
Patient monitoring in the 21st century
Jupiter Research recently issued a report, titled “Mobile Healthcare Opportunities: Monitoring, Applications & mHealth Strategies 2010-2014”, in which the research firm noted that global revenues from remote patient monitoring via mobile networks will reach $1.9 billion by 2014.
Anthony Cox was the senior analyst for the report and his findings mirror what Lantronix is hearing from its customers. As technology advances continue to grow, we’re seeing what the future of patient monitoring devices can look like.
The May issue of Healthcare Purchasing News had a feature story that looked at the exact topic, exploring the evolving technologies of the patient monitoring sector. The author, Julie Williamson, noted that ‘Not only are hospitals adopting state-of-the-art solutions that are mobile, flexible and able to be integrated into existing information systems, they are also looking to improve efficiencies and enhance care decision-making at the bedside and beyond.’
Along with technology that enables these devices to be connected to a hospital’s network, advances have been made in the securing of data across wired and wireless networks. The 802.11n standard with its provision for leveraging the 5GHz ISM band is enabling the traffic from patient monitoring systems and other medical devices to run on a less-crowded frequency. This helps free up wireless traffic on traditional networks and gives the in-house IT staff additional equipment segmentation.
Julie also notes, “today’s monitors are pushing beyond their past capabilities and offering a number of ‘smart’ features that can increase accuracy and reliability, improve caregiver communication and minimize false alarms, and, above all, allow caregivers to detect potential problems or warning signs earlier.”
It’s exciting to be a part of this revolution in healthcare.