Wireless Wearables: Challenges to Tackle

Wearable medical device usage by healthcare consumers has almost quadrupled in the past four years. It is up from nine percent in 2014 to 33 percent today, according to a survey released by Accenture. And the global market for these devices is projected to reach $12.1 billion by 2021, according to a study conducted by Markets and Markets, with the United States representing the largest market worldwide. These products increasingly rely on wireless communications to transmit and receive data from controllers or smartphones. Those wireless technologies include something familiar to those who use consumer electronics, Bluetooth. “Bluetooth is a logical choice,” said Anthony Ng, senior engineering manager, Diabetes R&D at Medtronic. “Bluetooth goes well with a lot of applications with wearable devices outside the body,” he told MD+DI. Ng will present "Challenges and Trends of Wireless Technologies for Wearable Medical Devices" on December 5 at BIOMEDevice San Jose. However, the human body itself poses some challenges when designing wearable devices. “The problem is the human body’s effect on radio frequency,” Ng said. “When you have multiple wearable devices, then you need something that can go full body. RF frequencies of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are lousy going through the body and maintaining the reli...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: BIOMEDevice San Jose Digital Health Source Type: news