I started form analyzing the simple word “eHealth” and I ended up discovering a whole new endless wireless world. I discovered that eHealth is a tangible reality, I realized that power consumption is the key consideration for selecting a wireless standard for medical devices and I understood the relevance that Bluetooth technology has gained through the years. On the other hand I discovered that no matter how brilliant your wireless technology is, long implementation cycles, government regulations, interoperability and standardization can slow down the entire process. Furthermore if we consider the healthcare scenario, these problems are even more accentuated since choosing a wireless technology for a wireless health system needs to consider a variety of requirements. It’s not simply deciding a wireless standard for a communication, but it’s the selection of a robust wireless technology that will assure efficiency, correct monitoring/surveillance and principally will not increase life risks of users. It needs to support different connections topologies such as LAN, PAN and WAN if you want to ensure that interoperability is present. The wireless technology should also be easily accessible by users thus, ubiquity is another key feature that should be considered in the process. From what I wrote until now one thing is obvious to me: Bluetooth is the answer. To achieve a good number of users, to reduce the growing costs of healthcare, eHealth needs a widespread of mass devices. According to IMS Research [1] in 2012 over 35% of smartphones will be shipped with dual-mode Bluetooth low energy and two thirds of the 821 million smartphones shipped in 2013 will include Bluetooth Smart Ready (Bluetooth 4.0). Today no other wireless technology can take this place, particularly in the eHealth sector. That’s why the world around Continua’s Alliance keeps on changing with the technology advancements. The decision to select Bluetooth Smart in the 2012 Deign Guidelines didn’t come by chance but was the final result of the collaboration with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group to make Bluetooth Smart devices “Continua-oriented”. Continua is focusing on compatibility to ensure interoperability between devices that use different versions of guidelines, but at the same time is always directed towards innovative wireless solutions. For Continua Alliance moving from using Classic Bluetooth to the latest Bluetooth Smart was a direct consequence of the medical industry requirements: ultra low power consumption. Therefore technically speaking the solution is not hard to find. The problem is more related to regulations placed on medical devices and excessive costs of certification; this will probably slow down the full adoption of the Bluetooth technology, while will consolidate the support of the Classic Bluetooth. Additional acceptance problems are deriving for the smartphone system; while Apple and Microsoft have decided to support Bluetooth 4.0 technology, Google with the Android 4.0 platform[1], doesn’t seem to agree. This decision can affect the adoption of Bluetooth Smart Devices in a long term since except from the Apple iPhone 4S, all smartphones that are inclusive of the Bluetooth Smart Ready are using Android platform. Finally, security can also be an obstacle to Bluetooth technology for eHealth systems. A lot of improvements in terms of security have been done in the version 4.0 of Bluetooth [3], but also here, for example the protection against hacking is automatically available only for the latest version of Bluetooth. Considering the relevance that Bluetooth technology is having for the eHealth sector, a coherent approach is needed to protect data and to prevent from misuse of medical records.
Since Bluetooth technology was adopted all the effort was oriented to increase data rates, but today we understood that is exactly the opposite, that is low data rates, that is going to make this technology important. Of course, problems are still evident in the eHealth sector but don’t tell me that ultra low power, smart wireless technology that creates an impressive range of new healthcare markets isn’t enough for eHealth standardization.
[1] http://imsresearch.com/press-release/Bluetooth_Smart_To_Be_the_Wireless_Technology_Most_Used_in_Consumer_Medical_Devices_by_2016&cat_id=188&from=
[2] http://imsresearch.com/press-release/Is_the_Google_Platform_Delaying_the_Bluetooth_Smart_Train&cat_id=188&from=
[3] "Analysis of Bluetooth Threats And v4.0 Security Features " , International Conference on Communication Computing and Applications (ICCCA 2012), 23rd - 24th February 2012, PSNA College of engineering, Dindigul, IEEE Xplore
