Blood pressure monitors which users can link to a PC or mobile phone through a wireless link is one of the medical applications being looked at by Bluetooth technology firms such as Intel and Philips.
As part of the industry body known as the Bluetooth SIG a group of manufacturers are looking to open up health-related applications for the consumer communications technology.
The companies, including IBM, Intel, Motorola, Nonin Medical, Philips Electronics and Welch Allyn, plan to create and ratify a Bluetooth Medical Device Profile that will promote the use of Bluetooth technology in a new class of medical and fitness products which can be used in the home.
“Health-related devices in the home, such as blood pressure monitors and exercise equipment, which implement the new standard will be able to send information wirelessly to Bluetooth enabled PCs or cell phones so that users can monitor their health information or share this information with a doctor or fitness coach anywhere in the world,” said Robert Hughes, chair of the new Bluetooth SIG Medical Devices Working Group and a senior wireless standards architect in Intel’s Digital Health Group.
There are already Bluetooth-enabled medical devices on the market, but these are based on proprietary technology. The creation of an industry standard design profile will ensure interoperability and proliferate the use of the technology.
According to Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG: “Because of its worldwide availability, existing pervasiveness in mobile phones and laptops, Bluetooth technology is ideally suited for medical devices that will provide a better quality of life for patients while reducing the cost of healthcare.”
The Working Group will begin work immediately, drafting the specification this year with the new profile available for use in devices in the first half of 2007.
The completed profile will run on all current versions of Bluetooth technology including the proposed UWB high-speed version.