Low-Power Wireless Systems for Hospital Patient Monitoring: The Challenges and Solutions for Emerging Application Areas

Although the medical device industry is slow to replace wired by wireless connectivity, the convenience and other benefits that wireless can bring means that new applications for wireless patient monitoring are starting to emerge. Since the development of lowpower standards is mainly driven by consumer and other large markets, it is inevitable that such standards do not currently prioritize the high reliability and security requirements needed by medical devices. However, as the market keeps developing, we anticipate that the needs currently addressed by custom or niche wireless protocols and SoCs may begin to be met by widely available offtheshelf devices.