to the body. Initially suited to monitor patients on a single floor or unit, today's medical telemetry systems extend throughout entire hospital buildings and medical campuses.
Wireless in health care is also gaining momentum at the policy level. This past July in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a significant joint meeting to discuss the future of wireless health care and the convergence of communication and medical device technologies. The meeting was initially recommended in the ambitious health care section of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, announced in March 2010. In his opening remarks at the July meeting, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski highlighted both the potential benefits of wireless medical devices, including a promising new technology called body sensor networks (BSNs), and the important issue of allocating sufficient spectrum to enable such devices:
"Smart spectrum policy, including unlocking more spectrum, can pave the way to a new generation of wireless medical devices. For example, as we saw, wireless band-aid-like sensors will be able to monitor a patient's vital signs, detect the onset of a patient ‘crash,' and transmit health data to caregivers in time for treatment...In short, smart spectrum policy is a key enabler to smart health care."
Advocating for special-purpose spectrum for BSNs
Several years ago, the FCC identified a need for additional wireless spectrum for next-generation wireless medical devices. It acknowledged that "the pace and nature of development of newer, more capable, and more sophisticated devices may be inadequately accommodated" by current FCC rules. The organization asked the public and industry to comment on the types of future wireless medical devices and spectrum needs to accommodate these technologies.
GE Healthcare leveraged its expertise in patient monitoring and wireless technology, working with hospitals, the FCC and other industry bodies to identify and advocate for the allocation of additional spectrum to support low-power, short-range devices such as BSNs. It identified the 2360 to 2400 MHz frequency band as the best candidate for BSNs and similar devices, following significant research and consultation with the FCC and National Telecommunications and Information Administration. GE Healthcare believes this bandwidth is large enough to address future health care needs, and allows for low power consumption required to make BSNs clinically feasible.
In June 2009, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to allocate radio spectrum establishing a new, vendor-neutral frequency allocation for low-power, short-range wireless patient medical devices, such as BSNs. This was a major milestone and step forward for this technology class. If adopted, it would provide friendly spectrum for wireless medical BSNs and reduce the potential of interference from ubiquitous unlicensed radio devices that operate in existing frequency bands.
The future of wireless patient monitoring
BSNs represent a potential new approach to wireless patient monitoring. This technology could replace the traditional tangle of bedside cables and leadwires used to capture a patient's vital signs. As envisioned, BSNs would consist of miniaturized body-worn sensors that collect critical patient-specific information, such as temperature, pulse-oximetry, electrocardiogram readings and respiratory function. Each body-worn sensor would communicate information about the patient's vital signs, via short-range wireless signals to a small nearby receiver.
Leveraging complementary long-range wireless technologies such as telemetry or cellular, this real-time patient information could then be transmitted from the receiver to doctors and nurses, enabling efficient monitoring of patient vital signs, no matter where the patient is located in the hospital -- or even remotely from the patient's home. The data could ultimately flow to centralized monitoring stations or automatically update electronic medical records.
BSNs: The potential to enhance health care
BSNs could offer potential clinical and workflow benefits in the following areas:
- Transport. With BSNs, caregivers would no longer need to disconnect and reconnect wires, allowing for enhanced data continuity and supporting efficient patient transfers.
- Acuity monitoring. BSNs will help bring hospitals greater monitoring flexibility and scalability, so they can improve patient workflow and be able to quickly add or remove parameter sensors as medical conditions warrant.
- Patient mobility. Patients untethered from the bedside can be more mobile, which can help contribute to improved patient outcomes, faster recovery and reduced length of stay.
- Infection control. By limiting the wires, BSNs could help reduce the risk of infection, an important issue for hospitals, and also help avoid cleaning procedures.
BSNs have the potential to enable delivery of patient information earlier and to support informed clinical decision-making. However, the clinical and workflow benefits enabled by BSNs will require sufficient and suitable frequency spectrum for next-generation wireless medical technology. The future success of the FCC proposal requires supportive comments filed by health care providers, medical device manufacturers and other interested parties. Groups such as the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), AdvaMed and IEEE 802 support this effort, as does Partners Healthcare. We encourage you to submit comments using the FCC's electronic comment filing system at http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/, under dockets ET 08-59 and ET 10-120.
Derek Wagner is the Chief Marketing Officer of Patient Care Solutions, GE Healthcare.